By Sona Hovsepyan
Malishka, Armenia (CivilNet) – “No one wants to leave their own home, but after that horror, we didn’t have any other option. Even though we didn’t have a very luxurious house, it was ours. We built it with our own hands,” said Arevik Asryan, a resident of the dissolved Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh known as Artsakh by locals.
Arevik, 39, was displaced from Stepanakert, the capital of the region, along with her three children, husband, and father-in-law, and resettled in the village of Malishka in Armenia’s Vayoc Dzor Province.
This is just one story among more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians who fled their homes because of the lightning military operation in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) on September 19.
“My father-in-law was sitting on the steps of our house in Stepanakert and didn’t want to leave. He put his hand on the walls and said, ‘I built all of this.’ It’s even more difficult for the older generation.” recalls Arevik Asryan.
For Arevik’s father-in-law, Vitaly Ghahramanyan, displacement is not new – this is the third time he’s been forced to leave his home. Now in Armenia, he spends his time on the small orchard of their temporary house.
The house with cracked, cold walls does not have what the family needs.
“The house lacks necessary amenities: no toilet, no bathroom, no gas. We don’t know what we will do in the winter, how we will heat the home,” Vitaly Ghahramanyan said despairingly.
They and many others like them await promised support from Armenia’s government.
Tigran Khachatryan, the Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia, announced that those displaced will receive a one-time support of roughly $250. According to him, more than 50,000 beneficiaries have already received this one-time monetary support. The Government of Armenia also plans to provide $99 for rent and $24 for utility cost for each displaced person. The assistance will be given for a period of six months.
Arevik Asryan’s family didn’t manage to pack their belongings; the only items they have are memories and the family photo album.
Arevik recalls September 19 as a hellish day. Her husband is a soldier and was away so she had to manage everything on her own. She said that when the bombing started, her children were at school, and Arevik walked to pick up the children under the bombardment.
“The school didn’t even have a basement. Gevorg wasn’t so afraid, but Nanar crouched on the ground in fear,” Arevik told CivilNet.
Arevik, along with her 13-year-old son Gevorg, 11-year-old daughter Nanar, and 4-year-old Nane were eventually transferred to the Stepanakert church, which also served as a shelter during the Azerbaijani attack.
“I lost contact with my husband for two days. Even the children said, ‘Let our papa come home; we don’t need anything else,’” remembers Arevik.
Her husband, Pavel Ghahramanyan, eventually returned home. But now they, like other families, are out of work. Arevik was a teacher in a Nagorno-Karabakh kindergarten, and Pavel was a soldier, but none of them has found work yet.
76,000 Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians resettled in different regions of Armenia based on information from the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure. Roughly 2,300 Armenians temporarily live in Vayoc Dzor province. According to the latest data, more than 11,000 children have already been in educational institutions.
“It’s good here, but it was better in the homeland,” said Gevorg.
Azerbaijan has claimed that it is ready to integrate Karabakh Armenians into Azerbaijani society. But Nagorno-Karabakh residents have little trust in a reintegration effort.
On October 5, Human Rights Watch reported that it’s difficult to accept such assertions after months of blockade, decades of conflict, and impunity for crimes.
“We still believe that we will return,” Arevik told CivilNet. “They made promises [Azerbaijan] that everything would be good, that we would live in peace with each other, but how? After witnessing such a thing, I can’t imagine living next door to Azerbaijan. What they say and what they do are not the same.”
