Citizens forcibly displaced from Artsakh provide details of what happened after the 10-month siege and the September 19 Azerbaijani attack. Speaking to Forrights.am, Artsakh resident Gevorg Arustamyan says that the people of Artsakh did not know where the authorities were taking them during the blockade and what would happen with them.
“I have not seen such steps that could be useful to the people. From the day of the blockade until September 19, I have not seen the authorities of Artsakh taking any right steps. After the war, it turned out that there are many goods in the warehouses, which were not given to the people. What did the general, government official, military officer, police officer have to do with businesses? They preferred personal interest over state interest, that’s why we came up with this law, this should have been prevented 20 years ago. Everyone sitting in the hall was making money,” says the forcibly displaced person from Artsakh.
The resignation of the Artsakh president, the election of a new president and the decisions to dissolve Artsakh remained dark for ordinary Artsakh citizens. In a conversation with Forrights.am, Gevorg Arustamyan mentioned that on September 19, when the hostilities did not stop, and the soldiers of the hostile country had already reached the outskirts of Stepanakert, and one of the cleanest capitals in the world was already covered in the smoke of bomb explosions, the people of Artsakh received no support from any source. it almost didn’t happen.
“All the military equipment was deployed. I met with a member of parliament. I said, “Why didn’t you stop the war earlier?” He replied, “There was a session of the Council of the Security Council. The commander of the Armed Forces said that if the war starts, our resistance will last for three hours, but our soldiers They fought for 24 hours. I asked if we sacrificed 20 hours, he didn’t answer, maybe he understood what he was saying. They need to increase the number of casualties and losses, bring the fight to Stepanakert, so that it is not revealed what they have stored in the warehouses. The country was a warehouse for them, not a state,” he said.
The resignation of the Artsakh president, the election of a new president and the decision to dissolve Artsakh remained dark for ordinary Artsakh citizens. In a conversation with Forrights.am, Gevorg Arustamyan mentioned that on September 19, when the hostilities did not stop and the soldiers of the hostile country had already reached the outskirts of Stepanakert, and one of the cleanest capitals in the world was already covered in the smoke of bomb explosions, the people of Artsakh received no support from almost anywhere.
“All the military equipment was destroyed. I met with a member of parliament, I said, ‘Why didn’t you stop the war earlier?’ He replied, ‘There was a session of the Security Council, the commander of the Armed Forces said that if the war starts, our resistance will last for three hours, but our soldiers fought for 24 hours.’ I said, ‘Does it mean we only gave victims for 20 hours?’ He didn’t answer; maybe he understood what he was saying. They need to increase the number of casualties and losses, bring the fight to Stepanakert, so that it is not revealed what they have stored in the warehouses. The country was a warehouse for them, not a state,” he said.
- The people of Artsakh have not seen any step of defense by the Russian military either. “”The presence of Russian peacekeepers was the Operation Ring of the 90s[1], just with a slightly civilian version. They checked the trunks of the cars, they got what they wanted, they disarmed the army. On September 19, I saw the armored personnel carrier of the Russian peacekeepers four and a half hours after the enemy attack, it was going up to Shushi, then came down after an hour. They did not intervene to stop the war. When the Turks had already approached Stepanakert, there was panic in the city: everyone on our street shouted to each other that we were going to Ivanyan, where the Russians will ensure our safety. The Russians needed to take people to the airport area, to film them, to show the world that they are a savior, a peacekeeper. A few political forces in Armenia would also like to see that the Russian is saving the people of Artsakh. When talking to the people of Artsakh, the peacekeeper soldiers, from privates to commanders, said that they would ensure our safety, protect us, they will not let Azerbaijan attack us. They stopped me once, told me the same; I asked if I were looking that naive, and they did not continue. They were good people as persons; I was a taxi driver, I drove them to Ivanyan, but they did not do their job as peacekeepers,” said the interlocutor of Forrights.am.
Narek Kirakosyan
[1] May 1991 military operation conducted by the Soviet Army and OMON units of Azerbaijan SSR in Karabakh and Armenia, during which Armenians living in about 40 villages were forcibly uprooted. Border villages in the Armenian SSR were also raided. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ring