37-year-old Dianna Grigoryan has one daily question in her mind: how to provide daily bread for five minor children. The family was forcibly displaced from Ashan village of Martuni region on October 1, 2023. Now they live in Sayat-Nova community near Masis, Armenia.
“We have a problem with everything. We need food and hygiene items. We need kitchen utensils. It is very long time since we have not not received support. I borrow from the store until I get support and pay the store,” the mother of five children presents her problems in a conversation with Forrights.am.
There are 9 people in Diana’s family. She, her husband, five children and her husband’s retired parents. The house where they live is in a poor condition. Semi-dark, damp and under-furnished: they have no table, chairs, cabinets, beds, refrigerator or other household items.
Dianna’s husband is looking for a job, but she cannot work: there is no one to take care of the children.
“The kids are little, where should I leave them to go to work? My mother-in-law and father-in-law receive pensions, and that barely covers the money for their medicine. They have high blood pressure, they have diabetes. We don’t get the support regularly; they give it late,” she says and remembers the days she lived in Ashan.
“We lived well there. I had a job, my husband had a job, we were good,” she said.
Dianna, the children and other family members have gone through difficult trials. They were subjected to psychological violence: the only way to reach Armenia was to silently listen to the armed enemy.
“It was a very bad situation on September 19. I came home from work, our neighbor’s son has married, they called me to drink coffee. We were drinking and they started baking (they were shooting). I came home and saw that the children were hiding. Frightened, we ran to the neighbor’s house. It was a terrible situation. We left between September 29 and 30. After leaving, we came to Stepanakert to my sister-in-law’s house. We passed through the enemy: the Azerbaijanis were standing, we came and passed them, the enemy was all over the rode,” she said.
Dianna lives in the hope of returning to Artsakh, not only because of social problems, but also for memories, to visit the graves of relatives left there.
“It is very difficult for me. I left my parents there, I left my cousins, I left a two-month-old baby there,” she says.
Narek Kirakosyan