“A man and an animal are separated from each other by memory,” Hrant Matevosyan’s damous phrase is recalled by Ishkhan Sargsyan, who was forcibly displaced from the village of Kochoghot, Martakert region of NK. He does not want to forget that Artsakh is his homeland and Kochoghot is his birthplace, but they are offering him to stop being a citizen of Artsakh. Accepting RA citizenship is the only option for Artsakh residents to benefit from the government’s housing provision program.
“I was engaged in agriculture, animal husbandry, beekeeping: the forest was there, the soil was there, the water was there, what was left to do was to work: whoever worked, he would eat,” says Ishkhan, recalling Kochoghot’s daily life in a conversation with Forrights.am.
I wanted to do the same in Armenia, but there is no possibility. He has left three houses, hectares of fields, dozens of large and small cattle, fish, beehives and other well-established economies in his native village.
Ishkhan has nine children. He thinks about what kind of future he will create for his children, when the livelihood he created for everyone was left to the enemy. They brought some clothes and their memories of cruel days to Armenia.
“On September 19, we were counting how many shells were coming: we were that close. There was a ring on four sides, we were in the middle. The people were kept suffocated for a year. It was better in the villages than in the city. There was a time when they were eating only boiled corn in the positions. There were no shugar for the soldier to drink tea, bread was brought out by horses and donkeys. There was no gasoline to make a shift, but then we saw that there was, so we blew it up,” he says.
They clearly followed the combat operations from Kochoghot.
“Four kilometers away from our village, the sounds of cannons were heard, and the administrative head of our village has told to get out. No one has left our village; we have remained in the village elderly and young alike,” he says and continues, saying that when the enemy already approached, they left, hoping that it was temporary.
The bridge of Khachen was closed, there were close combatt in the forest. Our tank was working on the road. We came driving the car, the tank moved aside so that we could pass. The shells were flying over our heads. Seven people from Aparadzor were killed on the Khachen bridge. We had left our clothes on the clothesline and went out. I brought the children to Stepanakert. I wanted to go back, they didn’t let me. The enemy entered the village after us, my father was the last person to leave.”
Ishkhan witnessed real chaos in Stepanakert. “We reached Stepanakert. They said the enemy is entering the city through Krkzhan. We went to the airport; there was a huge chaos there. They were shooting at us, also with drones. It continued like that for a couple of hours. People were hungry and thirsty in the airport area: there was no food or water. The Russians gave bread and water only to some of the children: they had no role to play. The Russians were watching from the side. it was clear that it was sold out through them. We stayed hungry in Stepanakert for three days. After three days, we were told: Artsakh is being emptied: you should leave or you will be killed.”
Ten months have passed since these cruel days. Ishkhan Sargsyan does not accept what happened.
“We still don’t understand what happened to us. Imagine, they say leave your house within an hour and go. We are not emigres; we were displaced, we were forcibly desplaced. Do you know how insulting it is to say that we are emigres?’
Narek Kirakosyan