Snipers from Adrebaijan opened fire on citizens being forcibly displaced from Chankatagh village. One of the bullets hit 68-year-old Rima Movsisyan. More than ten months after the incident, Rima Movsisyan presented details in a conversation with Forrights.am.
“I have been through hell,” says the woman from Artsakh and notes that the Azerbaijani positions were several hundred meters away from the village. The houses and residents of Chankatagh were their target.
On September 19, the Azerbaijani side attacked Artsakh, “within the framework of the operation to destroy illegal military groups”, but killed and injured the civilian population. When the enemy fire started, Rima Movsisyan took shelter with her grandchildren and daughters-in-law in a ditch dug by her sons. The sons made that ditch after the 2020 War, when the Azerbaijanis approached the village.
“We were in the ditches; the children were crying. The enemy was bombarding us, they were shooting at us. A woman fainted from fear,” she recalled in a conversation with Forrights.am.
Mrs. Rima says that after the firing intensified, she suggested her fellow villagers to go to the Russian base near Chankatagh. “I remember how in 1992 the enemy slaughtered 40 of our villagers, we came to the village and saw them killed. We buried those bodies. I thought they would do the same, so I suggested to go there and be safe.”
One car was found for more than 40 people living in that district, all of them were transported with it.
“When the car came, I said ‘You go, I’m staying at my house’. My daughter-in-law did not let me stay. The car drove a little and they start shooting at the car. One of the shots hits the wheel, and the other, breaking the glass, enters my arm. The bullet remained in my hand. They shot with a machine gun,” she said.
Rima Movisyan remained without medical care for days. “My grandson tore the shirt, tied my arm. I felt terrible pain, I felt like my hand was falling off. Then we got to the Russians, they sprayed, treated my wund, but the bullet still remained in my arm. We stayed with the Russians for three days. They transfered me to Martuni, Stepanakert, but they didn’t take me anywhere: they said there was no medicine, we can’t treat you. On September 28, we just arrived at the Republican Hospital in Yerevan,” she says and notes that she also broke the same arm as a result of a fall. “Now I can’t use my hand. I fall and my arm is broken in two places. Now I have irons in my arms.”
Rima Movisyan lives in Hrazdan with her family now. She gave birth to nine children. One of them, 42-year-old Slavik Movsisyan, was killed in the 2020 War. He volunteered to go to defend the motherland. He is the father of four children.
Narek Kirakosyan