“I’m living with those pictures now,” Alina Hovsepyan, who was forcibly displaced from Artsakh, tells Forrights.am as she flips through the photos on her phone and shows her house in Stepanakert, which have now become the only factual evidence of her memories. “I’ve taken pictures of my house, yard, flowers. I look at them often, several times a day. I’m physically here, but my life has stayed there,” says the mother of a large family.
Alina Hovsepyan’s family consists of seven people. Under the conditions of the blockade of Artsakh, and then as a result of the military operations that began on September 19, the family members were forced to live far from each other. One of the sons was in the positions.
“My family is still divided. My son lives with us, and my daughter-in-law and two-year-old grandson live with my daughter-in-law’s parents. My son has no job; he can’t rent a house, and we can’t live in this house with seven people,” says Mrs. Alina, who lives in a two-room apartment [one bedroom] with her husband and three sons in Echmiadzin, Armenia. The house is not big enough for a large family, and her grandson and daughter-in-law live in Gavar. Three members of the family have applied for citizenship, six months have passed, but there is no news. The Hovsepyans’ difficult social life will become even more difficult when the new government decision comes into force in the spring, according to which some Artsakh residents will be deprived of state housing and utility payments. Currently, the family of seven receives 350,000 drams, and from March, the support, which will be 40,000 drams instead of 50,000, will be received by the two minor children of the house and Mrs. Alina’s disabled husband. From March, the support for this family will be reduced to 120,000 drams.
“We are paying 150 thousand drams for this house: the owner has agreed to give it to us at this price. We will end up on the street, we cannot find an apartment with that money,” says Mrs. Alina and notes the difficulties they go through every day due to not finding a job.
“My daughter-in-law cannot work: the child is two years old. My son has worked in several places, but he cannot find a permanent job. I have been a history teacher; I worked in a store for a month. I have problems with my legs. I am registered as unemployed, but they have not offered me anything yet. Even my son, who has a third-degree disability, is looking for a job, but they are not giving him one. There was a job as a guard in the church, he went, they refused. He worked as a guard in Stepanakert,” says the mother.
The family lived in Stepanakert for rent until 2017, since that year they received a house, part of which they converted into a clothing store and were able to live. Now they have lost everything. The other son, who defended positions in Artsakh, also cannot find a job.
On September 19, Mrs. Alina went through many difficult times. Now she wants to provide a safe life for her children.
“That day, my eldest son called and said, ‘Don’t take Gor to school; I am hearing bad things, there may be a war.’ But I took the child to school. On the way, Gor, my youngest son, asked, ‘Mom, what will we do if war starts now?’ We were halfway there, and I answered, ‘We will quickly go back home.’ We had already reached the school and he asked the same question, and I answered, ‘We will run to the school shelter.’ And so it happened, it started two hours later. I went crazy until they brought the child home.
After the ceasefire, there was a panic situation, everyone was running, but nobody knew where to run. The enemy who had advanced had taken the villages of Martakert. The residents of those villages were at the airport. We did not feel protected, there was no presence of the authorities, we did not know what to do, there was no announcement to follow. Everyone had to do their own thing. Stepanakert was in smoke; people were burning military uniforms. It was the end of the world for us that day. We were coming to the Hakari Bridge, but we had no hope that we would get out of there,” she said.
Narek Kirakosyan

Narek Kirakosyan
Narek Kirakosyan is a journalist, works on the principle of "a person is an absolute value".