Hasmik dreams of returning to Artsakh, living in their house in Maghavuz village and organizing family gatherings on the balcony of the house again, like in peaceful times. However, the dreams are postponed indefinitely, and the large family is divided.
The 44-day war of 2020 has divided the family, and the obstacles that have arisen during these two years do not allow the Hakobyans to reunite. Only a wall of Hasmik’s two-story house is left from the enemy shell. “It is the wall of our hope,” says Hasmik and believes that their house will be rebuilt around that wall.
Hasmik has been living in Hrazdan for two years, his older brother moved to another place with his wife and four minor children, and his parents live in the basement of the Maghavuz house after the war.
“After the war, the life of our family took a different course, we were separated. It turned out that we all live in different places, but we want our home, the warmth of our home, the house will become a home when we all return.”
Hasmik and her family were forced to leave their birthplace, the Maghavuz village of Martakert region, on the very first day of the war.
“It was after 7 o’clock in the morning on September 27, I jumped up, I didn’t understand what was happening, I ran to the door, my father was smoking on the balcony. The first word I uttered. “Oh my god, Ilya…”
Ilya is the younger brother of Hasmik, a conscript soldier, who died during the 44-day war. Hasmik imagines the reunification of the family with the return of his immortal brother.
After the war, the loss of her brother and the loss of her father’s house, Hasmik’s future is uncertain.
Hasmik fears that one day she will lose hope of returning to Maghavuz if it is decided that Artsakh will no longer be Armenian.
Narek Kirakosyan