– Arsen, what was that voice?
– Brother, they are hitting Askeran.
-What are you doing?
– Nothing, we are at the position.
– Well, be careful.
– You too, brother.
Mrs. Alla quotes the last exchange between her two sons, Arsen and Samvel. The last correspondence between the boys was on September 19, in the first minutes of the Azerbaijani attack.
On the table in the front part of the living room are photos of Arsen and Samvel and things, which were possible to transfer to the mother. On the walls of the house are the smiling photos of the mother and the boys, taken on happy days. Now Mrs. Alla is left alone, with her sons’ memories of good and bad days. The pain has made the 38-year-old woman unrecognizable, it is impossible to “find” her in the photos taken before the war.
“Imagine that the months of the blockade were the happiest, there was nothing, but there were children,” he says in a conversation with Forrights.am and wipes his eyes. Arsen and Samvel were killed a few hours apart.
The brothers were contract soldiers. 21-year-old Samvel served in the Yegnikner, 19-year-old Arsen in the Drombon military units. “He wasn’t even 20 years old, he turned 20 on November 5,” sobs the mother.
Samvel’s mother was waiting for him at home on September 14.
“He didn’t come down. They called Arsen on the 15th and took him away, and on the 19th the fight started, none of them came down the positions. I couldn’t talk to Arsen in any way. I couldn’t talk even after the first hit: he was unreachable. But I talked to Samvel on the 19th of the month, until 8:10 in the evening, then drones started to come and we could not talk,” the mother remembers. Samvel, who was in a hot spot, was interested in his brother during the last call, asked many questions and said encouraging words for the last time.
“He kept saying, ‘Mom, my place is good, you just find Arsen, don’t think about me.’ An hour later, he called and asked if I had any news about Arsen. I said no. He said don’t cry, he won’t get lost, he will come. His voice was very sad, so I asked, ‘Samvel, has something happened?’ He answered, “What can be worse than this?” After that, I could not speak, there was no contact. They say that he found out about his brother. Samvel is not the type to break down, he was always optimistic, even at the worst moment.”
This is the last conversation. He can’t get in touch with his sons. The uncertainty that has been going on for several days is interrupted by painful news.
“I went to the hospital with my father, he looked at the lists and came back crying. We went down to the morgue; I saw my Samvel is there. There was no news from Arsen. On the morning of September 21, Samvel’s body was brought, but there was no information from Arsen. In the evening of the 27th, the Ministry of Emergency Situations workers entered the position of Jingatagh village and found him. Within one day, they took all our children, all our homeland, all the lands.”
For Mrs. Alla, the cruelties do not end there. She lost the body of one of her sons in Armenia and searched for days in morgues.
“We wanted to bury Samvel there, our village head said that they were discussing to take the boys [the bodies of the boys] to Goris. On the morning of the 25th they moved him. We arrived in Armenia on the morning of the 28th, I went to the morgue and couln’t find him: they lost Arsen’s body. We were looking in all the morgues and we found him in Avan morgue…,” said the mother, noting that she buried her sons in Yerablur on November 9, without the Artsakh flag on them. They searched for a flag long time in Yerevan, found and bought it from a private seller in Vernissage. To the question why is the Artsakh flag so difficult to find, according to Mrs. Alla, the seller said: ‘Artsakh doesn’t exist anymore; they don’t sell the flag’.”
Mrs. Alla lived with her sons in Mataghis, in the family of a soldier: she, her husband, sons, sister, brother were all soldiers. After the 44-Day War, they moved to Martakert. The mother blames the command and the authorities for the death of her two sons.
“Arsen were left without a commander, without anyone: they escaped safely, they were unreachable, only children remained, no commander went after them. I want all the guilty to answer one by one. I consider the commanders to be guilty, the leadership of the country, everyone is guilty,” says the mother.
After the interview, Mrs. Alla sits near the corner in memory of her sons and remembers a story.
“On September 17, Samvel wrote an SMS: “Mom, is there anything to eat at home?” I said, I managed to get everything, you just come home”. “Just send food here: I’m hungry,” I thought, what should I send for 12 people? I opened the refrigerator, I took out whatever was on the shelves, prepared two large bags and sent them. On September 18, he wrote: “Thanks, mom, we ate well.”
Mrs. Alla was happy that day.
Narek Kirakosyan