The 9-member family of the Gharibians forcibly displaced from Artsakh is facing the danger of living in the streets. They live in the city of Masis on rent. Up to now, they paid 200 thousand drams monthly rent, but, the owner of the house increased the rent by 50 thousand drams.
“The owner of the house has increased the price of the house. I am looking for a place. If I leave here I have nothing: I did not bring anything. Please, let people help me in whatever way they can,” Diana Gharibyan, the mother of the family, told Forrights.am.
He has seven children: 6, 7, 11, 16, 18, 20, 21 years old. They went through many hardships during their life in Artsakh. The enemy tortured Diana’s son and her husband’s father with inhuman cruelty.
“I can’t remember those days, it was terrible,” says 42-year-old Diana and notes that her two sons were in positions during the 44-Day War and on September 19.
“On September 19, my son was in the positions. He said, ‘Mom, it’s number one [alert], but I have to come and see you and go.’ They came early in the morning, with smiles on their faces. And it started.” After this meeting, the mother did not have ny information about her sons for days.
The boys, Artur and Tigran, were in different positions: one was in Martunu, the other in Drombon. Both were under siege.
“Everyone was coming, but my servicemen were not. We waited for five days, but there was no sign of them. We had no information. I was hoping that a call would come and they would say, ‘Mom, we are alive.’ we were expecting the worst, because they said that the places were leveled to the ground,” recalls the mother and tells how her sons came as a surprise.
“I was making bread in the basement for little children. Someone hugged me from behind… I looked back and saw that it was my eldest son. After a week, Tigran came too… It was the day of the explosion.” The mother says that the boys didn’t tell the family anything about the hardships they went through. Only after his returned, Tigran talked about atrocities in his sleep in his nightmares.
“They didn’t tell us anything about the situation they were in. Only Tigran, who had been sleeping for a week after his arrival, told what had happened. He was crying in his sleep, saying: clean the blood. This is how we learned what they went through.”
Diana’s eldest son, Arthur, was captured during the 44-Day War. The mother says that the boy was beaten so badly that he could not even open his eyes.
“During the 44-Day War, my eldest son was in the service. He was captured, they did terrible things with him. He was serving for one month and ten days. He was brought to Shushi. They caught him in the village of Karintak. They beat him so much that they thought he was dead and threw him near the victims’ bodies and left. Then there were two soldiers in the area, my son said open my eyelids, I will show you the way, we will get out. They went out near the bridge under Shushi, the last truck was there, which was supposed to go out. Shushi had already handed out. It was on November 9,” says the mother.
When the two sons returned home, Arthur went to the gas station with his father to get fuel. Diana remembers that father and son lost each other during the explosion and found each other with great difficulty. “They came home with completely torn clothes. It was raining, they were covered with mud. At that moment I said: that’s it, we’re going. I didn’t even close the door of the house,” says Diana, noting that they left everything obtained by many years of work in Stepanakert.
It was difficult for Artur and Tigran to cross the Hakari bridge. The mother says that the photos of her sons were spread on the Azerbaijani Telegram channels. When they reached the checkpoint, the enemy began to examine her sons.
“He looked at the phone, then at Tigran. I though, that’s it, they recognized him. There were pictures of my boys all over their telegram channels. We got out somehow. Azerbaijani s came and passed by cars with ugly laughter. You can’t imagine what was happening to us,” Diana said.
Her husband’s father, Hrant Gharibyan, was also killed by the enemy. In 2016, Hrant Gharibyan, a 67-year-old resident of Talish, brought food to the soldiers in positions and wanted to take to bodies of the victims out. The Azerbaijanis, however, have beheaded him.
Having gone through all these difficulties, the Charibyan family is now in a difficult social situation. Only the father works in the family, but his salary does not meet the expenses. The increase in the price of the house was added to the existing problems. Arthur and Tigran overcame the Azerbaijani violence and are looking for work, but cannot find it. The mother says that the reason is that they are not citizens of the Republic of Armenia. Diana Gharibyan herself has decided to relieve her family’s worries in some way: she wants to do the work she used to do in Artsakh.
“If there is a sewing machine, it will be very good, I will work. They brought one, but it doesn’t work, it needs to be repaired, which I don’t have the money for, and a new one costs 50 thousand drams, I can’t buy it. I did this work in Artsakh, I will do it here as well,” says the forcibly displaced woman.
Narek Kirakosyan
Narek Kirakosyan
Narek Kirakosyan is a journalist, works on the principle of "a person is an absolute value".