68-year-old Nadya Aghasyan and her husband, 74-year-old Yura Arakelyan, displaced from the city of Martakert in Artsakh since September of last year, settled in the Marmarashen village of Ararat region of Armenia on rent. N. Aghasyan lived her whole conscious life in Martakert, but she became a refugee four times.
In 1992, during the first Artsakh war, when Martakert was occupied, she moved to Stepanakert and became a member of the newly forming tank squad and, until 1996, she served as a nurse. During and after military service Nadya Aghasyan was awarded eight medals, certificates of honor and letters of appreciation.
“My son served in the Shushi battalion and I — in the Martakert battalion. In the 1990s, seven regions were liberated by joint efforts. Now, it is an unimaginable situation: the whole of Artsakh is occupied. Who would have imagined? We took refuge in Charentsavan during the 44-Day War and one day, on a video, we saw our house attacked by the enemy. On November 11, we left for Martakert with my sister’s family. We arrived there and witnessed our destroyed house, where there was no way to live. We had to go to Armenia,” said 68-year-old lady Nadya.
However, her mind was with her ruined house in Martakert. After some time, she finally went to Artsakh and applied to the relevant authorities regarding the restoration of the house and, finally, in September, 2021, they promised to help the “General” (this was her nickname). The repair work of her house has started, but for some reason it never was completed.
“During the September-2023 war, my young neighbor, Angela, took refuge in our half-destroyed house with her young children. The walls of the house were so strong and thick that even in 2020 they did not collapse from the shelling and I thought that they would protect us this time as well. We didn’t sleep all night. Military operations did not stop. The next day we were already looking for fuel. But none of us imagined that we would leave everything and be displaced. It was impossible for Artsakh to be completely depopulated, because when we were liberating our territories, we were powerful and invincible. Those lands were liberated with blood and handing them over is a crime,” said Nadya indignantly.
They immediately went to Stepanakert, because the enemy had already surrounded the Drombon gold mine. According to our interlocutor, before reaching the “Tsek Tsyor” bridge, in a defensive position, Arayik, a soldier he knew from the 90s, provided them with fuel to move by car, but when they advanced, an enemy drone hit the boys’ observation post and all eight men were killed. According to her, they were not even able to turn back to help remove the bodies.
Somehow, they reached Stepanakert, where there was confusion, chaos. The search for fuel leads the “General” to the Haykazov fuel storage area.
“As soon as I arrived at Haykazov, a strong explosion thundered in front of my eyes and I stood with the 20-liter containers for fuel in my hands. A huge fire engulfed all around. I was with my neighbor’s disabled boy. He did not let me go forward. It was a terrible situation. So many children burnt in flames. It is impossible to describe those terrible scenes with words,” said Nadya Aghasyan with excitement.
They were displaced from Stepanakert on September 26, and after a two-day long journey, they somehow reached Armenia, stayed at their friend’s house for a month, and then moved to Marmarashen village.
Retired spouses living alone find it difficult to pay rent (100 thousand drams) for the small apartment and utilities, and to take care of social and household problems. “During the siege in Martakert, I had cultivated everything, stockpiled all the goods, but now I don’t even have a spoonful of doshab [preserve used as medicine]. We left houses, pomegranate garden, vegetable gardens. Now we need everything, but I am not going to cry. There is no garden to grow or cultivate anything. The housing security program proposed by the RA government is not realistic for single pensioners like us. How will we survive at our age? We lost our homeland and everything we had created over the years. How shall we live?” the “General” added.
Zara Mayilyan