57-year-old Marieta Sargsyan, who is from Artsakh, was captured by the Azerbaijanis after the war operations of September 19, 2023. The woman was captured when she started looking for her partner.
Marieta Sargsyan worked and lived in a farm near Chldran village of Martakert region. She was a milkmaid. Along with her, the cattleman Lernik also lived in the same area. They heard gunshots and explosions throughout the night of September 19.
“We let the cows out, but the shots were getting stronger. Lernik went to collect the cows,” she told Forrights.am, noting that she was left alone after Lernik left.
“I looked everywhere; there was nowhere to hide. I wanted to make a call, but there was no connection. Our troops were passing by: they said that the enemy might fire in our direction and suggested that I find a place to hide. There was shooting from all sides Shells were falling on the road. It was already September 21. Lernik went after the cows and did not come back. I waited all night, but he did not return. I yelled, called him, there was no response, neither he nor his horse were there,” said Mrs. Marieta.
In the morning, Marieta Sargsyan decided to look for Lernik in the nearby area. She went a few kilometers away from the farm, saw a group of people in the distance, approached them. “They were Turks, they told me that: they said they were not Azerbaijanis. I was scared, I started crying, there was a cliff: I wanted to throw myself off the cliff, but I couldn’t. I thought that they were going to take me to Baku.” After being captured, Mrs. Marietta was kept for several hours in that place, which is several kilometers away from her house.
“They gave me water and food and filmed me. I didn’t take it. There were many of them: 20-30 people. They checked my phone, checked my bag. They were standing with their automatic weapons, mocking me. Then they took me to Aghdam. I was asking about Lernik; they told me that I did not know what was going to happen to me, but I was looking for a Lernik.”
Mrs. Marieta met Lernik in Aghdam. “I saw Lernik lying down, beaten, broken, unable to speak or move. Lernik was caught on the road, his horse was taken from, he was captured, and the cattle were stolen. Lernik said that 50 people beat him. His condition was terrible. The Azerbaijanis treated the Armenian boys cruelly: they said, ‘Regardless who you are, you might have killed our boys’.”
The Azerbaijanis kept the captured Artsakh citizens in separate tents. Mrs. Marietta remembers how the captured wounded were helpless. “There was a woman who had a heart attack, she was wheezing, rasping, they didn’t provide help. I went and asked, cried for a doctor to come. They came, took her to the aid station, treated her for a few days, and brought her back. Then there were women who came and made fun of me and took pictures and filmed: I felt very bad. I was very afraid for Lernik: I thought that they would take him away and kill him. I did not sleep at nights. There was another boy who was in pain, and I told them to help him. They told me that I was a swindler, pretending to think about everyone.”
Mrs. Mareta noticed how her partner was beaten at night when he refused to call the settlements of Artsakh by Azerbaijani names. “At night they beat him, woke him up from his sleep at nights and commanded him again and again to repeat that Shushi, Stepanakert are Azerbaijani towns. Lernik dis not say it; they beat him so badly, the sounds of the blows was audible all over the place. I went secretly, told him to repeat whatever they say, not to let them beat him until we understand what was happening to us. Lernik was pressured every night to repeat the same thing.
After being kept in Aghdam for six days, the captives were taken to Shushi to hand over to the rescuers of Artsakh. Mrs. Marietta says that she witnessed a more violent incident there. “There was a boy whose hands were bandaged up, we talked and he said that they were caught in the forest, they shot his hands. He was a very sick boy, he was also beaten,” she said.
Marieta Sargsyan has now settled in Vanadzor, Armenia.
Narek Kirakosyan