72-year-old Roza Gasparyan, twice-displaced, 3rd group disabled person, and her family narrowly escaped the Sumgait pogroms and settled in Stepanakert back in 1988. The mother of four children indignantly remembers the bitter days of her life; repeated forced deportations, the horrors of war. After living in one of the hostels of Stepanakert for a year after the Sumgait pogroms, they were given a house in Haykavan district. The Artsakh movement’s struggle for survival eventually led to armed conflict. Roza’s son, Boris, has decided to join the Artsakh Liberation War at the age of 12.
“As much as I tried to stop my young son from that intention, I couldn’t: he was adamant. What kind of soldier is a 12-year-old child? Boris ran away from home and enlisted in the squads being formed in the village of Aygestan. He sent a note on the matchbox saying, “Mom, I’ve gone to war, I’m in Aygestan.” My husband’s brother immediately went there, found my child and forcibly brought him home. However, Boris ran away from home again and joined the freedom fighters to continue his fight,” tells the mother.
during the Four-Day War of 2016, Boris again went to the battlefield without informing his family. At that time, he had joined the international organization The HALO Trust. The family did not hear from him for four days. Then it turned out that he was participating in the Four-Day War, from where he returned with the “Admiral Isakov” medal awarded to him. On September 27, 2020, Boris called his mother from The HALO Trust and informed her that he was going to war and urged them to be careful with their children and to take good care of themselves.
“He did not call for a month and when the fight heated up, my husband sent me, my daughter-in-law and my children to Charentsavan [in Armenia]. I was very worried; I called my husband in Stepanakert to get news from my son, but there was no information. And October 21 was Boris’s birthday. And only that day he finally called. When I asked why he didn’t call me for so long, my son replied indignantly that who would call during a war, ask questions and give away their location? But he knew that we were in Charentsavan,” Mrs. Roza said.
After that conversation, the contact with Boris was interrupted again and this time it was final. Relatives could not find their place. They receive news that Boris was allegedly injured and taken to the hospital. Mrs. Rosa was happy because her son was alive. She decided to buy clothes for her son and visit the hospital, but relatives prevent her…Boris was killed on November 7, in Shushi’s vicinities.
“It turned out that my son was killed on the way to take his friend Tovmas from Sznek to the hospital. At the request of Tovmas’ brother, Boris finds his injured friend and carries him in his arms to the ambulance. However, at Shushi’s entrance, they find themselves in a siege and both of them die while he was hugging Tovmas,” said the mother in tears. Boris Gasparyan was the commander of the reconnaissance platoon. He participated in all Artsakh wars and was awarded medals “For Valor”, “1st degree Combat Cross”.
After the ceasefire, the family returned to Stepanakert, then Boris’s body was moved from Armenia and buried in his birthplace. The family found the strength to continue to live in Artsakh and support Boris’s two minor sons for the sake of their son, who was devoted to the motherland.
“But for whom did my son die? For our nation, our people and us. We had to live on our land, for which my son did not spare his life. But the war of September 19, 2023 turned our lives upside down. We were at home that day. It was the heavy phase of the siege. I was baking bread. The explosions rumbled loudly. A woman shouted for me to leave the loaves and leave. My husband called from the city to hear from us. He was constantly in lines for bread or other food [because of food scarcity or absence due to Azerbaijani imposed year-long blockade]. Half a loaf of bread a day was assigned with a coupon, but that too could not be obtained. There were five of us: my husband, my daughter-in-law, the children of my deceased son, and we tried to find food and survive. Oh, if only those days were still there and we would live in our home, in our homeland, and I would have the opportunity to visit my son’s grave,” said the 72-year-old woman with a heartbreak.
Her husband urged her to go to the city from Haykavan immediately, because the Turks [Azeris] were already in Krkzhan. Since it was the heavy stage of the siege, Mrs. Roza continued to bake bread under shots and explosions, after which she took them and walked down from Haykavan with her children. The shouts of the Azeris could already be heard.
“They were shouting “Hey Armenians” and speaking in Turkish from a “Kamaz” truck full of Turks on the street. We quickly left for the airport and stayed with the children for one night, hungry and thirsty. Everywhere was a mess. The next day, we returned to my son’s apartment and hoped that we would not be evicted until September 28, but things took a different course. We were forced to relocate without taking anything from home. On the way, I was terribly afraid when the Turks stopped the car at the checkpoint and questioned me. I was most afraid for my grandchildren. In the end, Anyhow, we reached Hrazdan and then Charentsavan,” Mrs. Roza recalled.
Now five of them live in a small two-room [one bedroom] apartment. They have a problem of employment. The grandchildren are still under stress and need constant care from their mother. Mrs. Rosa has health problems. She has difficulty walking, suffers from hypertension, and her husband has disability of the 2nd group. They take medicine every day, which they buy with their pension. They are especially concerned about facing the Charentsavan cold winter, because they have to pay a lot of money for utility services.
But they try to endure all difficulties, not losing hope of returning to Artsakh.
Zara Mayilyan