44-year-old Aramis Petrosyan is from Karin Tak village of Shushi region of Artsakh. He keeps old photos of the village in his phone, the village that Azerbaijan has leveled to the ground today.
Petrosyan is a sheet metal worker: he has been engaged in the construction of roofs for many years. After developing back problems as a result of working too much, he joined the service in Yeghnikir military unit.
“In 2020, I had already left my nine-year service, I was working in Lachin. My wife called and said that a war had started. My eldest son was serving, I went, tried to reach him, but I couldn’t. My son was injured in the morning. I learned about it only in the evening. There was a hill in our way. My son was on one side, I was on the other side. It’s the legs, it’s the toes, one toe is missing. There are still many fragments in his body, but the doctors do not guarantee that they can safely remove them. He can’t walk for a long time, he can’t do hard work, often he can’t sleep at nights,” he says.
Petrosyan recalls that he accompanied his wounded son to Muratsan Hospital in Yerevan, then immediately returned to Artsakh to find his brother.
“I went and reached Haykazov village, but they didn’t let me go any further. They said that everyone is already in Fizuli, they are coming back, we have lost the territories, go to your village to protect it. When I arrived to Karin Tak, the Turks were already nearby. With two people from the village and boys from Yegniks, we dug trenches for ourselves to protect the village. The other villagers stayed inside the village so as not to leave the entrance to the enemy. It didn’t work: they hit them with mortars at night, the village head was killed. I took him to the hospital in Stepanakert, come back to the village, the same mortar hits me… I don’t even remember what was happening, how they took me to the hospital. I get shrapnel injuries in the head area. But the very next day, without warning anyone, I run away to find my brother. But they found me. They brought me back, they sent me to Yerevan, but I ran away again, and this time I found my brother.”
He says that now he does not have any document that would testify that he received the injuries during the war, because at that moment, in fact, he refused medical care and his status was not formulated in any way.
“In 23, my younger son was serving, I tried to go to him, but couold not manage. They stayed in ambush for ten days before they managed to reach Stepanakert. We waited for him. When he arrived, we just left Artsakh. We were among the last people to leave Stepanakert,” he says.
Aramis Petrosyan, with his wife and two sons, now lives in the village of Aramus, Kotayk region of Armenia. Both he and his sons work as much as their health allows. Aramis doesn’t know what new blow to expect from life, but he tries to be optimistic.
“During the 1992 war, I was a 12-year-old child, the Turks entered our house, they shot and killed my mother right in front of me. We grew up with two brothers and my father. When talking about me, many people said that I am a strong person, but I don’t know what is left of my strength now,” he says.
Ani Gevorgyan
Ani Gevorgyan is a journalist, photographer, and the winner of the Freedom of Speech Award. She has participated in photo exhibitions at the UN headquarters (New York) and the Geneva office, the Palace of Europe (Strasbourg), Paris, Rome, Berlin, Vienna and elsewhere.