Gohar Arakelyan’s grandson and granddaughter’s husband were killed hours apart on September 19, fighting against the Azerbaijani attack. The other two grandchildren also took part in the battles. The losses in Mrs. Gohar’s family do not end there. Her son died in the 90s, and his brother in 2020. The woman from Artsakh presented the history of her family in a conversation with Forrights.am.
On the morning of September 19, Gohar Arakelyan’s main task was to solve the problem of medication for her husband, Shamir, who developed serious health problems under the conditions of the blockade. However, the concerns changed with lightning speed when the sounds of the first Azerbaijani shots were heard.
“Grandpa Shamir was lying down: he got a disease because of the blockade. I went to get my grandfather’s medicines. On the way I entered the Telecom (communication operator’s office). As soon as I left, I heard a loud thump. They said that the enemy hit Harav village. It was 10 o’clock in the morning. I went further, until reached the school. People were running and shouting: ‘The battle has started; the enemy has attacked’. I got to the pharmacy, they hit again; they hit the Askeran regiment. You can’t even imagine what was going on on the streets: women, children, men were running with loud screams,” says Mrs. Gohar and presents that at that moment her three grandchildren and her grandson’s husband were on the front line.
One of Mrs. Gohar’s grandsons, Masis was in the direction of Shushi, Hayk was in Askeran, Vahe was in the Tsor military unit, her granddaughter’s husband, Sasun, was also in the front line.
“I call my other grandson, Gayane, and ask her what’s going on. She says that her husband, Sasun, called her and told to take the child and immediately go to the basement. I came running to the house; I saw the neighbor’s daughter-in-law standing and crying. She said, ‘Mrs. Gohar, people are being evacuated from Harav; our folks are on the way, they are coming to the city through the forests’.”
There was a military unit not far from their house. Mrs. Gohar and her neighbors, while standing in the yard, saw the Azerbaijanis hitting it. “That regiment was two kilometers away from our house, but it was clearly visible.”
“From our yard, I could see what they were doing on the side of Shushi. People stood and watched. Masis was on that side. There was no information, there was no connection, the strong battle was going on.” The old couple, without any news from their grandchildren, moved from basement to basement.
“We came out of a basement: we heard that the fighting has stopped, the army was being disbanded. After a while, we saw all the soldiers coming. I ran to them, I asked about my grandchildren, but they didn’t say anything. The day got dark, but we had no word from them. My daughter called from Armenia, she said, “Mom, they are coming down quickly, Masis is not there.” I came to Shamir and said, ‘Go to Tsor, find out what’s going on’.” Somehow, he got up and went.” Shamir, who is in poor health, witnessed parents coming and looking for their sons near the Tsor military unit. He heard about the harsh reality there.
“Masis’s fiance’s relatives have come to get news about Masis from Vahe. Vahe is my other grandson. It gets dark, nothing can be seen, Vahe comes out and calls out who is asking about Masis. Shamir listens and shouts, ‘What happened to Masis?’ Vahe, who sees that it is the grandfather, runs to him and says, ‘Grandpa, hold on tight; we have neither Masis nor Sasun’…” The relatives later learned from fellow soldiers under what circumstances the grandchildren were killed. “Masis was the captain of the position, the enemy shot him with a sniper. On September 19, he was no longer there, on September 20, Sassun was shot by an unmanned aerial vehicle. Masis was just engaged, he did not get married, and Sassoon has one child.
The cruelty did not end there for Mrs. Gohar. Their lives were also in danger. She notes that the armed Azerbaijanis arrived in their neighborhood.
“The special forces came and stood between the people and the enemy. If our special forces wouldn’t come, they would kill us all. I could see the enemy: they had entered the houses of our neighborhood, which were already left behind,” Mrs. Gohar says. She says that they could not leave without finding the bodies of the young people.
“It was a terrible situation: there was no light, there was no fuel, there were people who buried their bodies in their backyards, under trees, and left. They had a funeral in Stepanakert without a coffin,” says Mrs. Gohar and remembers how her son died, just like her grandchildren, while defending the motherland.
“My son was also shot by a sniper in 1993. His name is Gurgen.”
The bodies of Sassun and Masis, along with 130 other bodies, were transported to Armenia by Red Cross vehicles. The family was given a receipt to deliver the bodies to them in Yerevan.
Mrs. Gohar’s family has also decided to leave Artsakh, which was disappearing from the earth. The car was driven by her husband, who was ill and in very bad shape. “We crossed the Hakari bridge, reached Goris, Shamir said: I can’t drive anymore; go wherever you can; we are already on the land of Armenia.”
After all this, Mrs. Gohari is sorrowed by the following: “They say that the people of Karabakh did not fight. We are one of them: didn’t we fight? In 1993, my 18-year-old son, in 2020, my 50-year-old brother, in 2023, my grandson and my granddaughter’s husband… How come they didn’t fight? How? I’m very upset about that.
Narek Kirakosyan
Narek Kirakosyan
Narek Kirakosyan is a journalist, works on the principle of "a person is an absolute value".