Artsakh surgeon Grigori Grigoryan has been working at the Kapan Medical Center for several months now. The 40-year-old doctor was born and raised in the village of Nerkin Horatagh in the Martakert region, NK, but has lived mostly outside Artsakh in his adult life.
Grigori’s father participated in the First Artsakh War, and at the age of 9 he himself helped the seriously wounded in the war, sometimes even transported corpses.
“I found Artsakh in Kapan [Armenia], my land and water. You can’t find such a similarity in the entire world. Everything is similar. I am a village boy; I love forests, I love animals, I love nature, and there is nothing here that differs in any way from the nature of my native Martakert region… But until I lost it, I didn’t understand the sweetness of the homeland. Previously, I aspired to work in Yerevan, in Yerevan clinics, I would go back and forth. My parents, my sister, my relatives were there. I visited them when I missed them and returned. And now Artsakh is gone… My father’s grave is there, it draws me… everything draws me… I didn’t understand what it was until I lost it” says the doctor.
Grigoryan remembers that during the first Artsakh war, his family moved to Yerevan and his father went to the frontline. “Once my father came to visit us, and when he was returning to Artsakh, I went with him. I was in the hospital, because there was some food only in the hospital. No one believes me when I tell about that time. I unloaded bodies from Kamaz trucks, I dismantled Grad boxes, old men prepared coffins for the dead… we were useful in whatever way we could.”
The doctor is sure that we did not lose Artsakh, but gave it to them. “I am sure that we will return there… Taking it by force is not realistic at this moment, and I have no desire to take it by force. Enough is enough; I am no longer able to see a soldier die… I will go crazy, I can’t anymore… You can never get rid of what you have seen and experienced in war; you can only do it if you become mentally ill… During the first war, when I was a child, I watched and thought, well, it’s a war, people have to go… this time I was the adult and when an 18-year-old boy was dying under my arm, or they were bringing in wounded… this time, I looked at it with the eyes of an adult and it was terrible.” According to Grigoryan, Armenian doctors have always worked very well, in particular, out of more than 2,200 wounded during the 44-Day War, 32 people died, which speaks of the effective and dedicated work of doctors.
Ani Gevorgyan