‘I think about my home day and night’, says displaced Artsakh man – Panorama

“All my life I’ve witnessed struggle, and it hurts me that my kids have additionally gone by means of it. The worst factor is that we now have misplaced our dwelling and fatherland,” says 41-year-old Samvel Hambardzumyan, who was displaced from Artsakh collectively along with his spouse and 7 kids. The household has discovered short-term housing in Masis, a city in Armenia’s Ararat Province.

He’s a local of Shushi, the place he spent one of the best years of his life. After shedding their dwelling within the wake of the 44-day struggle in 2020, the household moved to Stepanakert.

The native authorities supplied a home to Samvel’s massive household. They settled in, geared up their new dwelling and welcomed their seventh baby, however the desires of the Hambardzumyan household have been shattered instantly: they needed to flee their dwelling for the second time.

Samvel describes the traumas after the Azerbaijani assault on September 19. He says that his eldest son was in school, whereas hello 4 kids have been at college on the time. Samvel and his spouse went to the city cemetery to pay a birthday tribute to the latter’s brother who was killed within the 44-day struggle. He says he then heard a robust explosion and the shelling started.

The couple instantly returned dwelling to search out their kids. When Samvel managed to reunite the entire household and take them to the basement shelter, he and different males organized self-defense: they went to the close by forests and camped there. After they spent two days there, it grew to become identified that the struggle had ended and an evacuation of the inhabitants was underway.

“After getting back from fight outposts, I used to be reunited with my household and we walked 10 kilometers to the Stepanakert airport. Staying there for per week, we took the final bus to Goris,” Samvel says.

They have been supplied short-term lodging in a border village in Goris, however Samvel rejected it, fearing that his kids would hear the sounds of gunfire once more and would expertise contemporary trauma. He expressed need to maneuver to Masis. Samvel says that he loves town and plans to construct a brand new home right here.

When the household went to the Masis Municipality to resolve the housing concern, a stranger got here as much as them and, having discovered that they have been displaced from Artsakh, supplied them to maneuver to his home.

“Are you able to think about, a stranger introduced us to his home and demanded nothing in return, saying we may keep there till we solved all our issues,” Samvel says and once more thanks Tigran Hakobyan, who supplied his two-story home to individuals forcibly displaced from Artsakh.

The household of 9 is now briefly sheltered on this home. Seven different displaced individuals joined them, and at present 17 individuals reside underneath one roof along with the home proprietor. The strangers have develop into relations and reside collectively.

Nevertheless, Samvel says that the home is on the market and might be bought at any second, so they’re liable to ending up on the road.

“I’ve continuously lived by means of struggle, so have my kids. We’re uninterested in fixed relocation and need everlasting housing,” he notes.

Samvel has well being points and needed to retire after 14 years of army profession. In Masis he tried to get a job at a tobacco manufacturing facility, however the native clinic informed him that he couldn’t work on the manufacturing facility attributable to well being points and was eligible for a incapacity class.

In the present day the household lives due to the assist of philanthropists and sort individuals, and so they haven’t but absolutely acquired the 100,000 drams supplied by the federal government. Now Samvel is on the lookout for a job as a precedence, after that they are going to attempt to clear up the housing concern.

“A small land plot would suffice me. I can plant a backyard and lift livestock. In Stepanakert we had an enormous backyard and cattle, which helped us survive the 9-month blockade. I even began to promote my harvest, I gave hen meat to neighbors so that folks didn’t starve,” he mentioned.

Samvel’s 16-year-old son Marat joins the dialog. He says that he largely offered the backyard harvest himself, gave it extra to aged individuals who couldn’t afford shopping for greens.

“When individuals requested why I gave out greens without cost, I informed them that we needed to cope with hardships collectively. In Armenia, a form individual helped us, sheltered us in his home and saved us from the road,” he says.

Marat studied on the Armenian-Italian Academic Advanced in Stepanakert. Now he’s ready for his school to be reopened in Yerevan and plans to proceed his research there or in an identical school.

He likes working with wooden and is now serious about making and promoting wooden merchandise in an effort to assist his household. After graduating from school, he’s pondering of opening a woodworking workshop.

Marat feels nice ache when he remembers their misplaced houses in Shushi and Stepanakert, and mentally walks continuously of their yard, park and the streets of their neighborhood.

“That is the second time we now have misplaced our dwelling. Phrases cannot describe this ache, nobody will perceive, it’s simply horrible,” the boy says in a trembling voice and turns his head away in order that we don’t see his tears.

Marat, Tigran, Hayk, Mariam, Samvel, Katarina and Angelina are Samvel’s seven kids and the youngest daughter is 2 months previous.

Samvel admits that their ideas are in Artsakh and day by day they dream of returning to their homeland, however won’t ever reside underneath Azerbaijan’s rule.

“I take into consideration my dwelling day and night time. I continuously take into consideration the bushes within the backyard. Daily I think about strolling the streets of Stepanakert and reaching Shushi. We’re able to once more reside in our homeland, I’ll return every time it’s doable, however provided that no Turks keep there. I’ll by no means reside with them,” Samvel stresses.