Mary is from Mokhratagh village of Martakert region

Mary’s whole life was spent in Artsakh. He was born in Mokhratagh village of Martakert region. He graduated from secondary school, continued at Artsakh State University, then got married, and since 2009 they have lived in the city of Martakert. Worked as a teacher.

His roots in Artsakh go back a long time, at least his grandfather’s grandfather was born and lived in Artsakh. He never wanted to leave his birthplace, neither his father’s family, nor even more so his own. They are a young family, they have two daughters. The husband is a soldier, he always emphasized that he should be at the border, to see his enemy, that’s why they had no intention to even have a small house or property in Armenia. They came here several times a year to relax and then return to their homeland.

They were in Martakert during the entire blockade. On the fateful day, September 19, they were in class at school when everything started. They moved from basement to basement. Following the husband’s calculations (after some pause, the shells fall again), they moved from the basement of the school to the basement of the building, so they left in the morning and came to Stepanakert.

“In general, in all wars, we left very late,” says Mary, “because my husband was always in position, he didn’t come after us, so we stayed like that until he came.” And this time, when they said, “Whoever can, let him go to Stepanakert with his own funds, we will send him by plane from there, of course, it didn’t happen like that, then my husband said angrily, “girl, I won’t come, take the child out.” So we left early. Already on September 23 it was possible, we came to Armenia. For those few days, we lived in hotels, in the corridors of the university, on chairs,” says Mary.

The last months of the blockade were already very difficult, even the bread was gone. “If we had stayed a couple of weeks, it wouldn’t have happened, because there was no gasoline, gas to transport cars, we had no washing powder, no water for the garden, there was not enough wheat. Do you know how it was, whoever they knew was able to deliver the portion, they brought it by force, we had to take it to Stepanakert to grind it: there was no black flour, there was no white flour. In short, it was terrible.”

After 2020, the Turks had made a good calculation, they were stuck in Martakert, they were very close, approximately 3 km away, but Mary’s family members were already used to both shootings and photo-taking bayraktars, Mary also emphasizes that they were free. because they were in their land, in their birthplace. They had absolutely no idea that it would be like this.

They were told to temporarily move to Stepanakert for security reasons, they would return after some time, but in the middle of the journey they were told that they would not go back. They could not move anything from the house. He says, “I just got a new textbook called History of Artsakh from class. I took it. To tell the truth, I never wanted to keep that small bag (documents, important things, children’s clothes) ready and did not take it, because I would always look at it and think that I should take it and go out. But this time, the children were a bit older, they were sorting out their passports, papa’s diplomas, and we took what we needed.”

Mary’s family settled in Charentsavan after receiving a teacher’s job offer, and her husband is still in the military. They live on rent, at least they strive to have their own, and certain documentation issues are still being resolved.

Funded by the Federal Office of Foreign Affairs.

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