“I lost the most precious thing I had: my country.” Fleeing the inevitable takeover of Nagorno Karabakh by the Azerbaijani army, thousands of residents have taken the road to Armenia, where a reception is being established.
In front of the Goris theater, in the Armenian region of Syunik, white minibuses arrive constantly, others leave, their meager trunks loaded with luggage towards Yerevan and the country’s major cities.
In the passenger seat of a black Mercedes, an octogenarian waits, her eyes staring into space, her hands clinging to her bag. Red Cross volunteers are struggling. A group of high school girls from Goris came to see if they could be of any help.
The influx into this city of around twenty thousand inhabitants, the first step for refugees from Nagorno Karabakh, began on the evening of Sunday.
Past the Kornidzor post, immediately after the border, those who have “nowhere to go”, like Valentina Asrian, are brought there.
Valentina, 54, sits on a bench, holding her swaddled grandson to her body. She has no relatives in Armenia. Until last Tuesday, she lived in Vank, a “fantastic village” with its 13th century monastery.
“Who would have thought that the Turks (the name commonly given to Azerbaijanis in the region) would enter this historic Armenian village,” laments Valentina, whose brother-in-law was killed in last week’s bombings.
After a night in the cellar, she took refuge at the out-of-service Stepanakert airport, the headquarters of the Russian interposition forces. Her disabled husband spent three days there without his wheelchair.
A few meters away, Anabel Ghoulassian, mother of seven children, keeps an eye on her pile of belongings, the most precious possession of which is a camel hair blanket.
His story is similar: the fights that took the family by surprise on Tuesday, the flight to the airport.
But they were dislodged on Wednesday, their village not having been affected by the fighting. They then found refuge in an abandoned roofless building, where they stayed for four days until their escape.
“Those were horrible days, we were just sitting next to each other. Rich or poor, all in the same place,” says Anabel, 41.
For the 120,000 inhabitants of Nagorno Karabakh, cohabitation with the “Turks”, as most call them, seems inconceivable.
The exodus is such that it caused massive traffic jams on Monday near the Lachin corridor, the exit door from Nagorno Karabakh.
After the first refugees, residents of villages close to the border, the authorities announced that priority would be given to those who had lost their homes.
But many residents of the local “capital”, Stepanakert, took to the road anyway, for fear of being stranded for months, a resident of the capital told AFP by telephone.
“It’s disaster, chaos. The biggest problem is fuel, there isn’t any,” explains Ani, a 23-year-old artist who wishes to remain anonymous.
She is also preparing to leave. For days she had been thinking about what she would take and she decided: “I took a little bit of soil from under our mulberry tree. It was planted when my great-grandfather built our house. This tree, this earth symbolize my family and myself.
Faced with the announced influx, reception is organized. The hotels in Goris were requisitioned. The governor of the Syunik region, Robert Ghoukassian, told the press that he could accommodate 10,000 people.
Last week, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian announced that his country of 2.9 million inhabitants was preparing to welcome 40,000 refugees.
By late Monday afternoon, 6,650 people had already crossed the border, according to official figures.
In Stepanakert, Ani is certain: “Some will perhaps stay, those who no longer have the strength. But it will be a tiny minority.”
25/09/2023 23:18:20 – Goris (Arménie) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP