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My daughter says, “Mom, now the store has everything so that we don’t like the meal, we can leave it under the bowl, can’t we?”
Sputnik Armenia writes: The people of Artsakh patiently endured the brutal siege for 9 months, because they knew what they were doing, for the sake of living in their native land, in their own home.
Sputnik Armenia continues to tell about the families who found temporary accommodation in Vanadzor.
One of the most expensive items brought from Artsakh is a telephone. 33-year-old Lilit, sitting on a small chair on the balcony, keeps looking through the photos of Artsakh life, which has already become a memory.
It shows how they got coffee from chickpeas, washing powder from soda, salt from a stone used for cows to eat, how watermelon was substituted for two children’s birthday cakes, but the day was still festive with guests, singing and dancing.
“On the table, there was honey, grapes, and the muffins with bakmaz (ed. doshab) like tarsi turned out to be very thin,” Lilit remembers with a smile.
He is a native of the village of Gishi, Martunu region. He says that due to the high position of his birthplace, the surrounding area was as if in the palm of his hand. He is silent for a moment, as if he is trying to see again the images that were opening from their village. A bride went from Gishi to Khnapat village of Askerani region.
“We lived very happily, no nation on earth had more happiness than ours,” says Lilit.
Every day after December 12, they waited with hope that the only road with Armenia would open again. The shops began to empty one by one, the children’s favorite candies were no longer available, the flour ran out, but that was not a problem either, they got flour from barley and corn instead of wheat.
He tells that the village kindergarten was not closed for a single day, whoever had anything at home gave it, the director baked cookies, pies so that the children would eat and not be cut off from the garden.
“We were satisfied with that, the queues stretching from 12 midnight to 6 am were tolerable, but September 19 was not tolerable either. We are a little upset that the Motherland did not help us, but what happened happened. We cannot return to Artsakh even now.”
…He made dough at night, kneaded it to bake bread. When the war started, the lights were turned off. There was a shortage of bread, what does it matter whether there are bombs above your head or not, the bread should not spoil, they quickly installed a wood oven in the courtyard of the building, and bread was baked on it. They ate half on the spot and took the other half to the airport.
“We were in the shelters until the evening, then we were evacuated and transferred to the airport, a Russian base. There were so many people there, the first day we slept in their accommodation, two days in the car, and one day under the palace.”
Lilit shows the photos of those days, even in the yard of the airport people installed stoves, baked bread and prepared food. The Artsakh citizen was ready to overcome any difficulty, as long as he was in his native land.
“There was no washing machine, I told them to keep the clothes clean. There was no bowl, they ate the bread, they wiped the tarelkek with bread, they said there is no need to wash it, that’s how we clean it. My daughter says, “Mom, now the store has everything so that we don’t like the meal, we can leave it under the bowl, right?”
What will they do? they will start life from scratch, they will create a house, wherever they are in the world, but that house will not be on their land, so something will always remain incomplete.