Some of my friends and followers asked me why I am asking the world to help the people of Artsakh, why am I so vocal about it. The answer is simple. I am Armenian. I am an Armenian woman whose grand grandmothers survived the Armenian genocide in Turkey and Azerbaijan in 1915-1923. My grandmothers, mother, auntie, and I survived a genocide of Armenian people in Azerbaijan in 1988-1992.
This is a short story of a few women from my family.
My great grandmother escaped the Armenian genocide committed by Turkey in 1915. She escaped with only the dress on her back. Her entire family was killed. She was just a teenager, and she lost everyone and everything. She was alone in the world. She did not talk a lot about what happened. She was always saying, “it was hell.” She did not want us, her children, and grandchildren to even hear about it because of all the horrors she saw. She also said that when Azerbaijani people killed the Armenian people in Baku, she was hiding underground in a sewer. When she opened the sewer cover after a few days, the blood of Armenian people was all over the streets.
My other grand grandmother ran on foot with her two babies from Nagorno- Karabakh after Azerbajni beheaded her husband. She was pregnant with a third child. She said that when she saw that her husband’s horse brought his body back home, she understood that she needs to run right now, leaving her house and everything. She was moving during the nights and hiding in the forest during the day because Azerbaijani people and the government were looking for Armenian people to kill.
The next generation of women from my family (including myself) escaped Azerbaijan in 1988-1992. Why did we run? Because the Azerbaijani government and Azerbaijani people started killing, raping, torturing the Armenian people in Azerbaijan.
I did not talk about this for a long time. Like my grand grandmother, I felt lucky because I survived. I tried to keep all that I saw and felt in Azerbaijan inside. But as an Armenian, mother, and human being, I am telling the story of my nation; I am telling the story of many generations of women from my family. Every woman from my family saw and experienced the genocide of Armenian people by Turkey and Azerbaijan.
That’s why I am asking the world: Don’t be silent. Another genocide of the Armenian people is “in progress.” Don’t keep your eyes closed. Help protect Artsakh. Protect Armenian children, grandparents, parents, sisters, brothers, women, and men. I am asking the world, “Please, don’t be too late.”
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