Persecution of Armenians in Artsakh: a testimony by Goharine Hovoyan

See the full full story with more witness accounts in this 22-minute video: Remnants of the Sword: Armenians of Artsakh

TRANSCRIPT:

I am Goharine Hovoyan I lived in the village of Dadivank, Shahumyan region, at first. We were displaced from Dadivank during the 2020 war, we moved to Kolatak village, Martakert region, where I worked as a candle seller in Hakobavank, and my husband worked as a warden. My children attended Kolatak Secondary School. From time to time, we were in Vank village, at Father Hovhannes’s house. And on that unlucky 19th, the 19th of September, we were at Vank village as well. A very loud explosion was heard. I was in the kitchen at that moment.

My husband, children, and Father Hovhannes were in the living room. And from my husband’s screams, he screamed: “Sergei…” … at that moment, I had already fallen to the ground, I gathered strength, reached the living room. I saw that my older son was lying on one side, my younger son on another side, Father Hovhannes on other side. Both of my hands were already injured, swollen, and bleeding profusely, my husband at that moment, the curtain was torn, tied my hand tightly with the thread of the curtain and… …and got out and called for help. Several people from the villagers came, helped my husband, and took us to the Vank village hospital.  We were told that the shard was in the heart of my youngest son, and we needed to be transferred to Stepanakert as soon as possible, and we were all being transported to Stepanakert by 1 ambulance.

Then (in Stepanakert) I saw them trying to get my older son’s heart working… at that time I was being taken for a CT scan, after the CT scan, I saw that my older son was also being taken for CT scan. And at that moment, a man runs and brings a small bloodied child in his arms, they shouted to the nurses not to take my son to the CT scan, since that child had to be taken to an emergency CT scan first. And at that time, I screamed to save my child, but they took me to the operating room, where they operated on me for 7 hours. After that, people from the Red Cross came and told us that the critically injured people should be taken to Yerevan, including us – my youngest son and I.

My husband said that we needed to transfer the body of my other son as well. And so, the Red Cross began negotiating with Azerbaijan to allow the transfer of the body with us. Azerbaijan said that civilian victims should be transported in a coffin.

We could not even find a coffin. We went to so many places, we asked, but we couldn’t even get a coffin Thanks to some friends, they found a coffin that was a little smaller in size. We decided to go with the small coffin just to be able to take my son’s body out.

My youngest son’s intestines were punctured in 15 places, his stomach was punctured as well, and his colon was removed.  There are still shards in the lungs, spleen, and intestines. His jaw and shoulder were broken.

My hands were injured, as well as my liver, intestines, and stomach.