‘When we approached the checkpoint, my daughter shouted: These are the bad guys’: Karen Petrosyan

Karen Petrosyan is the chief director of the news program of Artsakh public television. He remembers the last broadcast from Artsakh and the last minutes spent there.

“It was 12pm. I was arranging belongings in the car. I wanted to go upstairs to take down other things, but it turned out that there wasn’t anything left anymore. My wife, crying with my children, went downstairs with the key in her hand. She handed me the key so that I could go up and ‘successfully’ make it to our house. I said no, I can’t,” Karen says.

Karen remembers how his little daughter was able to distinguish the Russian peacekeepers from the Azerbaijani military. When they approached their checkpoint, the little girl shouted, “These are the bad guys!”

“The first thing I did after arriving in Goris at five o’clock was to go to the store. I promised my children that as soon as we go to Armenia, I will get whatever they want. I wish you could have seen their smile. The only people who didn’t understand anything about all this were them,” Karen says.

After arriving at his friend’s house, the second thing that was vividly imprinted on Karen’s memory was the surprise of the 4-year-old girl when the yard light turned on and they got out of the car.

“She said, dad, is there light? I said yes, dear. And she happily woke my son up and said, Mark, open your eyes, there is light here and it won’t turn off,” Karen recalls bittersweet memories.