‘Mother left a letter: Please don’t destroy our house’: Artsakh exodus #9

September 19 was an ordinary blockade afternoon in Artsakh; children were at school and their parents were at work when the enemy struck.

“We immediately went down to the first floor of our house because we don’t have a basement. Pretended that it was safe,” Irina Hayrapetyan, journalist of Artsakh Public TV, told Alpha News.

Irina said that there had been no connection. They could not even go to the neighbor’s basement, which seemed safer, until 5:00 p.m. During that time, Stepanakert was being shelled for 24 hours.

Finally, they managed to go to the neighbor’s basement, where they spent the night.

“Every hour we used to log into Telegram to find out what was happening in Artsakh for a few minutes and immediately turn off the phone so that the battery wouldn’t run out,” Irina said.

Her father was 4012th in line for gas. Irina’s family reached Armenia 32 hours later.

“We dreamed of having a very big, fairy-tale house, and my father built that for us. It was a three-story house with a big yard. When leaving, my mother wrote a letter: Please be respectful. Live, but do not destroy,” Irina said.