NOYAKERT: Earlier than fleeing the advancing Azerbaijani troops for Armenia, Suren Martirosyan glanced again one final time at his fruit backyard in Nagorno-Karabakh, and the momentary imaginative and prescient has haunted him ever since.
“That picture of our stunning backyard, which I noticed for the ultimate time, nonetheless lingers in my eyes: pomegranates and persimmons gleamed brightly on the timber below the good solar,” he stated, taking a look at his calloused arms.
The 65-year-old’s household of eight is amongst greater than 100,000 ethnic Armenians who fled Karabakh after Azerbaijan recaptured the long-disputed region in a September lightning offensive towards Armenian separatist forces.
The exodus of the whole Armenian inhabitants from the mountainous enclave has sparked a refugee disaster in Armenia.
On Sep 19, “we heard machine-gun fireplace and artillery shells exploding near our home”, stated Suren’s daughter-in-law Arevik.
“At first, we thought it was simply one other skirmish with the Turks,” she stated, referring to Turkic-speaking Azerbaijanis.
“However then our panicked village headman got here in and stated we should all run away because the Turks had been already within the village outskirts.”
The Martirosyans now reside in a decrepit home they rented due to authorities assist within the village of Noyakert, some 50km from the Armenian capital Yerevan.
