In the large Hayrapetyan family, the house of Khtsaberd has been seen only in dreams only for half a year. Now their house is one of the hotels in Goris, and although they do not feel lack of care here, they still sleep and wake up with thoughts about Khtsaberd.
One of the children regularly shows the videos of the ongoing robbery in the villages of Hadrut, the grandfather, 72-year-old Misha Hayrapetyan, is silently waiting to speak in his turn.
The bride of the family, 45-year-old Narine, left the newly built house, fertile gardens, shop and most importantly, her beloved bees in Khtsaberd. He is sure they will meet again. The only “source” of this optimistic belief, to which Mrs. Narine regularly refers, are again her dreams and the Dizapayt who “marks” her through them.
Misha Hayrapetyan
I participated in the war of the 90s with my two sons. How do they irritate the bee hive, that’s how they irritated us. At that time, if a Turk stole a chicken, if you complain, the Turk is not guilty. Even if the judge was Armenian. This is how the time is. But if an Armenian goes with a needle, takes a chop from the Turkish yard … That’s it. The glass of patience was full. The law of that country has never applied to us. Then the situation was that the Turks started stealing cattle, then they started taking hostages and killing shepherds.
To tell the truth, we were less armed, but we were united, we loved each other, that was the first guarantee of victory. As soon as we united, we drove them to Zhdan, also from Horadiz. It was our unity, our unity, loving each other that we won that victory.
Now, if there is no unity in the family, they should be separated, they should be dispersed, right? It happened to us as well. They did not listen to each other, they did not respect each other, and the Turk was waiting for that. For 30 years he tried to fight every day, every day, but he did not succeed. As soon as they found our omission, they won. Although I must say that I am 72 years old, I have lived with the Turks most of my life, I have no doubt that if the Azeris and the Armenians had remained face to face, they would not have won.
The fist of one, the sword of the other
As long as the world exists, we will be a neighbor of Azerbaijan, and they will be us. The leaders of the countries should strive to preach solidarity, not one to draw his fist, the other his sword. It is not the grace of the leader. Even if there is an opportunity to live together, I will not see it anymore. The leader of Azerbaijan is Aliyev, he shows his fist, he irritates people, doesn’t he? The elder of the house must be patient.
They also fled like us in time. What is the escape, they were running away, pushing each other. I remember, I remember very well. Is the fear small, is the panic small? The whole of Zangelan, Kubatlu, were given train carriages to the Turks so that each family could load their goods. Azerbaijan was evacuating. The Armenians cut Horadiz against those wagons and robbed him. Yes, we … I do not blame anyone for that today. The valley of Araks to be handed over is not my end, but now our young people are gone. Now they are angry, the youth is angry, and Hadrut is with them. What was good?
I do not believe that the Turks will give back Hadrut well. When they come, they say. “Dear Armenians, come, welcome.” I do not know the rest. Uncertain situation. Now there are demonstrations in Yerevan every day. One group closes this road, one group closes the other. 6 months have passed. Have we taken a piece during 6 months?
“We will win” …
My son and daughter-in-law were working in Gabriel’s regiment. On the first day of the war, my daughter-in-law called: “Let’s go to Khokhenq, the fight has started.” Then we saw that the fight was deepening, only men, women and children were left in the village and evacuated. I also brought my wife and grandchildren to Goris and returned. Well, my house, my place, there is a lake … I cultivated my garden under the sounds of the bombing, I said, it’s one, ours must win. We did not know that this Ottoman had interfered. Half of the melon is left … The potato is in the ground, hanging from the beans. After all, if they had said in advance, we would have brought the stones of the village as well. There was no one on foot in the village, everyone had a car, but no one took anything out. After all, say, take it out, it is not possible. But they said, “We will win” …
The Turkish army had reached under Kornidzor, everyone was afraid that the road would be closed, they left quickly, we did not bring any clothes. The neighboring population from the neighboring villages, many of them took refuge in our village, at the same time we got in the car and ran away. We passed Kornidzor, the Turks got there, blocked the road.
Ancient Odzaberd
During the Soviet era, we had 75 houses in the village, about 450 inhabitants. Before this last war, some 120-130. The adults have died, the young people have moved, in recent years the young people do not want to live in the village. Well, life was better in our village than before, but the girl living in the village has to milk a cow, she has to sleep in the garden, but the manicure is not going to do that job. That is why our young people did not get married, they said there is no girl, they do not come to the village. There has not been a wedding in the village for several years. That is the reason, nothing else. Livelihood is good, only I have 60 cows, 20 horses, the areas are endless. The employee would live.
The name of our village was Odzaberd, then it became Khtsaberd. They say
The owner of the oil had built a special house for his son on the mountain, because as many children as he had were dying, that’s left. He hid it so that he could stay alive. The servants took grapes in baskets for that child, do not say that the snake is in the middle. The snake bit the boy, and the child died. The name of our village has been Odzaberd since then, I have heard it that way. Our ancestors came from Karadagh, Karadagh region of Iran.
Old Khtsaberd was completely destroyed and burnt down due to the bombing. I built the first house in the new district of the village in 2004. Thus, the village was moved a little to the side so that the roads would be convenient and cars could pass easily. The sports hall, everything was beautifully made. Now who knows what they did.
Narine Hayrapetyan
I was born in Tumi, I came to Khtsaberd in 1994. My husband and I were engaged for 6 months, but he was injured and lost his leg. But I accepted him that way, it was my destiny, I did not give up on him. He prosthetized his leg, came, said, “We must get married,” I said, there is no question. There was no car during the fight, the roads were closed, they brought me to Khtsaberd on a mountain. There were many victims in both Tumi and Khtsaberd, we celebrated our joy in a quiet environment, very modestly. 5 years later I had a son, he died, then my new daughter was born. My children were born in free time, in free Hadrut.
I kept bees. I am still with them in my dreams. Beekeeping is a completely different life, every negative energy is carried by bees, the bee is a very good thing. When we had just gotten married, I thought a lot about how we were going to live and what we were going to do in this post-war situation. My husband said. “What are you most afraid of?” I said to the bees. He said, “Well, we will start from that.”
“The stick reminds me of my dream that we will return”
On the morning of September 27, we took the animals out and came home to go to work. At the first moment I heard, my eldest daughter called from Shushi. “Mama, I’m in the basement. If you can, take me.” We waited, it was getting dark, my husband brought my daughter to the village at midnight when the car lights were off. He suggested many other people move to our village as a safe
place. But people did not come, they said. “These two more days will pass.” Later, whoever came out of our Hadrut, all of them passed through our village to Goris.
At first we kept the refugees from Jabrail for a week, then after we saw the terrible situation, they were approaching Hadrut, a week later my husband evacuated the children with their guests to Goris. But I stayed. In the end, the village mayor and I were left alone. The village head already said. “This is not your place.” Before that, we filled the meat products of our shop, ice cream, everything in bags for the reservists, there is no light, there is nothing. On September 25, I received the goods for my shop, on September 27, the fight started. I still hope that we will return. I do not know, my inner voice tells me that we will return. I had land in 7 different sanctuaries of our village, Hadrut. I brought that alone and my father’s book “The Hadrut Dialect”. It is my great hope, it gives me strength. The stick in my dream reminds me, signals that we will return. But I do not care as much for us as for those children who died. One can adapt to everything except these human losses, the losses of innocent children.
I did not expect that Khtsaberd would be given. Our boys stayed until the end. They entered, took so many boys captive, it does not mean that they won, victory does not happen that way. To be honest, I was not as upset about the area as I was about the captive boys. Every morning and evening, every night my prayer is for them, for the captured Shirak boys in our village.
“Haram lands”
There have never been Turks in our village, but there were in Togh. I remember that we were taken to Togh vineyards for an excursion, we passed the Armenian district, then the Turkish one. There was not even a fight yet, the bus of our villagers was stoned by the Turks. My grandfather, grandmother, our elders always said that one day there would be a fight because they could not live with us. Our Tumi bus was stopped, the driver was beaten, a woman was killed inside, the Movement had just started, but there was no fight yet. They were buzzing to start a fight, we did not want a war.
I knew that there would be a war for lands, but I did not imagine that we would lose our ancestral homeland, our Hadrut. I do not want to say that we lost, no, we have still won. Because our boys have stood up to the end. We resisted. I was not against giving the occupied territories in peace, they were haram lands, let them give, we would live halal too.
The locals associate the name Khtsaberd with the name of the historical fortress located in the village, Odzaberd, although according to another version, “Khtsaberd” may mean “a fortress hidden in the mountains and valleys.” Besides Odzaberd, there are also the ruins of Hazararprkich and Immate fortresses in the village, as well as the fortress-cave of Jalalvi. One of the important historical and cultural monuments of Khtsaberd is the half-ruined monastery of Yeghtsun Dzor, an abandoned village not far from the settlement
Source: https://mediamax.am/am/news/hadrut/42818/