"I Will Suffer All My Life": Mother of Deceased Children in Artsakh Shares Details

Vera Narimanyan, the mother of two children found lifeless in a vehicle, recounted that she went to Martakert to fetch food assistance, leaving her children at home in the village of Aghabekalanj, just a few kilometers from Martakert. This was reported by "Azatutyun".

"There was no oil, no sugar. I lived separately with my children. My son was asleep, my daughter was at home, I said, 'You stay here, I will go to get the assistance and come quickly.' Within that half an hour, my children disappeared," the woman explained.

Three-year-old Leon and six-year-old Gita had left the house, likely searching for their mother. Vera works as a cleaner in Martakert and they often walk back and forth. The little ones managed to reach the town alone, with a camera capturing their journey.

The mother stated that she learned the children were missing in the afternoon and began searching for them, initially alone, before contacting the police in the evening. "I searched all night with the police, the command post, the military; we were out all night, and we couldn’t find them," she recounted.

Walking from Aghabekalanj to Martakert... no one saw the children because there is no gasoline or drivers in Artsakh; after 11 PM, a vendor saw them in Martakert and treated them to ice cream. "He said, 'We are looking for our mom,' and he said, 'Wait, we will find your mom soon.' However, within five minutes of the call to the police, the children were gone," the mother lamented.

By morning, she received a call from another person: "Go get your children’s bodies..." The bodies were found in the car by Ara Grigoryan from Martakert. "I’m in shock; I can’t manage..."

Ara had bought the BMW two months prior but hadn’t driven it due to the lack of gasoline. One of the four doors, the driver’s side, did not close properly, and he assumes the exhausted children crawled into the vehicle to sleep. The three-year-old was in the passenger seat, and Gita, Ara speculated, had taken off her clothes and put them beneath her.

The car windows were closed, and that day it was hot. "Everything was closed; there was no air inside. That day it was 30 degrees; imagine how hot it was inside the car," he stated.

Ara Grigoryan did not know the children’s mother and has been taking care of two boys aged six and ten since. The woman remains in Yerevan and has been cut off from her family for months due to the blockade. Ara, who works delivering bread, says he carries the younger boy in the car all day because there’s no one at home to look after him.

In the besieged Artsakh, unsolvable and tragic problems arise every day. Why were the children left unattended in Aghabekalanj, what caused their death—was it the heat, the suffocating enclosed space? According to Felix Harutyunyan, a representative of the Artsakh Investigative Committee, there is currently no preliminary hypothesis.

"Relevant examinations have been appointed, directives have been issued, and active procedural and investigative activities are underway," he noted. A criminal case has been opened under the articles of causing death by negligence and failure to fulfill parental responsibilities. There are no suspects.

The deceased children’s mother is divorced. Martakert’s Mayor, Misha Gyurjyan, mentioned that the family had been displaced after the 44-day war and was temporarily registered in Martakert. "She lived in Aghdam until the 20th; after the 20th, she moved to Martakert."

We sent a written inquiry to the Ministry of Social Development of Artsakh as we had information that the children had previously been cared for in a boarding school in Stepanakert. The ministry confirmed that before the start of the 44-day war, the children were cared for in the boarding school and were moved to the SOS Children's Village in Kotayk during the war. Months after the end of the war, when the children were returned, Vera Narimanyan expressed her desire to take her children back.

The deceased girl, Gita, and her elder sister, seven-year-old Zita, who is now with her mother, lived in the boarding school. The ministry reports that specialists from the Martakert psychosocial center are providing them with psychological support.

"I will suffer all my life," says the woman who buried her two children just two days ago.