“Give us bread, let me go home.” An Artsakh user details the incident in Stepanakert

Artsakh user Rouzanna Tadevosyan has provided details about the incident in Stepanakert. Earlier, we reported that an intoxicated citizen opened fire in the center of Stepanakert.

Rouzanna recounts: “At 5:30 in the morning, while feeding my child, I heard gunshots and woke my husband in fear—‘the Turk is shooting!’ My son went back to sleep peacefully, while we, with fear in our hearts, tried to find something online. Of course, due to lack of communication, we couldn’t find anything and had to wait. Hours later, it became clear that this time, thank God, it wasn’t a Turk. The man had arrived at the square in a state of intoxication and opened fire. ‘Give us bread, let me go home.’

At first, uncontrollably, I scolded him for frightening people unnecessarily in these conditions, but for the first time in these nearly 8 months, I couldn’t hold back my tears. Can you imagine—maybe the child went to bed hungry? Can you imagine what kind of heavy psychological state one must be in to drink at night, grab a gun, and go to the square? He is not a bad father for not being able to buy bread, but simply there is no bread.

People are standing in line from morning until evening, all night, only to return home empty-handed. To give you an idea, due to the lack of food in the shops, the only food left in many homes is plain bread, which is now also very difficult to find.

A patient with a chronic illness, who needs urgent treatment in Yerevan due to the lack of medication, refuses to go, stating that he would rather die on his own land than end up in captivity. A pregnant woman loses her 7-month-old baby due to malnutrition, stress, and tension. Perhaps if fuel had been found earlier, she would have reached the hospital in time to save her child.

To deliver food to a relative lying in the hospital, people have to walk from one end of the city to the other in the scorching sun—not knowing what to bring to eat, as there’s nothing in the shops, NOTHING, except for some local vegetables and fruits that are so expensive and scarce that standing in line is pointless.

And these are not isolated cases, and everything is still ahead, unfortunately. During these eight months, I have been constantly trying to give myself strength and find positives in all this—it’s easier to be here, with my family, than far away, in fullness, safe and sound, but still, far away. Today's incident cracked my resilience; people are going mad out of helplessness. Honestly, I can't hold on anymore...”