Elen's Greatest Fear at That Moment Was the Fear of Captivity: Elen Aristamyan Provides Details

Elen Aristamyan shared that her greatest fear at that moment was the fear of captivity, given the previous two incidents involving Vagif Khachaturyan and Rashid Beglaryan. In an interview with Tert.am, she provided details about the event.

“That day, my family and I went to the airport, from which we were supposed to travel to Armenia by bus. At first, everything seemed fine, but before reaching the border, something happened on the road that made me tense. In the part of the bus where I was sitting, smoke started to rise, there was some issue, probably due to heat, and the Russian peacekeepers immediately evacuated us from the bus, saying that it might explode. Later, when we reached the checkpoint, I became even more anxious when I saw armed Azerbaijanis; there were no Armenians, on one side were the Russian peacekeepers, and on the other side were the Azerbaijanis, and my tension doubled,” said Elen.

According to the media, her anxiety increased further while waiting at the checkpoint when Azerbaijani operators and photographers approached them and began taking pictures. “We tried not to look at them; in the video, you can see that I am turned away, and when they ask me questions, I turn around and unexpectedly find myself in front of so many cameras. I wasn’t expecting journalists to come up and ask questions; I was turned away and hadn’t seen them. They came and started asking me questions in Russian, and I became even more anxious when a female journalist began asking questions in Azerbaijani, and about ten journalists gathered around me. I tried to cover my face with my hand so that I wouldn’t be seen, looking around to see how to get out of there, and I didn’t know how to say that I wanted to leave. Only at the end did I gather the courage to say that I didn’t want to talk. At that moment, my greatest fear was the fear of being taken captive; I was afraid that if I said something wrong, I would be captured, especially since I had heard about previous incidents. I was thinking not to say anything bad, what could I do? There was no Armenian, no acquaintance, no relative; I had met a girl on the way, and she wasn’t next to me at that moment, I felt defenseless, and the Russians standing there did nothing at that moment,” Elen emphasized.

In her conversation with the media, she also spoke about those who criticized her, noting that she does not hold anything against anyone: “That is their opinion and their right to criticize. God sees everything, and only God knows what I felt at that moment. People who wrote insults at me probably don’t understand what state of mind I was in.”

It is worth noting that on August 21, with the escort of the Russian peacekeeping forces, the next transfer of students studying in Armenian universities from Artsakh to Armenia was carried out. During this time, an interview with Artsakh resident Elen Aristamyan was filmed by an Azerbaijani media outlet at the illegal checkpoint near the Hakari Bridge and circulated in the Azerbaijani media domain, which caused controversies and received criticism in the Armenian media domain as well.