Tekeyan Artsakh Refugees Aid Program Helps Children with Health Issues

Karine’s family of seven, five of whom are minor children, lived in Stepanakert, Artsakh’s capital. Now they have settled in Lori Province. “Unexpected shots were heard in the morning. We thought they were training exercises, but then the sounds of the shots became clearer and closer. People were running on the street. We decided to go out, leaving home, car, everything. We only managed to get the children out,” Karine related. The son, 14-year-old Armen, has kidney cancer. During the blockade, he could not take the necessary medication. Now he is registered at the children’s clinic and is receiving a course of treatment.

Ruzanna Harutyunyan’s large family of 11 people needed fuel to escape. Only seven liters of gasoline were needed to get the family to Goris. Her husband, Davit, was waiting in line to get fuel from the gas station outside Stepanakert. Davit was standing nearby during its explosion and received burns of various degrees. He is still undergoing post-operative therapy at the burn hospital, and Ruzanna’s five-year-old daughter, Adriana, has a chronic blood disorder and is being treated at the hospital.

There are 4 minor children aged 3 to 16 in the 6-person family of Baghdasar and Irina Sevumyan. They lived carefree in Shekher village of Artsakh’s Martunu region. The youngest boy, Baghdasar, was found to have a cyst when he was three years old. He was operated on once, but the doctors advise that another operation is necessary. Now they live in Yeghegnadzor, in Vayots Dzor Province.

The 10-member family of Arthur and Zhanna Baghdasaryan lived in the village of Chan in the Martakert region of Artsakh, including 16-year-old Mariam, 14-year-old Davit, 12-year-old Alexey, 10-year-old Raya, 7-year-old Marina, 6-year-old Henry, 3-year-old Rudik and 2-year-old Monte. Now the family lives in Malishka village of Vayots Dzor Province. “If we are not in Artsakh, it doesn’t matter where we will be. Artsakh was a paradise,” they say.

As can be seen from these examples, most Artsakh families are large ones with many children. Having multiple children was always encouraged there as part of the goal of the Artsakh government to preserve the unique language or dialects of Karabakh, and its cultural and even genetic inheritance.

The Tekeyan Cultural Association is grateful for all those who have supported its program of direct aid to the Artsakh displaced. All donations go without any administrative fees to help the Artsakh Armenians, and each case is investigated closely. Earlier stages of the aid program, to burn victims and their families, and other needy families, are described in prior articles in the Armenian Mirror-Spectator.