What Happens in Armenia: The Account of Evgenija Babayan
“In the night of October 15/16, I remained in the basement of our house because of the Azerbaijani bombing. The basement has been serving us as a shelter. Its walls are thick.
In the morning, I left the shelter in order to feed my chicken. At this point, I noticed male voices approaching our house. I thought that my son Suren had returned home.
The door of the house opened and about ten soldiers speaking in Azerbaijani invaded our house. As I saw them, I got frightened and fell down. They approached me, pulled me by my hand, lifted me up, and told me that they will take me to Baku [the capital of Azerbaijan].
I resisted, saying that I am an elderly woman, that this is my home, that I want to remain here. I said ‘leave me at home’, but the soldiers insisted that they must take me. They dragged me by my hands and put me into their car.
Then they took me to Baku where I was taken to three police stations. I was treated very badly, like an animal, like a dog.”
Ms Babayan recounts that when she asked for water or tea, they gave her a bit of tea and threw a piece of sugar in her face. She refused to take it and noticed that she is a human being, not a dog.
“After that, they transferred me to a second police station, where the officers forced me to say that [Armenia’s President Nikol] Pashinyan is no good and that it was he who had started the war. They were saying that it is the one who bears the guilt. I was saying that the town Hadrut is not theirs but ours.
They were taking pictures of me with cameras and asking me questions and I replied. They took me to a third police station where there were two Armenians, a young boy in civil clothes and a middle-aged one.
The young man’s hands and legs were tied. His eyes were bended. They threw him into a corner of the room. One after the other were kicking him with their feet. The hands of the middle-age Armenian were broken. He was sitting.”
Babayan says that on the following day, she was told that the two Armenians had been killed.
“I remained a day in each of these three police stations. In the second police station there was a young Armenian, barefooted and wearing a blue shirt. On the third day, when they took me from the police station, they put the young Armenian into a bag and, dragged him to a car and threw him inside. I and another man were allowed to sit in the car. They took me to a Baku hospital. The other two Armenians were taken to an unknown location. Later I was told that they were killed by cutting their throats.”
Evgenija Babayan remained in a Baku hospital for ten days. There she was visited by Red Cross agents who provided her with clothes and other necessary things. With the help of the Red Cross, she was taken on 28 October to Georgia from where an ambulance brought her to Armenia.
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