The Armenian-American public figure, Anna Astvatsaturian Turcotte had a speech Saturday at the joint special session of the inter-parliamentary committee of the National Assemblies of Armenia and Artsakh, and dedicated to the 30th anniversary of these pogroms.
“We escaped to Yerevan a few weeks before the final massacre of Armenians in Azerbaijan in January of 1990,” she said. “We have spent months either hiding in our apartment or hoping that violence against Armenians would but it never ended.” “Finally my parents had a horrible feeling that something would happen to us,” she said adding that they left everything behind and fled. “We barely escaped in fall of 1989. Many of my neighbors and family friends were not so lucky.”
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“It’s been thirty years, yet I remember these days as if it happened yesterday,” she added. “I can also remember the utter horror of being injured by a grown Azerbaijani man, neighbor, whose arms I scratched and hit to get away from his sweaty and enraged grip.”
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“I imagine the sweet faces of my neighbors and relatives as if I saw them yesterday. I remember tyotya Janna, who was my best friend’s mother. She died in January 1990 at 35 years old. Her mother died of injuries and of a broken heart,” she noted adding that the woman’s son grew up in Russia as orphan.
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“A stranger lives in my family’s house now, my neighbors were killed, my grandparents graves were bulldozed over because they were Armenian. Our friends and our relatives are now spread across the world form the US to Russia to Ukraine and Armenia,” she added.
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“It hurts to remember what my family went through those days when we were forced to hide every time when attackers were passing by our house. A few times our neighbors saved us, one of them being an Azerbaijani. All our Armenian neighbors who didn’t flee the city in 1989 were killed, ” Anne Turcotte-Astvatsaturyan recalled.
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She noted that in 1988 when Spitak earthquake hit Armenia, Azerbaijanis were congratulating the Armenians on the tragedy and the victims. “It was not only about physical pogroms but also phycological assaults occurred every single. It was impossible to attend school.”
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She next said visiting Armenia twice or three times every year, she visits Artsakh every time. “For me, Artsakh is the symbol of what we went through and lived for. I do not want to see what took place in Baku and Sumgait ever happen in Artsakh,” said Turcotte-Astvatsaturyan.
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She noted that the life of 350,000 people is like hers. But we are here as survivors now, she said adding that we have succeeded in different professions, in different places and we all support Armenia and Artsakh.
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Anna Astvatsatryan noted that there is an anti-Armenian policy at the state level in Azerbaijan, and Armenia does not have a clear position, a consistent presentation on these events. According to her, the presentation is made occasionally by Armenia, and Azerbaijan gets a great opportunity to present the story in its desired way.
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H/T Panorama & News.Am