Persecution of Armenians in Artsakh: a testimony by Father Hovhannes Hovhannisyan

See the full full story with more witness accounts in this 22-minute video: Remnants of the Sword: Armenians of Artsakh

TRANSCRIPT:

My name is Hovhannes Hovhannisyan. I was born in Vank village of Martakert district of Artsakh. I served at Dadivank. I served at Dadivank until the night of November 24, 2020.

Today Azerbaijanis are at Dadivank and they are persuading the world into believing that it is Albanian, not Armenian. The khachkars and inscriptions testify, but alas, today they erase the khachkars and inscriptions so that they do not showcase which heritage and century they belong to.

Later, in 2021 I was in St. Hakobavank as a priest. On September 19, 2023 me, my neighbor who was at my house, and a family from Armenia who was in Dadivank with me, spouses and their two children 13 and 16 years old, sat down to eat and the missile entered my house. I don’t know if the missile was fired by a plane or by a drone, but my neighbor, 66-year-old Melsik Baghdasaryan, died on the spot. The 16-year-old boy who later died was sitting at the table in front of me – the fragment struck his forehead and split his head open. I fell on the floor wounded. His mother Goharine fell on the floor, and his 13-year-old brother fell on the floor. 290 days of blockade, both old and young, stayed hungry and thirsty in Artsakh.

On September 26 everyone began being displaced and evacuating from Artsakh. This was a big pain and a big genocide, a colorful genocide. I knew in advance, but I could not leave my people, being a pastor from 1988 to September 26, 2023, I was with my people and in Artsakh.
And when I was being transported by a Russian car, an Azerbaijani approached me on the Hakari bridge, looked at me up and down. They have my photo and bio and they consider me a terrorist. I know why – it’s because I have always been with my people. I have protected my church. I did not go to Baku and commit terrorism. They are the terrorists who came to kill us in our homes.

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