Nagorno-Karabakh: "I am a chef, but I am also a good warrior"

An instructor helps a volunteer shoot a sniper rifle in Nagorno-Karabakh on October 27, 2020 (illustration).

AP Photo

Text by: RFI Follow

3 min

As the Azerbaijani stranglehold tightens around Nagorno-Karabakh, the Armenians continue to mobilize and refuse to believe in defeat.

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With our special envoys in Yerevan,

Anastasia Becchio

and

Richard Riffonneau

It has been a month since the terrace of Sarkis Matevossian's restaurant, with its breathtaking view of the peeled mountains of the tourist region of Vayots Dzor, has not seen a single visitor pass by.

The activity already slowed down by the Covid-19 epidemic is stopped by the war.

A war that this chef is about to join. 

“ 

For a month now, I have not been able to eat normally, I am not sleeping.

Every second I think about the war.

It's just impossible to work.

People are dying there, how can I continue to work?

I decided that I absolutely had to go.

But I am late.

I should have been there already.

 "

"In our character to defend ourselves"

Sarkis will leave with a small team of male and female volunteers.

Some will bake bread, others sew jackets for the soldiers.

He does not yet know what he will do there.

“ 

I'm a chef, but if I have to, I'm also a good warrior.

I know how to shoot.

 "

A month after the outbreak of this new conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, the noose is tightening around the separatist enclave with an Armenian majority, and in particular the Latchin corridor, the main passageway with Armenia.

Azerbaijani forces are now a few kilometers from the strategic city of Shushi, according to the Nagorno-Karabakh authorities.

This Thursday, the main town in the region, Stepanakert was hit by a massive missile attack lasting several hours.

Civilians were injured. 

Despite everything, Sarkis, like many of his fellow citizens, does not believe in defeat.

“ 

I think it's impossible.

It is in our character to defend ourselves.

Whatever happens, we will defend ourselves.

We will not give up.

 Sarkis leaves, thinking of his son.

“ 

He's 14

,” he says.

And in four years, I don't want him to have to go to war

 ”.

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  • Nagorno-Karabakh

  • Armenia

  • Azerbaijan