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WHY AREN'T YOU SATISFIED WITH YOUR OWN LANDS? 13-YEAR-OLD GIRL FROM KARABAKH WROTE LETTER TO PRESIDENT OF AZERBAIJAN - COMPLETE TEXT OF LETTER
news.am
Aug 11, 2011
Armenia
STEPANAKERT. - Today Nagorno-Karabakh is inhabited either by
participants of the Karabakh war, the elder generation, or by their
descendants, who have inherited the same fervent blood that brought the
nation to the victory twenty years ago. On August 8, 2011 a 13-year-old
girl from Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) Adeline Avakimyan wrote a
letter to the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.
The letter was also sent to Azerbaijani mass media but none of them
dared to publish it.
Armenian News-NEWS.am presents unofficial translation of the full
text of the letter.
"Mr. President,
My name is Adeline Avakimyan, I am a schoolgirl from Karabakh. I
did not tell anybody about my intention to write to you. I have
been thinking, should I write or should I not? Eventually I decided
to write.
I was born and currently live in Stepanakert. I love my country because
Karabakh is my homeland, I was born and I live here, my father and
mother were born here, so were my grandfathers and grandmothers.
Their grandmothers and grandfathers were also born here (perhaps you
know that in the past, when our country was one of the provinces of
Armenia, it was called Artsakh). I have a lot of friends and they also
love our country... But that is not actually the point of my letter.
Just like many others, I also have problems, which I try to solve to
the best of my abilities. When I have free time, I think about many
things: about human life, about happiness, about my relatives living
far away from me, about their country, which is different from ours.
At nights I gaze upon the stars and think, whether there are
people living on those far away planets. My grandpa says that in his
childhood he also used to look on the starry sky and think about same
things. Sometimes I think about people surrounding me, of those who
have seen more grief than happiness. I really want everybody to live
happily and never have any problems.
Mr. President, every time I watch TV, I read or listen to the stories
of elders I get surprised: all the time you speak about Karabakh and
war as if you have nothing else to think of. It seems you do not have
any other problems or goals and no other issue actually troubles you.
I never saw an Azerbaijani. I do not think about you, about your
country and neither do my parents. I do not really understand what you
want from our country. I know that you have never been to Artsakh,
you have never seen our Gandzasar, Dadivank, Amaras but you always
think about capturing our country. Why can't you be satisfied with
your own lands? Why do you want Karabakh? Grandpa told me that before
the war, even 50 or 100 years ago, when Azerbaijanis still lived here,
they did not bury their deceased here, they took them to Azerbaijan,
because people knew that this is not their motherland. That is why
we have so few Azerbaijani cemeteries.
My father is a veteran of Karabakh war. I have not seen the war,
but I learned from the stories of elders that it is something bad and
terrible and I would never like to see it. I am sure that not a single
Azerbaijani child would like to see war either. But adults always
say that in case of war they will defend their country again. One
of my peer friends said that if they do not allow him take arms,
he will help the adults to protect our country like French Gavroche
did. I will also help my parents as much as I can...
I have heard many stories of how it all happened. Our people
went to a peaceful meeting and said that they want Artsakh to join
Mother-Armenia, because Azerbaijan is not our country and 70 years ago
a chief called Stalin gave our country to Azerbaijan on purpose. In
response, your countrymen started killing Armenians in Sumgait,
Kirovabad, Baku and other cities, driving them out of their homes.
However that did not satisfy your father and he went to war against
Artsakh but lost it, although he had much more soldiers and tanks.
I asked my parents, how come he lost being so strong and they said
that we were defending our land, whereas Azerbaijanis attacked to
capture it, take away our lives and liberty...
If you start new war, whole Armenian nation will rise to defend our
land. But tell me, will your children, your relatives participate
in this war? You will send ordinary Azerbaijani youth against us. I
know that in case of war many of us might die, including women and
children, many children might become orphans but many Azerbaijani
youngsters will die as well and their children will also be orphans.
Do you want this? Is this the reason why you think about war and
Karabakh every day?
Why do you always buy guns? You could have used that money to build
an easy and happy life for your people (especially those who became
refugees after your father started the war). Isn't it better than
sending people to war?
I really want that you respond to my letter and tell me why you want
to take my homeland, which does not belong to you. Why aren't you
satisfied with your own lands?
Adeline Avakimyan,
NKR, Stepanakert.
10.08.11
From: Baghdasarian
news.am
Aug 11, 2011
Armenia
STEPANAKERT. - Today Nagorno-Karabakh is inhabited either by
participants of the Karabakh war, the elder generation, or by their
descendants, who have inherited the same fervent blood that brought the
nation to the victory twenty years ago. On August 8, 2011 a 13-year-old
girl from Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) Adeline Avakimyan wrote a
letter to the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.
The letter was also sent to Azerbaijani mass media but none of them
dared to publish it.
Armenian News-NEWS.am presents unofficial translation of the full
text of the letter.
"Mr. President,
My name is Adeline Avakimyan, I am a schoolgirl from Karabakh. I
did not tell anybody about my intention to write to you. I have
been thinking, should I write or should I not? Eventually I decided
to write.
I was born and currently live in Stepanakert. I love my country because
Karabakh is my homeland, I was born and I live here, my father and
mother were born here, so were my grandfathers and grandmothers.
Their grandmothers and grandfathers were also born here (perhaps you
know that in the past, when our country was one of the provinces of
Armenia, it was called Artsakh). I have a lot of friends and they also
love our country... But that is not actually the point of my letter.
Just like many others, I also have problems, which I try to solve to
the best of my abilities. When I have free time, I think about many
things: about human life, about happiness, about my relatives living
far away from me, about their country, which is different from ours.
At nights I gaze upon the stars and think, whether there are
people living on those far away planets. My grandpa says that in his
childhood he also used to look on the starry sky and think about same
things. Sometimes I think about people surrounding me, of those who
have seen more grief than happiness. I really want everybody to live
happily and never have any problems.
Mr. President, every time I watch TV, I read or listen to the stories
of elders I get surprised: all the time you speak about Karabakh and
war as if you have nothing else to think of. It seems you do not have
any other problems or goals and no other issue actually troubles you.
I never saw an Azerbaijani. I do not think about you, about your
country and neither do my parents. I do not really understand what you
want from our country. I know that you have never been to Artsakh,
you have never seen our Gandzasar, Dadivank, Amaras but you always
think about capturing our country. Why can't you be satisfied with
your own lands? Why do you want Karabakh? Grandpa told me that before
the war, even 50 or 100 years ago, when Azerbaijanis still lived here,
they did not bury their deceased here, they took them to Azerbaijan,
because people knew that this is not their motherland. That is why
we have so few Azerbaijani cemeteries.
My father is a veteran of Karabakh war. I have not seen the war,
but I learned from the stories of elders that it is something bad and
terrible and I would never like to see it. I am sure that not a single
Azerbaijani child would like to see war either. But adults always
say that in case of war they will defend their country again. One
of my peer friends said that if they do not allow him take arms,
he will help the adults to protect our country like French Gavroche
did. I will also help my parents as much as I can...
I have heard many stories of how it all happened. Our people
went to a peaceful meeting and said that they want Artsakh to join
Mother-Armenia, because Azerbaijan is not our country and 70 years ago
a chief called Stalin gave our country to Azerbaijan on purpose. In
response, your countrymen started killing Armenians in Sumgait,
Kirovabad, Baku and other cities, driving them out of their homes.
However that did not satisfy your father and he went to war against
Artsakh but lost it, although he had much more soldiers and tanks.
I asked my parents, how come he lost being so strong and they said
that we were defending our land, whereas Azerbaijanis attacked to
capture it, take away our lives and liberty...
If you start new war, whole Armenian nation will rise to defend our
land. But tell me, will your children, your relatives participate
in this war? You will send ordinary Azerbaijani youth against us. I
know that in case of war many of us might die, including women and
children, many children might become orphans but many Azerbaijani
youngsters will die as well and their children will also be orphans.
Do you want this? Is this the reason why you think about war and
Karabakh every day?
Why do you always buy guns? You could have used that money to build
an easy and happy life for your people (especially those who became
refugees after your father started the war). Isn't it better than
sending people to war?
I really want that you respond to my letter and tell me why you want
to take my homeland, which does not belong to you. Why aren't you
satisfied with your own lands?
Adeline Avakimyan,
NKR, Stepanakert.
10.08.11
From: Baghdasarian