{"id":422,"date":"2007-07-05T10:23:09","date_gmt":"2007-07-05T10:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/haysanta.am\/?p=422"},"modified":"2018-07-05T10:24:19","modified_gmt":"2018-07-05T10:24:19","slug":"the-karapetyans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/haysanta.am\/en\/the-karapetyans\/","title":{"rendered":"The Karapetyans"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Gayane Mkrtchyan<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Nature in Syunik is perfectly embroidered. The mountains gently lean against each other. Their large slopes are places where, unaware of the outer world, small villages bunch. Darbas is one them: it reveals itself after another twist of the mountainous road.<\/p>\n

Human destinies in Darbas are not as perfect and ideal as the surrounding nature. It is difficult to understand whether this has been a flaw of fate, but the story of the Karapetyans shocked everybody.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cHow can I take care for the children, when I don\u2019t have means any more? It\u2019s already two years my son and my daughter-in-law have left. A home with no man and no daughter-in-law is not a home any more. I know just there is day and there is night!\u201d says Arshaluys Karapetyan, 83.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Grandmother Arshaluys avoids pronouncing the word \u201cdie\u201d and uses \u201cleave\u201d instead. As a mother, she is unable to tell that her son Gagik Karapetyan, hit by a sudden mental derangement at the age of 46, killed his wife and the mother of his children Lusine Karapetyan, 36, before the children\u2019s eyes and passed away in a psychiatric clinic a year after the tragedy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Grandma Arshaluys is in black kerchief and apron. Her heart and soul are also black. Kept down by pain and sorrow, she keeps on struggling for the lives of her family and herself.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cMy three children gave way to the circumstances of life. They hardly managed to live a couple of years at home. Their home is desolate now. No one cares about us. I hardly manage to provide for my little orphans,\u201d says Arshaluys.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The children are Vrezh, 15, Ruben, 13 and Hayk, 11. The villagers in Darbas avoid speaking loudly about the Karapetyans, not to hurt the boys. The family tries to forget the tragedy, to turn the sad page of their life that has been stamped into their memories forever.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Vrezh, the eldest boy, has taken charge of the family. He has been strong enough to struggle against the misfortune. And Ruben and Hayk grew old at once. They try to give each other the warmth they should have gotten from the lost parents; and it seems to be the only way to the future.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Valerik Ohanyan, the principal of the school in Darbas says the changes with the children after the parents\u2019 death were drastic.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cVrezh used to be one the best pupils at school, but he is different now. Let alone the distressing psychological emotions, they now have to struggle to live,\u201d says Ohanyan.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To relieve the troubles of the family after the mother\u2019s death the school made a decision to move Ruben and Hayk to boarding school No. 1 in Sisian.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cRuben\u2019s drawings lack happy childish pictures. If we draw a house, he makes it empty, dark colored and never draws his brothers,\u201d says Vardush Safyan, a teacher at the boarding school. \u201cHe avoids drawing his parents; he says he is afraid he will not manage. It means he does not want to see them in bad conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Vrezh is not at home. Grandmother Arshaluys says Vrezh has taken the village cattle to the mountains, because it\u2019s their family\u2019s turn. Ruben and Hayk carry water in buckets, then run to the forest to gather some wood for the winter.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There is a row of cabbages and pumpkins in the yard and some wet walnuts spread on the ground to dry up. This is all that the family had prepared as winter approached.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ruben says they are going to barter part of the gathered walnuts and some cabbages for with clothes and shoe traders from Goris.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Gagik\u2019s father Ruben Karapetyan, 86, comes out of the door leaning over a walking-stick. He is a disabled veteran of WWII. He has bad nerves, trouble walking and speaking, and his hands shake so much that Arshaluys feeds him herself.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

With difficulty he reviews the year\u2019s crops, saying they got only cabbage.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The monthly budget of the family is about $55 a month \u2013 their old age pension. Arshaluys says she pays 4,000 drams (about $11) for electricity each month. The remaining $44 is spent on living expenses. They borrow 100 hundred pieces of lavash (flat bread) each month at the bakery, and return the debt later.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

On a day when the lavash has been bought up, Arshaluys is grateful that a neighbor has given flour.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The dried and pale fingers of the old woman fight the dough then pour it into the pan and put it in the oven. Her dried eyes shine as her grandchildren attack the hot bread when entering the house. Ruben warns the grandmother by a glance as she complains of the hardships of life.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The teenage Ruben has manly dignity. He does not surrender, but says instead he is glad and tells like an adult how they will fix their parents\u2019 graveyards and how much money they need for it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have lots of planks at the other house. There is a buyer ready to pay 8,000 drams per each. Besides we have sold some beef last year and have the money left. All in all it will make some 60,000 drams (about $160). It will suffice at least to cover the graves with concrete.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The boys cherish a dream to provide proper graves for their parents; childhood dreams have been left in a far away and unknown place. Hayk is taciturn. He has talking deficiencies. Before the death of their mother Hayk got a pension of about $11. Now, though, no one can take him to Yerevan for a special commission to re-state the boy\u2019s disability after the mother\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Seyran Ghalumyan, 13, is Ruben\u2019s classmate. He says they confide in each other very much and even have some secrets.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cRuben loves collecting [key chain] charms and dreams of becoming a driver like his father. But I feel Ruben hides many things. They are left alone, their life is bad and they don\u2019t know what to do. And there is no one to help them,\u201d says Seyran. \u201cDo you know how he takes care of Hayk?! He sometimes keeps his dinner at the cafeteria untouched to give it to his brother.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There is wisdom in Grandma Arshaluys\u2019s eyes that have been dried up by pain. But wisdom does not help to overcome the situation. Grandfather Ruben says he would prefer dying in the battlefield rather have this life.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI want some soil, nothing more,\u201d he says trembling.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The day slowly comes to its end in Darbas. It\u2019s OK if they will go for a sleep having had just a piece of bread today: the important thing is that they manage to stand it for a better future. Ruben embraces Hayk, the grandmother and the grandfather with his small arms. Tears wash his white boy\/man cheeks.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI believe everything will be good,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n