May 23, 2012
Today we went to the Shushi Museum, since we didn’t go yesterday. Today was raining too, but we persisted. We saw a lot of pottery and rocks. We also saw a 3-D map of Shushi’s liberation plan. There was a plaque that was in memory of my dad, Vahe Mahrokhian. I felt very proud. We also saw a picture of the St. Ghazanchetsots church at the time of the liberation. It was very cool to see.
Next, we went to the first tank that entered Shushi during the attack. We said a poem called Artsakh. I think we said it very precisely. The tank was so cool. I couldn’t believe how easy it was to get down when it was so hard to get up.
We also went to the Gandzasar monastery. It was beautiful. The view was so pretty that I became speechless. The monastery was made in the 13th century. When you enter the church you see two rooms. One is a room for candles and the other is where you do the sermons. In the room where you do the sermons, you see two flight of stairs leading to rooms. These are called “akhotkadoon”s.
Next, we went to Nigol Touman’s house/museum. We had to climb up a really steep hill. On our way up the hill we saw a bunch of animals; such as geese, chickens, horses, donkeys, turkeys, etc. While we were there, we saw a rifle that was used by Nigol Touman. His real name was Nigoghayos Der Hovsepian. He was a son of a priest. So their family was really rich.
When we got to the monument “We and Our Mountains” we saw that it was closed for construction. We were really upset, but then Digin Ardemis told us that we were going to The Nagorno-Karabagh Republic memorial museum of the perished solders. It was really sad. We saw about a thousand or more pictures of perished solders.
Afterwards, we went to the military base of Stepanakert. We saw a bunch of soldiers and we sang for them. Unfortunaly we couldn’t see the tanks and machines because they were locked up. I was so upset.
Right next to the military base, there was an orphanage. Once we arrived, Mousegh jumped out and gave them his ball that he had got from the market. We played with the ball then we went inside the military base. Once we were done with the military base we played soccer with them. They were so nice and very kind to us. We really enjoyed it.
By Sanan Mahrokhian