MK: Azerbaijanis want to return, live in homeland Shusha Fuzuli wiped off the earth's face

The Moskovskiy Komsomolets newspaper has published an interview with a Shusha city resident, Matanat Pashayeva, in which she explained what circumstances her family was forced to leave her hometown in the early 90s.

Shusha is a small town in the heart of Karabakh, only 10 kilometres from Stepanakert (Khankendi – Ed.). Due to the war in the 1990s, many Azerbaijani refugees were forced to flee the territory of Karabakh and seek refuge elsewhere. Matanat Gadir gizi Pashayeva, a hereditary doctor who has lived in Shusha since time immemorial, is our today's interlocutor. Since the day Shusha was founded, its ancestors have settled and lived in these areas, but everything changed after the Soviet Union collapsed and the first war between Armenia and Azerbaijan began.

"My grandfather's house in Shusha is located next to the famous Mehmandarov house," the woman says, "I myself was born in Fuzuli, and my uncle has lived and worked in Khankendi since the 50s. Now Armenians live in this city, peacekeepers work, and it is impossible to get into it. I spent my childhood at my uncle's house, we were very friendly with my cousins and brothers. My uncle was a pharmacist, and the director of a pharmacy, and my father came to Fuzuli and worked there as a surgeon.

— Under what circumstances were you forced to leave?

— We lived there before all these events, and when the conflict began in the 90s, we had to leave all our homes: in Shusha, in Khankendi, in Fuzuli. All three cities are native to us. When it all started, there were military events, it became dangerous to live there – they bombed every day, and there were many civilian casualties. This is a very difficult period of our life. First, we moved from Shusha to Fuzuli, and then we moved to Baku, where we bought a small house from Armenians. We did not think that we would not return there, we still have the keys to the doors of our houses, which no longer exist. There is nothing in Fuzuli now, even all the trees have been cut down. This is a big trauma that it is impossible not to survive driving by. Here is my uncle's house relatively nearby, they live in it, but I can't get into it.

— Do you have any plans to return to live in Karabakh?

— Now I want to return to Shusha, I want to work there as a doctor. All of my friends who were born in Shusha want to return and live in their homeland. Last year I already worked there in a modular hospital for 50 days, which was a great joy for me. I went to the mosque every day and prayed for all the people because this war will not bring joy and benefit to anyone. Azerbaijan has always been a multinational country; everyone lived well and was treated like family. Medicine has no borders, no nationality, and medicine is for humanity.

- What was Shusha like in Soviet times?

— Shusha is a fairy tale. This is spirituality. You probably heard that many famous people came out of there, it was even called the Caucasus Conservatory at one time. Now only a part of the large, three-storey house in Shusha, where we lived, has been preserved. This is such an ancient structure, now only a piece remains. There was a pioneer camp – it has now been wiped off the face of the earth, there was a hospital – it is now in terrible condition, as is the school. The house museum of the composer Uzeyir Hajibeyov has been destroyed, but Shusha has always been a centre of culture and the people there were pious. There are ruins in Fuzuli in general.

— Why is Shusha more or less preserved, and Fuzuli in ruins?

— Because people lived in Shusha, but not in Fuzuli. If possible, I would like to restore the house in Shusha, but for me the main thing is to live and work in this city, if they give me a service apartment, I will live in it.