Aunt Matanat is an internally displaced woman from Gubadly, the district that was occupied by the Armenian invaders on August 31, 1993.  She settled in one of the vocational schools of Sumgait with her husband, mother-in-law and two children as soon as they had been forced to leave their native village. On my way back to the office from the meeting with Muhammad Hasanov, Head of the Territorial-Administrative Department of Gubadly Executive Power I couldn't keep myself from recollecting  the words that the woman had told me then. She is one of our refugee compatriots, one of our citizens that we meet at an office, in a bus, in the metro. Not everybody has an opportunity to speak out, share his/her grief. Of course, what we heard from people is enough to have an idea about that fatal day.  

I have to stop telling my story here, as I have reached the building where the Executive Power of  Gubadly District is settled.   

If I am not mistaken, capital repairs of the building were carried out last year. It was accurate and comfortable within the building. I introduced myself to a policeman at the entrance and headed up to Muhammad Hasanov's office. We greeted each other, and partly in jest and partly serious he said that it was his first interview:  

- I have worked as an instructor at the Executive Power for 20 years. I have been appointed to a new post recently. Gubadly borders with the Republic of Armenia in the west, with Lachin District in the north and with Daghlig Garabagh in the north-east. As far as is known, almost 250 000 Azerbaijanis were expelled from their lands in Western Azerbaijan in 1988. Separatist forces became more active and they urged to be unified into one state with Armenia. And since that time our district had been under sustained fire. The inhabitants were either taken as hostages or were killed. In order to prevent accidents, local self-defense formations were established in the district. The population were defending themselves, and they were busy with farming. The district was under sustained fire. Most of the people had dug a trench in their yards so they could seek refuge while firing. Some of them could seek refuge in the basements of many-storeyed buildings. 238 inhabitants of Gubadly district were killed during the attacks of the Armenian military forces. 122 of the murdered were fighters, and 116- civilians.

From 1988 till 1993 - full five years each day of Gubadly passed under fire. Fizuli and Jabrail districts were occupied in 1993. After the occupation of these districts, Gubadly almost turned out to be in blockade.

Gubadly was attacked from Armenia, Lachin and Jabrail directions and as the military forces were not evenly matched, the inhabitants had to leave the district. Nobody could take any household goods. Gubadly district is situated between the rivers Hakari and Bargushad. The Bargushad river runs from Armenia, but the Hakari from Lachin. The villages on the Hakari riverside - Khanig, Basarat, Muradkhanly were attacked. We didn't expect that attack. As the neighboring districts had been invaded, there was no one to ask for help. However, when the battles were going on in Lachin, the Gubadly volunteers went there. Aliyar Aliyev, National Hero fell in a battle in Lachin. Gubadly has eight National Heroes.

In order to control the situation in those riverside villages and to inspire the local population, the Head of the Executive Power of the district sent a group of employees including me to those areas.  I was in Mardanly village. My parents lived there. In the afternoon the Armenians started firing from all kinds of weapons. At that time I was at Zilanly post, the nearest post to Jabrail. They were firing from Armenia and Daghlig Garabagh territories. On my way back to the village, I saw some people fleeing away in panic. I could also reach my parents and could lead my family out of the village in our neighbour's car. I took my family to Imishli district, left them with my relatives, fled from Shusha and turned back to Mammadbayli village to find out more about the situation. Mammadbayli village is on the borderline with Zangilan and Gubadly. As I saw some militaries, I understood that we would never be able to go back to the village any more. When we arrived in Sumgayit, I couldn't find an empty room at the places where the internally displaced persons (IDPs) had settled. In Sumgayit I lived in 13 houses as a lodger. Those were hard times.  In the places where the IDPs had settled there was no canalization system or gas, light, doors, windows. Helpless people could settle in incomplete buildings; there were only concrete walls. Later I could settle in the palace of culture named after Nariman Narimanov. Great thanks to the local population, they were very helpful. Directors of factories and institutions who were originally from Gubadly, but were born and lived in Sumgayit offered places to IDPs as temporary housing.               

As Muhammad Hasanov reported, the majority of population of Gubadly had settled in Sumgayit, therefore the authority of the district decided to move the Executive Power of the district to Sumgayit too: "22 thousand people out of 32 thousand of the total population are settled in Sumgayit. When Sumgayit was founded, considerable quantity of people from various rural villages came there in search of jobs. Among them, there were also people from Gubadly district. Somebody had his/her son, uncle or simply relatives here. Therefore, people came to Sumgait, knowing that their relatives lived there and as it was, the Gubadly population mainly had settled in Sumgayit".

As we know, several projects on IDPs have been implemented. My next question is: what are the people's expectations from the executive power?  

- As you know, within the State Program new settlements for IDPs have been constructed. Families grow in number; people don't room in previous hostel spaces any more. Presently, the IDPs from Gubadly district wish to be settled in a separate residential area.   

M. Hasanov talked about the living standards of the population. We listened to people's stories with a sore heart. Everybody felt difficulties; those were hard times. But what aunt Matanat had told, was a call; I don't know what call it was. Maybe it was a call of death or a call of victory, you should decide:

- You can imagine the heaviness of how to start a new life, and with two kids, without any household goods, any kitchen utilities, but only the people who live the refugee or IDPs' life can feel the direct heaviness of this life. There's no money, there's no work. There was such a situation that our relatives in the city also had low living standards. In the morning, everyone tried to find a job to earn their living. It was a vintage time. Vineyards had been left unowned. The birds were pecking the grapes. My husband and I decided to pick some grapes and sell them. So, we made our way to Veysally village of Jabrail district. Those vineyards saved my children from death. Any time we could meet an Armenian. The soldiers on the post would say: "You seek death for yourself" You can't grasp but can only imagine how hard it was for us then. Looking at the houses on the road, I shed tears spontaneously. I could see a cradle or a samovar with some wood in it left in the yards... While my husband was starting the car, my patience gave out. I gave him the slip and walked towards the nearest house. I came up to the window and rested my forehead on the glass. The gas-stove hadn't been turned off. It was clear that people had left the place lately. When I saw a military uniform on a chair back, I immediately turned back. My husband could fire up and we moved to the city. We sold the gathered grapes. But that empty cradle in the yard always brings the scene back to me.

Feyziyya