Russian woman taken hostage by Armenia tells what she faced after 26 years - VIDEOREPORT

Aghdam. 8 March. REPORT.AZ/ There are also Azerbaijani citizens of Russian, Tatar descent among people who were taken hostage by Armenians as a result of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict which erupted with the territorial claims and ethnicity-based provocations of Armenia against Azerbaijan. Report informs that one of them is resident of Muradbayli village, Aghdam district, Abbasova Nina Georgiyevna, 1937.

She noted that on July 23, 1993 she and her husband Abbasov Ali Rasul were taken hostage on the day of invasion of Aghdam by Armenian armed forces. She was liberated a year later – July 25, 1994.

Abbasova settled in Sumgayit after she was liberated, but she could not live in this city and returned to Karabakh again. Currently, she is 82 year-olds and lives in Afatli village of Aghdam district.

Abbasova says that they met with her husband in Kemirov, Russia, in 1955: ‘Ali was young, tall and handsome guy and was working in Kemirov. We got married in 1957. However, as Ali was a brother of three sisters, we had to come back to Azerbaijan and lived in Muradbayli. Though I was Russian, there was good attitude to me. Mother-in-law, sisters-in-law were kind to me. We had four children. Prior to Karabakh war, everything was good. However, the conflict changed everything. My husband wanted to send me and children to Guzanli and himself stay in Muradbayli. However, I told him, no matter we die or stay alive, we'll be together. On June 23 Armenians entered the village and took us hostage’.

She told what she faced for the first time after 26 years with tears: ‘We were taken to prison camp together. People, who were anaemic, hungry and thirsty, were crying. They were raping teens, brides, even old women in front of our eyes. The men were being insulted. I was hostage for 14 months then I was replaced with Armenian hostages. Ali had been taken to Shusha, then Khankendi. After two years, my husband was also liberated. He had been regularly beaten by Armenian, his body had been burned with cigarette. Consequently, he passed away after a while due to moral and physical tortures. ’

The Videoreport is prepared by Karabakh bureau: