Minas Hakobyan and his son Yeghishe lived in Norashen, a village five kilometers from the Artsakh town of Hadrut.

During the 2020 Artsakh war, Azerbaijani troops entered the village and killed the father and son in their home.

Minas Hakobyan was a 66-year-old pensioner and Yeghishe was 38 years old.

The Hakobyans lived in Baku until 1989 and then moved to Hadrut to avoid the anti-Armenian pogroms. The Artsakh government allotted them a house in Norashen. Minas Hakobyan's wife died years ago.

During the war, Minas and Yeghishe Hakobyan refused to leave the village like most of their neighbors had. They couldn’t believe the Azerbaijanis would get that far. 

Norashen Mayor Avetis Avetisyan tells Hetq that he visited the Hakobyans several times during the fighting, advising them to immediately leave since Azerbaijani troops had approached the village outskirts.

Avetisyan last saw the Hakobyans on October 10, 2020. He even tried to physically remove Minas Hakobyan from the house, but father and son refused to get in his car.

“I grabbed him by the arm, forcibly took him out to the yard. He hit me hard, telling me to get lost. I grabbed the son and pushed him to the car.  The son said he wasn’t going anywhere without his father. I had mere seconds to make a decision,” says Avetisyan, adding that he had already picked up a mother and child who were waiting in the car.

“The woman and child were crying in the car. I somehow managed to get out of the village with them as gunshots flew by.”

The bodies of Minas and Yeghishe were found on December 5, 2020. Forensic exams say the two were shot in the head.

Father and son are buried in Alaverdi, a town in Armenia’s Lori Province, where Minas Hakobyan’s sister lives.

During the 2020 war, Azerbaijani troops killed four civilians in Norashen.

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