The interview took place in Mart 2021.
Benik was born in 1934 in the village of Haterq, Martakert region, in a working-class family. There were 5 children growing up in the family: 4 boys and 1 girl. Benik was the third child in the family.
Due to difficult family conditions, Benik had to drop out of school after finishing the fourth grade and start working on a collective farm in order to alleviate some of the family’s worries. In 1952, he moved to Baku, where he began working as a laborer. In 1953 he married, but after a while divorced. Years later, Benik remarried. From the second marriage, they had one boy and one girl.
In 1988, when the Artsakh National Liberation Movement began, they were forced to move to their native village of Haterq, and after a while to the village of Ivanyan in the Askeran region. The boy went missing during the First Artsakh War, and the girl died of cancer in 2013.
Benik and his wife Eugenia have been beneficiaries of Hanganak NGO since January 2020, when the Askeran Elderly Project launched. On October 3, 2020, Eugenia passed away. Benik now lives in Stepanakert with his grandson’s family in a rented apartment.
His pension is 52,800 drams, of which 9,400 drams is provided by the Government as a single pensioner’s allowance.
He does not complain about his health. He is very pleased with Tatul Shekyan, a feldsher attached to him from Hanganak, who often calls him, talks and inquires about his health condition.
The food received from Hanganak is enough for a whole month. He thanks the benefactors and the staff.