Today the flame has changed its form and nature, it has become digital, invisible and cold—but precisely for this very reason it is even closer still and surrounds us at every moment.
When the House Burns Down, Giorgio Agamben
In the surgical ward of the National Burn Center, Yerevan. December 2020
Burning houses. Karvachar, Shahumyan region. November 2020
When making photographs of burnt soldiers at Yerevan National Burn Center, I could recall the villages of Artsakh after the ceasefire…
Everything was burnt there – houses and cars, artillery, and everything else…
Chickens had gone up the trees. Pomegranates ripened and cracked in the abandoned and burnt villages. All was silent… Not a single sound of a child or a soldier. In a few hours, burning and dissolving houses would be on someone else’s land.
The house and the land scorched by war had turned into a skin in an operating room.
Combatants had received major burns and shrapnel injuries from almost all types of incendiary weapons. Fourth- and fifth-degree burns damaged their skin, muscles, ligaments, tendons, nerves, blood vessels, and even bones.
Physicians would diagnose these burns as atypical. Semiology of burns of some soldiers was distorted with unusual complications. Many surgeries and skin grafting attempts proved to be in vain. The skin graft failed. The deep wounds would not close, they stayed open․․․ Green fluorescent particles were discernible under the light of a UV lamp.
Despite claims by local and international physicians that a chemical weapon might have been used, there is no complete conclusion of any laboratory research confirmed so far.
The second truck was blown up; my friends were inside. I watched them burn from a distance… I couldn’t do anything, because it was impossible to approach the car. This is even harder than being burnt. Burns are wounds, injuries, which may heal. What happened cannot be “healed”; no one can cure these wounds…
We were heading to the positions. First we took the wrong way, then we turned back to take the right road. Our second truck exploded. First we were pounded with artillery, then they fired missile cassettes from Smerch. I was injured then. Bits of debris went into my leg, and the guys were trying to take me to hospital when our truck was blown up… I stayed in the car for about five minutes. Later, when I came to my senses, I was able to get out.
When our car was hit, a civilian vehicle was passing by. It stopped and did not move. I was taken to the nearest hospital (a school turned into hospital) by that car… Then I was transported to Stepanakert and later to Yerevan. In Yerevan, I was first taken to the 8th hospital, then to the Burn Center…
Azerbaijan used phosphorus in their munitions. Phosphorus was detected in the tissues of the injured. They said they should send the samples to the laboratory… I didn’t even know, if they did…
…
You cannot recover… I don’t know… And you cannot put up with it either… It is not normal when you see your friend standing next to you, then, five minutes later he is not there… And you cannot do anything. No one can recover from this… You’d rather die and not see that…
You simply have to go on living in a lie, otherwise it is impossible to recover.
Nor Haykajur village, Martakert region. November 2020
The pain was so acute that I could not think of anything else… The skin on my hands had already burnt… Everything burst into flames; it was not a regular fire… It engulfed my face… That’s what burning to death should be like, I thought…
I was injured on October 14. I was in the car when we were blown up. I somehow got out… At the time of explosion, I couldn’t see anything, not even the window. I was driving the car. I looked aside and could barely see outside. It just occurred to me to get out from the other side and I immediately jumped out. I turned back to see Arman. He had got out through the rear window.
Our deputy commander was also in the car, but he had gone to check something before the explosion… The car was blown up just seconds later he got out of the car. He too was injured, but Arman and I were in the cabin when the missile hit the car…
People came to help us before the ambulance would arrive. The car couldn’t drive closer; they were shelling all the time. We walked to the ambulance car for thirty minutes. Then we got pain relief injections and were taken to hospital…
At the hospital, they checked with special light – there was phosphorus in my hair, eyes, eyelashes and hands. My back was also burnt. The blue light detected phosphorus.
My face was also burnt, but it was a minor burn, because I had protected my face with my hands. Hence, the wounds healed sooner. Now when I stay longer in the sun, burn traces are visible.
…
Maybe phosphorus had stuck to my bones… My hands wouldn’t heal. Doctors had to remove a joint. I can no longer bend my finger. My fingers don’t bend. I had a lot of physiotherapy sessions, which helped me greatly, but I still cannot lift more than one kilogram, because I get pins and needles in my hands and that is unbearable…
In the surgical ward of the National Burn Center, Yerevan. December 2020
Bullets. Approaches of Shushi. November 2020
Traces of phosphorus are discernible under the light of a UV lamp.
Extensive research by local and international physicians revealed that deep incurable wounds evidenced for chemical burns.
In response to our inquiry, the RA Ministry of Health stated, “There are no histological examination laboratories for phosphorus detection in Armenia. Therefore, research results are incomplete and cannot be provided.”
Response of the RA Ministry of Defence:
Weapons containing white phosphorus are not classed as chemical. These are incendiary. No additional fact-finding was carried out about their use during the 44-day military operations in Artsakh, as the territories where incendiary weapons, presumably white phosphorus, were used by the Armed Forces of the Republic of Azerbaijan, are now under their control. In view of lack of records, there are no statistics on the causes and factors of burns.
Vardges Hovakimyan, 28
On the night when I was injured, the only thing I was thinking about was to see my mom and dad, nothing else… After the first surgery, they told it did not work, because those were phosphorus burns. I took it for granted then. Now I think how could I not realize it was dangerous, how could I take it as normal…? I only wanted to see my mom and dad… And when I saw them, everything else didn’t matter anymore.
At the beginning of war, we were keeping the border with Nakhijevan. Then, on October 8, we were relocated to Gharabagh – Hadrut, then Fizuli. I was injured on October 15 in Fizuli.
We were in Hadrut. We had been besieged since the second day, and no one could come to help us… We had put up with the fact that we were “dead”, because we were surrounded by them… It’s true, we were breathing, we could shoot, but when we were thinking about the reality, we realized that we might die in a few hours… Thanks to the commanders, we were able to get out. They knew the location well and that’s how they took us to Fizuli… Our platoon got on the Ural truck… In a few seconds, Azerbaijani air-dropped bombs hit the car.
We were thirty in the truck… Thirteen, fourteen of us survived.
At that moment, I fainted. Then I opened my eyes and found myself hanging from the truck…with one leg… I didn’t even realize what had happened. I didn’t manage to get out of the car when it was burning; someone had pushed me and I fell, hanging from my left leg. When I could relieve my leg, I saw my clothes burning. I wanted to take off my bulletproof vest, but it melted and fell off…
We didn’t get help that day. The roads were closed. The ambulance arrived the next day. We had already walked a long distance until the ambulance car could reach us. I wouldn’t feel my burns then; I could walk and feel a burning sensation only… I couldn’t use my hands, but I could walk. I didn’t notice my hands were burnt…
My injuries are from phosphorus burns. It is not recorded anywhere. It is neither admitted on a state level, but there is evidence… US doctors had UV lamps that showed particles of phosphorus on the burns…
I cannot understand how I survived… There are still moments I cannot believe I survived after all that has happened…
In the surgical ward of the National Burn Center, Yerevan. December 2020
Burning car. Karvachar, Shahumyan region. November 2020
- Since September 27, 2020, the National Burn Center in Yerevan received hundreds of soldiers. Some of the injured had deep burns from weapons with possible chemical elements. The wounds would not heal even after multiple skin grafting attempts.
Arman Karapetyan, 24
My wounds wouldn’t heal… They are still open now… There are images which show the injured parts glow in the UV light… That is how we learnt that they used phosphorus… I have been lying motionless for several months. I have undergone eight surgeries as the skin graft failed because of phosphorus… My wounds would open at the slightest movement. They might open again; the skin does not regenerate… It somehow did after the last surgery… I don’t remember when I was discharged from hospital… Perhaps it was in March… Perhaps it was in spring…
I was injured on October 14. I don’t know what followed after.
I was sitting on the rear seat of the Patriot automobile. We were collecting the injured and couldn’t move forward, because they were approaching. The car stopped, they started to strike. I don’t even know whether there were UAVs or other weapons, but it was a chemical weapon. I was injured by a phosphorus-containing weapon… We were lucky they did not strike the car cabin, but the bonnet… My friend and I jumped off the car. We were burning. One of the officers had managed to get out of the car earlier and was not injured… We had to dodge off the shootings, otherwise we would be shot. We jumped into the trenches and the car was blown up. I didn’t see it explode, but heard the sound.
So, we made our way through the trenches until the ambulance car arrived and took us to Martuni (in the meantime, they made several attempts to strike the ambulance car as well), then to Stepanakert and straight to Yerevan…
I got out through a 30-centimeter-diameter hole… At the moment of the bomb strike, I had my helmet on, that’s why the upper part was not harmed much, but when I was rushing to get out, I took my helmet off (otherwise I wouldn’t get out)… For a few seconds I remained hanging from the car, with my helmet on my neck. The gas mask was inside the car, and I couldn’t relieve myself… I hardly pulled the gas mask and fell out of the car.
I could see the injuries on my arms, but I didn’t know the degree of burns I had got. I thought I would get well in a few days and go back to the battlefield. I didn’t think they would bring me to Yerevan… I don’t remember anything else… I opened my eyes in the resuscitation unit.
․․․
My fingers haven’t healed till now; they are motionless. I have a first-degree disability… I don’t know whether or not I will undergo another surgeries. I had my ninth plastic surgery, because my finger was completely lost… I remained motionless for 20 days, with my hand in my abdomen so that I could grow skin, but it was unsuccessful… My muscles are damaged… My right hand has no muscles… Its upper and lower parts remain, but the upper muscles are missing… There are no muscles… And there is no way to “transplant” a muscle…
The least I remember from war was when I was injured. Before that most of my friends were killed in front of my eyes… Psychologically, my injury did not affect me much. We were happy we miraculously survived… If they hit straight into the car, no one could find our bodies… we would burn to ashes…
Shelled car, Martakert region. November 2020
In the surgical ward of the National Burn Center, Yerevan. December 2020
The flame would not stop… As if that was phosphorus which burnt down. I buried myself in the soil… Then I heard that during surgery doctors didn’t touch the person with phosphorus burns even with instruments, because inflammation might occur… I had major burns on my head, because I had taken off my helmet then… I took it off because we were praying… I did not think that such a thing would happen at that moment.
All turned red in front of my eyes. I fainted, when I “woke up”, my head was burning. Everything was burning. The cartridges started to explode. I jumped out of the Ural and did not see how everybody else escaped… Well, when you are burning, you do all you can to put the fire out.
I don’t recall the case in details. I remember a scene in red… I also remember how I was burning at the moment when I came to my senses… First I had a feeling that I had lost my legs, because I couldn’t move… When I saw my legs, I somehow found strength to stand up. I crawled towards the front seat until I was taken out of the truck…
I saw our guys… Being burnt, half-burnt, dead… I only recall the guy sitting next to me who had clenched his teeth so tightly, as if his heart had stopped from pain…
We spent the whole night in one of the remote villages of Fizuli. There was nobody… In the morning, we were transported on stretchers…
…
It’s been a year and a half I am recovering. During this time, I couldn’t take part in social events, as if I felt isolated from everything. But I have gained strength, I feel positive that everything will be all right … I am trying to find a job now, to keep my family… Just like everyone else… But there is another problem – my hair. I cannot go out and walk like this… I receive special treatments for hair transplantation…
It’s true I cannot put up with all this, but I know why I went to the frontline…I went there to protect my homeland. That is the highest price for a soldier… What we have got is less important…
