“My daughter Victoria, regardless her little age, had huge respect to soldiers in uniform. She liked the uniform by herself, too and was asking to buy it for her. She understood that the Armenian military soldiers were ones who stand for us here in our land, that’s why she used to like them and longed to be like them in future”, said Victoria’s mother.

Victoria dreamed of becoming a TV star and always was asking questions not only about real celebrities, but also the stars in the sky that shine for Earth. Victoria passed away in her mother’s warm arms in the ambulance while en route to the hospital from her house where she was injured.

After the war finished, with the help of a few individuals from overseas, her family bought a new apartment in the same town and moved. There were too many memories in their former house which reminded them of little Victoria. Her brother, who has now recovered from his injuries, remembers her and always asks about her.

The whole family struggles to remember and speak about Victoria without becoming visibly upset. She will be remembered as the first and the youngest victim of the 44-day war. “She continuously used to say ‘I am going to become a celebrity, my face and pictures will be everywhere on TV and social media, my name will be well-known, I promise you will be very proud of me, mom’” says Victoria’s mother with heavy tears. “Basically she was right: today, after one year everyone speaks about my daughter Victoria. She is famous. But, of course, in a totally different way which I wish would never be.”

Unfortunately, 8-year-old Victoria was not the only child killed in the Turkish-Azerbaijani attacks during the Artsakh war of 2020. Azerbaijanis used munitions with wide-reaching effects; including fundamentally inaccurate artillery rockets, which strikes killed not only military fighters on the frontline but also civilians, including children.

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