It is the second day since they receive guests – journalists, people from the military commissariat, and just unknown people—in the house of one of the first victims of the April war, Kyaram Sloyan. The people attending did not know that he was buried in pnother village, in Jrarat, so they came to Artashavan, but, not being able to find Kyaram’s grave, they entered visited Sloyans’ house.

Today people from the provincial governor’s office visited to comfort Sloyan’s mother, Nvard Sloyan. Nvard Sloyan talked about her son’s death with much difficulty and pain.

“It seems like it happened today, as if I hear about it just now”, says the mother avoiding the word death, “Do not ask me anything, do not ask…”, whispered she. Kyaram’s body, who was killed in the region of Mardakert and beheaded by Azeri soldiers, was buried twice. The first time his body was buried. Then, after a while, when his head was returned to the parents, another funeral took place.

His mother, Nvard Sloyan, did not know about the cruelty of her son’s death for a long time. “It took 6-7 month before they told me. They did not switch the TV on, neither Facebook nor to the internet, they had turned off the internet so I did not learn [about details of my son’s death].”

She learned that her son was killed the next day: ”We called; he did not answer. Then, the next day one of the soldiers took Kyaram’s phone. We called again and, when he answered, we thought it was my son, and we said we were calling and calling, why you didn’t answer? And the guy said, I am not Kyaram, our brother [Kyaram] is no more.”

Every minute Kyaram is with Nvard

“Every minute, every hour I talk with him, I talk to his photos talk to him, when I go somewhere, I tell him about it, as if he is with me all the time. Whenever I

miss him, I go, see him and come back. I go there [to the graveside] about twice in a week.”

Nvard Sloyan tells that his son has long warned that a bad thig may happen to him. “He called me at four o’clock, he was in good mood, he said, “I came to the positions, just wanted to talk to you, let’s talk.” “That day he wanted to talk to all his relatives. As if he wanted to say farewell to all of us.”.

The worst has already happened. “No one is guilty. That was children’s war. Whom do I accuse? if I accuse someone, will Kyaram come back?” cries the mother.

Nvard Sloyan lives with her other son, daughter-in-law and little grandson. She does not complain, although her family started receiving compensation from the Soldiers Insurance Fund only after the revolution. “Initially, since August, we received 20,000 a month, and then, from January on, we started receiving 150,000, plus we received the amount missing from those 20,000 drams,” says Nvard and repeatedly stresses that if Nicol [Pashinyan] did not come to power, they would not receive that amount.

Her other son, Hrach Sloan, was also taken to the army, although the RA Law on the Status of Military Service and Military Service Status states that the citizens who have a parent or a sibling killed or dead during military service, are free from military service.

“They took my Hrach. There was a law, I could not move my tongue, was unable to go and say let Kyaram’s brother not to serve, I could not say that much. I just asked the headquarters not to take him too far away.” Not too far away was Goris. Nvard does not complain.

Gunner Kyaram Sloyan was one of the firsts to resist the enemy’s attack on the line of contact between the conflicting forces on April 2. He was in the same military base along with captain Armenak Urfanyan, Robert Aghajanyan, Andranik Zohrabyan. The boys remained in the position even after they received a command to retreat.

On April 27, Kyaram would have been 23 years old.

Syuzan Simonyan

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