20-year-old junior sergeant Mher Elizbaryan got married before leaving for the army. He was already in the army when his son was born. The last time he talked to his wife on the phone, he said: “You kiss my son for me.”

Mher was drafted from the village of Dalar in the Ararat region. “He served in Dilijan. He took sergeants’ courses and received the rank of junior sergeant. Then, when the war started, on October 7, they took their military unit to Artsakh to take part in the battles. He called regularly, saying that everything was fine, everything was calm. But one day the calls stopped and never occurred again,” says Mher’s father, Ashot Elizbaryan. The soldier did not tell his parents that he and his colleagues were leaving for Artsakh; he told about it only to his older brother Narek.

Mher was killed in Jrakan, Jabrail on October 13.

Narek tells us what is known about the circumstances of his brother’s death. “Mher’s friend was from the village next to ours. He died a few hours before Mher. As soon as Mher received the news, he wanted to contact us to say that he was well, no need to worry… In a few hours, Mher’s incident happened. During one of the battles, their military equipment went out of order, it was destroyed. They were preparing to return to the military unit. While sitting in the hiding place, only Mher was hit by a shard. He was sitting on the corner and all the soldiers were behind him. Everyone survived except Mher.”

According to the soldier’s father, he is satisfied with the command of his son’s military unit, who are very attentive to his son’s memory and family. “One day I asked, I said I was tormented by a question: if Mher, being a father of a newborn child, wanted to stay in Dilijan, could he do so and not go to Artsakh? The commander said, “I’m sorry, but you probably do not know your Mher well. How could he not go? Mher was always first and the rest followed him. He couldn’t not go, no such thing would happen.”

The mother says that her son was always in a hurry to get everything done. “The teacher always said that Mher was the father of the class; everyone was a child except Mher. He thought maturely, differently.”

Mher Elizbaryan was posthumously awarded the Combat Service Medal. 21 soldiers from his military unit were killed.

Ani Gevorgyan

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