A new sign can be seen on the main street of Ditak village, Ararat region, according to which the street is named after Senik Khurshudyan. Senik was a junior sergeant who was killed on October 21 in the Karakhan-Beyl section of the Varanda region of Artsakh.

The father, Hakob, says that when his son called from the battlefield, he never talked about the war. “Only once he could not could not restrain himself and cried. He rescued a wounded man and brought him about three hundred meters carrying him on his back, and he did not manage to save theman’s life… He was a volunteer… Only then he cried. ‘Father,’ he said, ‘I could not do anything; he died…’ The rest of the time he talked in a way as if everything was normal.”

Having not heard from his son for days, the father conducted his own investigation. He found and met both soldiers and volunteers who met his son on the battlefield.

He now knows almost minute by minute how his son died in battle.

The father says that his son was wounded first. “They had a volunteer named Husik, who was driving a car that was to take the them—the three wounded to the hospital. And he just goes toward the enemy, confuses the way, goes to their side. They explode the car. It was in the Fizuli-Karakhan-Bailey section. It was very difficult to find my son because they did not die on the battlefield, they did not remain on the battlefield, their bodies were among the Azeries,” says the father.

Senik’s fellow servicemen told the father that he had taken part in many crucial operations, and after the retreat order he was one of the last retreaters:

“They say that when they retreated, he would always be the last one, and whoever dropped the weapon, Senik would take it. Boy, why do you need it? We must bring it so that it does not remain to the enemy, he explained. They walked long, hard ways, but he took everything and was not upset, he said, ‘I will not give them what I have, we are already give them much anyway’.”

The platoon commander told his father one more thing about Senik. On a rainy night during the war, they realized that their weapons could no longer fire because they had not been oiled for a long time. While the soldiers were discussing this, Senik disappeared for an hour and returned completely smudged. It turned out that he went around the cars that exploded nearby, collected the remaining oil in them and brought the servicemen to lubricate the weapons.

Senik was posthumously awarded the Combat Service and Courage medals by the Artsakh President. Hakob Khurshudyan wrote an application to the RA Government that his son be awarded the RA state award as well. “My son was an Armenian citizen, he was fighting for Armenia and he should be treated well,” says the father.

Ani Gevorgyan

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