Martiros Saryan was one of the five children of a family living in the village of Nor Taghel in Hadrut. After 44 days of war and no news about him for months, his parents learned that he had died on the very first day of the war.
” Martiros was my second son. He served in Hadrut. He had already served for a year and nine months and was due to return home soon. He was unavailable [on the phone] from the first day of the war. We could not find any information about him. Some said he was in wounded and was in Stepanakert hospital, others said he was in a position, and others said he had been taken to Yerevan. We searched everywhere. Then we learned that, in fact, he was killed on the very first day,” said the mother of the killed soldier, Elmira Abaghyan.
According to her, since the beginning of the war, she tried in every way to get information about Martiros, she looked for him everywhere. Even when their village was already empty, she did not want to leave because she wanted to stay close to his serving son.
“By the evening of October 5, 70% of the villagers have already left. My two young sons were with me, and my husband and eldest son were looking for Martiros. On the fifth of the month, it was reported that the enemy had entered Hadrut. There were no more children in the village except my children. My husband and eldest son stayed in the village; I took the little ones out of the village. On October 20 or 21, I called my eldest son and he said, ‘Mom, the village is gone, the village is empty.’
After moving first in Goris, then to Yerevan, the soldier’s mother continued to look for her son, but it was not possible to get any news for months.
“It was April 14, 2021; it was already seven months since my son was registered in the missing persons lists. I called the ministry, asked if there was any information, they said no. At five o’clock, somebody called from the ministry and said ‘your son’s body is here’,” Elmira Abaghyan recalled.
It later became known that Martiros received a wound to the head on September 27 at 12:30 and died on the spot. “He was on the lookout. He was monitoring the area with a special device. He was in the position when it happened,” said his mother.
Martiros Saryan is buried in Yerablur, his relatives now live in Kanakeravan community of Kotayk.
The mother says that her and other families’ houses, all possesions and lives remained in Hin Tagher but the loss of her son is the greatest loss of her life.
Ani Gevorgyan