On September 29, the Ministry of Defense of Armenia announced that we had three casualties as a result of the Azerbaijani provocationon the previous day. Lieutenant colonel Nahapet Nveri Margaryan, sergeant Hovhannes Paylaki Sukiasyan and private Edward Hayki Hovhannisyan were killed.
The soldiers were killed on the road to one of Jermuk’s positions during enemy shelling. They were carrying out engineering works.
On the same day, RA Prime Minister Pashinyan referred to this incident during the government session, saying: “In addition, the engineering works were carried out in the territory of Armenia, and the units of Azerbaijan, which struck, were also in the territory of Armenia.”
Let’s remind that on September 28, starting at 18:00, the units of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, using mortars and large-caliber rifles, opened fire in the direction of the combat positions located in the eastern direction of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, in the direction of the city of Jermuk.
Lieutenant Colonel Nahapet Margaryan was a participant in the 44-day war.
Sergeant Hovhannes Sukiasyan was from Nor Aznaberd village, Vayots Dzor marz, 44 years old. He has two sons. The eldest son is serving in the Armenian army.
During the 44-day war in New Aznaberd, Hovhannes Sukiasyan delivered bread to servicemen and took out the wounded.
Compulsory conscript Edward Hovhannisyan was also from Aparan, 19 years old, a student of the Faculty of Economics and Management of the European University, drafted about a year ago.
Our source in the ministry informs that Nahapet Margaryan, Hovhannes Sukiasyan and Edward Hovhannisyan were killed while going to the combat position.
They were in a Vilis car, which was targeted by an enemy aircraft. The car was not armored, it was not protected from accidental shelling.
“Willys”, the Soviet-made SUV, which has been used in the army since the 1930s, according to experts, has long been obsolete. “Their time has passed: the engine, the passability, the capacity – everything is a problem. But we have it. They don’t buy other cars because there is no money for it,” says military expert Mher Hakobyan. The Azerbaijani army uses Western-made Jeeps, light armored SUVs.
This means that if the RA government did not buy a $200,000 BMW official car for NA Speaker Alen Simonyan in November of last year, but used that money for the army, then, according to the expert, it could have purchased about 20 SUVs.
Syuzan Simonyan