Robert Badasyan celebrated his 28th birthday amid the sounds of exploding shells. The recent Artsakh war, which started on September 19, continued with the same intensity on the 20th. He was in the positions of Gyulatagh village of Martakert region when the enemy attacked Artsakh.
“15 days before the start of the war, we raised to the positions under alarm. We were expecting to go down when the shelling came; we started hitting with artillery,” recalled the former soldier of the Defense Army in a conversation with Forrights.am.
After one day of relentless fighting, he, like all servicemen, received an order to lay down his weapon, although the Azerbaijani side continued to shoot not only at the positions, but also at peaceful settlements. Robert did not consider his work finished by putting down the weapon. In a conversation with Forrights.am, he tells horrible details about how the women, children and elderly people of the village took the path of migration.
“We learned that the Azerbaijanis entered Martakert, the residents of the villages were going through the forests… It was a confused situation. The people of the villages near the Kasheni mine were going as best they could”. Robert made a crucial decision after seeing all that, which proves his patriotism and exceptional humanitarian values.
“I started the truck “Ural” and took 80 people from the army and villagers to the Drombon crossing. The troops positioned there and I came with one person from Gulatagh to take the people out. I went back and forward three times. The Azerbaijanis entered the village. The people, children and old people, were in the forests: they were lying unorganized, the shells were hitting, they were crying and mourning. I took out about 300 people. Then I brought troops to Stepanakert on the truck,” he recalls.
Robert says that an unmanageable situation had been created: the civilian population did not know where to go, what to do. If he did not move them to the Drombon foothills, women, children and the elderly would have to cross that road walking 50 kilometers.
“I have never driven an Ural in my life. The roads there were very bad. There was a man sitting next to me: he was pointing the directions. It was a forest road: a [regular] car could not pass that road.”
Robert refuses to give a description to his deed. He modestly notes that at that moment the decision was born in his head, so he did it. “If the people had stayed there for half an hour more, they would have been under shellfire, they would have died, or the Azerbaijanis would have come to slaughter them. At that moment it occurred to me and so I helped people,” he says.
During the whole process of transporting the peaceful residents, they [the Azeeris] shot at the car, the bullet holes are still there. “While I was transporting people, the artillery was firing on both the right and left sides; the people were screaming from the sounds of the explosion.”
Robert will not forget that day. He turned 28 on that day. He had been in contract service for two years, before that he participated in Four-Day and 44-Day wars, and he prevented sabotages during the years of his term service. “We were in Yeghnikner [military unit], a sabotage attack occured, we fought, they went back.”
Robert now lives in Lanjazat, the village in Ararat region of Armenia. He is now far from his parents, who live in the village of Malishka. Excerpts from videos are spreading on the Internet: strangers are thanking Robert for saving them from that hell. Many do not know his name, but that does not stop them from being grateful and wishing him a carefree life. Robert’s wish now is to be reunited with his family, to have a house and a job.
Instead of this, now there is pressure on him from the state. They want to take the “Ural” brought from Artsakh by Robert, with which he transported people and brought a group to Armenia. He gave up his personal car leaving it in Artsakh in order to transport people through Ural.
Narek kirakosyan
Narek Kirakosyan
Narek Kirakosyan is a journalist, works on the principle of "a person is an absolute value".