Gevorg Beglaryan, a soldier of the Artsakh Defense Army, in a conversation with Forrights.am, presents the struggle of his 10-man position against hundreds of enemy militants.
“We expected that something like this would happen; the enemy was constantly accumulating troops and military equipment. They started to accumulate two weeks before the war. The movement was noticed mostly at nights. There were accumulations in different directions. We were alert, ready. There were too many of them, they wanted to come and sit on the Khachen bridge. Thanks to our guys, they couldn’t come. Specifically, our position played a big role. If they took that bridge, it would not be possible to get out of Martakert,” says the 25-year-old soldier, stressing that there was no place to retreat, behind the Martakert region was the only road connecting Stepanakert [the capital of NK]: a red line for each of the fighters in the position at that time.
“There was no place to retreat. Retreating was not an escape; you position yourself in a better place to be able to defend yourself well, but there was no place to retreat anymore: it was the only road that was behind us,” he says.
On the evening of September 19, Gevorg was injured by a sniper’s fire, the bullet hit his leg, he could not move. “After I was injured, my friend took me to the hospital in our village, Gandzasar. The enemy’s artillery was hitting the road all the time, I remaned injured for several hours, the ambulance couldn’t get close.”
Gevorg is from Gandzasar village. The dentist of the village gave him first aid there.
“Somehow we get to the hospital, the dentist from our village removes the bullet from my leg. It was a difficult situation: they didn’t look at whether they had thae appropriate profession or not. Everyone tried to help in one way or another. Since our village was nearby, the wounded were brought to us first. I brought that pool to Stepanakert, but then when they said they don’t allow anything reminding military things to pass, I got rid of it.”
A civilian was killed in Gandzasar from the enemy shelling.
“A man was killed by an enemy shell in our village. He was standing in his yard. The situation was so bad that they didn’t even take his body to a cemetery; they buried him in the yard. He was a 60-year-old man. At that time, Father Hovhannes of Dadivank church, as well as a child, were also injured,” says Gevorg.
“On September 20, we went to Stepanakert, then to Ivanyan airport. People were looking for salvation. Two days later, we went to the “Armenia” hotel. There were 11 of us in the family. Then we got out of Artsakh with great difficulty,” says Gevorg and, in response to the accusations that the people of Artsakh only fought one day, he notes.
“We did not fight for just one day: it was them that let us fight for just one day. People were fighting, but the fighting was stopped because we had to leave the homeland. It is a very bad thing. We were starving for 8-9 months; nothing was coming to Artsakh [due to 9-months-long bloackade of NK by Azerbaijan]. This caused people to become physically and psychologically weak.
Now he is trying to build his future in Armenia.
“I’m working on construction. True, it is hard, but I have to do it. I can’t imagine myself in the military service now; I’m disappointed. It is true that tomorrow, God forbid, if something happens, I will stand and go: Armenia is my homeland. The same way as I was devoted to Artsakh, I am also devoted to Armenia. But I don’t see it [military service] as a means of livelihood. Whomever I try to remember – acquaintances, friends, relatives – they are no more; they are killed,” he said.
Narek Kirakosyan