Andranik Gabrielyan, who received a shrapnel wound during the one-day war of September 19, 2023 in Artsakh, was born in the village of Chldran, Martakert region of NK. After compulsory military service, he started working in the National Security Service of Artsakh and after five years of service, he was transferred to the reconnaissance detachments of the Haykazov and Aygestan military units. Andranik participated in the 2016 four-day war as a special forces soldier and, from March 2020 to the one-day war of September 2023, he was a contract soldier in the Haykazov military unit of the Artsakh Defense Army.
“On September 19, 2023, I was in the position of the Haykazov military unit. The war was predictable and we were ready, we just didn’t know exactly when it would start. Even half an hour before the war, my wife had called me and informed that there were rumors of a resumption of war. I assured her that there was no such information. I had been in position since September 8. I was supposed to leave the position in three days, but on the afternoon of September 19, shelling began in all directions of the positions at once. I managed to take my machine gun alone and get out of the dugout, when a shell exploded 15 meters away and immediately wounded 4 soldiers and, unfortunately, 1 of them died. The ambulance that had arrived at the position to provide us with medical assistance was also shelled. The wheels of the car were knocked out, the windows were shattered. A wounded boy and I approached to open the car door, pulled it hard, and it broke. Then we somehow managed to get in and tried to leave the area in a broken-down car, under shelling. Halfway through the journey, the tires started to burn, people came to our aid and helped us get out of the car and put out the fire,” Andranik said. According to the 34-year-old man, the ambulance doctor had asked for help from the Russian peacekeepers, but they refused to provide a vehicle to transport the wounded. Moreover, the condition of one of the wounded was very serious, he could not even speak, and Andranik had received shrapnel wounds to his left arm and leg. The wounded soldiers had to remain on the sidewalk until an ambulance from another military unit arrived and took them to Ivanyan Hospital. Our interlocutor did not have the opportunity to inform his family about his condition during that time due to the lack of communication. After being treated in the hospital for three days, he decided to escape from the hospital in the car of a person who had come to visit a wounded person.
“Due to the lack of communication and fuel, and the uncertainty of the situation, I ran away from the hospital at night. I asked on a boy who had come to visit the wounded in the hospital to take me to Stepanakert. Finally reuniting with my family, I realized that we would soon be displaced. I somehow found fuel to evacuate my family and my middle brother. As my younger brother was also injured and had his leg amputated, my middle brother was left to send him to Armenia by helicopter. My health was getting worse and worse, but there was no alternative and I got in the car and started driving. The road was excruciating; in the presence of three minor children, I somehow restrained myself from making a sound in pain. Before I reached Mets Shen, my leg started bleeding. I don’t know from where and how, my wife managed to find a nurse who treated my wound, bandaged it, and I managed to make it to the hospital in Goris,” the wounded soldier described the cruel and difficult days of his family’s displacement.
Reaching Armenia and staying in Goris for a day, they set off for Charentsavan, Armenia and are still living in that city on rent. Of course, such an outcome was unpredictable for our interlocutor.
“I was born and raised in Artsakh. Everything is connected to Artsakh, and how can I leave? I thought that it would be better to die there than to leave. But, well, we left. Until the last moment, the people wanted to keep their land. The people of Artsakh did everything possible and impossible to stay in their country. Even during the difficult stages of the blockade, when 7 people in the position were given 4 loaves of bread for 3 days, we were not upset, it did not matter. We got by with forest berries, and instead of cigarettes, the soldiers smoked blackberry leaves and stood at the position until the end without complaining. Who would have imagined that they would equate all our efforts to zero?” the soldier said indignantly.
Andranik is puzzled by the expressions circulating that supposedly the Artsakh people did not fight. According to him, a normal, understanding person cannot say such a thing and, after all, there were also people from Armenia in Artsakh and they themselves witnessed the reality.
“If the Artsakh people did not fight, where did the enemy’s approximately two thousand victims come from? Let someone come and tell me that the Artsakh people did not fight and I will explain that the Artsakh people fought until the last second. And the Artsakh people have the right to return, because we did not settle in Artsakh five years ago and it is our land and we have lived there for generations. Our hope for return does not fade. Even if there is a war, I am ready to participate and liberate our homeland. It is better for me to reach my home, Artsakh, and die than to live here healthy. It is important that after me my child lives in my home, realizing that he lives in the cradle of his fathers,” Andranik added.
Zara Mayilyan