“We didn’t know that it was a war, that Grigori went to the positions.” 24-year-old Grigori voluntarily stopped his leave from the military unit and went to the battlefield three days before his wedding, when the enemy attacked Artsakh on September 19. In a conversation with Forrights.am, the 59-year-old mother tells. Her words are barely audible, tears do not allow her to speak.
“I came and saw that Grigori is not here.” Seda Babajanyan tried to contact her son after the first shots, but failed. “When they shot, it fell on our side. We could hear the shots. I couldn’t get in touch with Grigor; the connections were cut.”
Grigori Babayan was a soldier of the Artsakh Armed Forces. He lived in Chartar, protecting the borders of his birthplace. A few days before the September attack, he took a leave to get married. The day before the war, on September 18, he went to Stepanakert to buy a ring for his bride.
“On the 18th of the month, we did everything, we bought the gold, but my brother was sad. I told him to be happy, he was getting married. Burt he kept saying that he had the feeling that he won’t make it,” says the brother Sasun.
Sasun says Grigori wanted to reach Chartar as soon as possible. “For the wedding, they had to send us cabbage and beats, it turned out that they could only give it on the morning of September 19. I said you stay in Stepanakert; I’ll go to Chartar. He said no, you stay, I’m going,” remembering his brother’s anxiety says Sasun.
On September 19, Azerbaijan attacked the civilian population of Artsakh.
“As soon as I learned that there was a war, I called my brother, I told him not to go, it was his wedding. He said ‘fine’, but he went,” says Sasun.
Sasun Babayan was also a serviceman, but in the National Security Service. He could not reach Chartar. He joined the local National Security Service unit and fought against the enemy. “There was a NSS unit near Mazi bridge, I joined them, we went up under Shushshi and started to carry out orders. The city was being destroyed from Shushi, people were in a panic, Stepanakert was being destroyed. In the morning, I went down the stairs and saw the bouquet thrown in the trash can, I took it and want ed to go home.”
Five days later, when Sasun arrives in Chartar, he learns that Grigori died and was already buried. Grigori’s funeral was on September 22. On that day, he was supposed to get married.
“I arrived in Chartar on the 24th of the month; I was not present to my brother’s funeral. Grigori and the guys behind him guarded the gates of Chartar, the height for which they fought; if they [Azeries] took it, Chartar would also fall,” says Sassoon.
The mother remembers that there was a blockade in Artsakh, there was a famine, but they managed to somehow organize Grigory’s wedding preparations. They put what they found with great difficulty for the wedding tables on the funeral tables. “They were buried on the day of the wedding… I can’t speak… We had bought everything in the conditions of the blockade,” barely able to speak says the mother, while Sasun adds: “My brother and I bought everything for the wedding, we did the preparations. There was a 9-month blockade, in the last two months there was hunger, we had bought everything, we had repaired the house, we had bought furniture, on which he did not sleep even a night.”
Grigory’s death is a double pain for the family. In 2014, Mrs. Seda’s other son was killed while fighting against the enemy. On September 19, her daughter’s husband was also killed: he was in the same position as Grigori. We will present this story in our next publication.
Narek Kirakosyan