Karen Harutyunyan, a former soldier, decided to join the army after his son recently serving on the front line was killed in a fight that took place earlier this year.

“There are fifteen years, I changed my military uniform for civilian clothes in order to raise my son, and now I’m ready to wear again my camouflage clothing to avenge” said Yerevan resident lce 42 years whose son Arshak 20 years was one of four soldiers killed in a commando raid near an Azeri Nagorno-Karabakh in March 2015.

The fighting at the time contributed to counteract the deeper penetration of Azeri sabotage groups trained and saved other lives.

Karen Harutyunyan went on the stage of commitment two months after the events took place and shot a video of the place. Dense forests of Karabakh are a natural shield for Armenian forces against Azerbaijani forces, commandos regularly but try to get inside of Armenian positions.

“Arshak stood here beside this tree,” said a young lieutenant to ArmeniaNow.

“Hakob and Eduard were here, Samvel was here,” the lieutenant, telling other gruesome details of the event. “None of them got away.”

All four who fell in this engagement were born in 1995, after the cease-fire with Azerbaijan 1994 following a three-year war that cost the lives of tens of thousands of people on both sides.

But 21 years after the cease-fire, there seems to be no more truce because Azerbaijan has used heavy weapons such as mortars, howitzers and even tanks, breaking the relative peace around Nagorno-Karabakh in recent weeks.

More than four dozen Armenian soldiers were killed because of the actions of Azerbaijan in 2015.

“Who would have thought twenty years ago that we would again of the victims? “Said Karen Harutyunyan, who had retired from the army in the 2000s An army where he served as post adjutant.

“The calm reigned when I decided to leave military service and return to Yerevan, to join my family. I could not even imagine back then that one day the situation degenerate again and again I should join the army, “he added.

Just a few months Karen Harutyunyan turned to the Armenian Defense Ministry in order to be called up for military reserve service. Now he expects orders to join the armed forces.

“I do not blame anyone for the death of my son Arshak, he decided to engage in this fight. He could have fled the place and being next to me today, but that was not his style, “said Karen Harutyunyan, who has a son, the younger brother of Arshak, to care today.

“Maybe I reproach myself for not having been next to him, that’s why I now want to join the army to be next to other guys.”

At the height of the fighting in Karabakh in August 2014, a group of veterans of the 1992-1994 war also went to the front to be alongside the soldiers of today and strengthen their morale to resist the opponent.

Karen Harutyunyan believes that despite the difficulties the nation will again consolidate and become victorious if another large-scale war were to break out in the region.

GOHAR ABRAHAMYAN

ArmeniaNow