Narek Vardanyan is a participant in the 44-Day Artsakh War unleashed by the aggressor Azerbaijan: volunteered to participate in the war.
“I was a contract soldier in the Berd military unit when the war started. From the very beginning, I wanted to go as a volunteer, but it was not possible, then an opportunity arose and I went as a platoon commander,” Narek tells in the framework of the series “2nd Artsakh War: Those Who Live and Help to Լive” of Iravaban.net.
Our interlocutor mentions that he was encouraged by the cases when he saw fighting and brave boys on the battlefield.
“We also believed in something. We believed that at that moment something depended on us and we tried to do it. … It worked a little bit; it didn’t work a little bit. We were a little scared, we weren’t a little scared, when I say we, I mean me and those who were with me, and not only people,” he says.
Narek was wounded in the head and fell into a coma. He does not remember the moment of being injured, his comrades in arms told him about it.
The participant of the war says that the list of reasons why the Armenian side lost can be long and adds that even now it continues to lose every day. “We are intolerant towards each other, we do not give in, and in the case when there was a war and at that time we had to become intolerant, then, as it were, we were more indifferent,” he adds.
Narek Vardanyan is the author of the book. He wrote the book “Ordinary Motherland” after the war. The book is a documentary and fiction book. It describes the days of the war and the phase of receiving treatment after the war. The heroes of the book are the boys with whom Narek fought and the boys with whom the difficult and long stage of treatment passed.
“There were two reasons why I thought I could write. Guys were killed besides me, I thought about them and I said that I should write, so that to show that they still live and people shall remember them,” he says.
Narek says that they shoot at the “Ordinary Homeland” because they think there is something there that they do not have.
His treatment is still ongoing; he says that the treatment phase will take a long time, because he received a heavy injury. However, this does not prevent Narek from integrating into life, working, going for walks, taking public transport.
Narek’s dreams are not about peace. “I do not consider peace to be realistic at this moment. At least let me dream that we will be a little kinder, be tolerant to each other, be more intolerant towards the enemy, towards the bad, towards the evil, maybe that is what I dream about,” Narek says.
“Now I will go and talk to the boys and write about them.” Narek Vardanyan works at the Soldier’s Home, he writes and presents the stories of boys who have passed through the war.
Hasmik Sargsyan
