“I joined the army on 19 January, 2019, the 44-day war began after 22 months of service.” Shahen Babayan told in the framework of the “Second Artsakh War։ Those Who live and help to live” series of Iravaban.net..
“Two days earlier, we went up to the firing positions of Jrakan. We always went there with number one preparadness, but this time it was a completely different number one. On 27 September, at 7 o’clock in the morning, we saw the drone flying above our heads. We had never seen anything like this before. 6 grad projectiles fell on us before the order was given. We had seen something like this only in the cinema. After staying there for 2-3 days, we moved to reserve firing positions. We were retreating slowly. On 10 October, we came to Hadrut. At dawn, we saw how the city of Hadrut was being bombarded. The Turks, perhaps a thousand people, entered Hadrut. We somehow got out of the blockade,” he said.
According to Shahen, they went to Martuni region and started constructing a firing position.
“It was already 28 October. We had a shovel, and we filled the soil in turn. It was 7 o’clock in the evening, I took off my “armored suit” and “helmet” to rest for a second. My friend told me to put on my armored suit. I put it on and looked up instinctively, the whistle and the blow happened at the same time. My left leg was cut on the spot, my right leg was amputated in the hospital. The boys saved me so that I wouldn’t bleed. They took me to the village of Gishi,” Shahen said.
He says that when he was moved to Armenia, he began arguing with the doctors about why something like that happened to him.
“They saved me, I blamed them. I slowly got used to my status. I have found strength in myself so that the when other person sees me and he would not get upset. I was lying in the hospital, my parents came, and it was hard for me to look at them. I didn’t want them to see me like that. I stayed in the hospital for 22 days, then I came home, people came to see me. I felt like I didn’t want them to see me in that state,” he said.
Shahen remembers that Sargis Stepanyan came to their house as a guest. He was inspired after that meeting. “I saw what he was doing wearing prosthetics.”
“Every day I watched videos showing what he was doing. I was impatient to put on the prostheses. After 3 months, I was already walking with a cane,” our interlocutor said.
Shahen Babayan is engaged in arm wrestling. He recorded a number of victories. He is preparing for the World Championship.
Details in the video.
Hasmik Sargsyan
