Azhdahak Zaven Kirakosyan was a soldier of 2 months when the Four-Day April War started. He served in the Vorotan region.

While talking to the mother, when the mother said, “My son,” he answered the mother with the above-mentioned words, which today have become winged words for those around him and his relatives.

The sister, Arus Kirakosyan, says that her brother, it may be said, volunteered for the Artsakh wars three times. During April war, when he was a soldier of 2 months, he volunteered with several comrades-in-arms to take part in the battles. On the first day of the Second Artsakh War he volunteered, he was taken as a driver, but according to his application he left for Shushi as a shooter.

“When he volunteered, and saw that he was not leaving for the front line, but was engaged in transporting the wounded, he immediately wrote this application.

The answer to the application was delayed for a couple of days, he went to the military commissariat and, asked what had happened with the answer to my application, why didn’t you call, to take to the front line, and he was sent as a driver because he studied at DOSAAF (Volunteer Society for Cooperation with the Army, Aviation, and Navy), he was a junior sergeant. If I am not mistaken, the ZIL-131 was attached to him, with which he again delivered ammunition to the hot spots of the war during the April war, he was saved many times, even when the enemy UAV fixed his car and was aimed at 27 GRAD missiles were shot at him, he miraculously survived. “After that, he said, ‘I’m from lead, do not look that I am so thin,” Arus says.

Spartak Tsaturyan, Ajdahak’s. comrade-in-arm had come to Yerablur to congratulate on his birthday.

“We were going to do a task, we fell into a blockade on the way,” he said. According to him, they knew each other for several days, they left Armavir together for Shushi.

Ajdahak was the fourth child in the family, after 3 sisters.

“He enlightened our family. He was unique in everything, he was very kind, and he had high national dignity. Being a pure Armenian was in his gene,” the elder sister, Anzhela Kirakosyan says.

According to her, when the war started, the brother came home, took the military card, and told the family members that he was going to work.

“The words ‘love, and homeland’ were all about Azhdahak,” the elder sister says.

The favorite song of the patriotic volunteer was “Going to war, go with dignity,” he regularly performed that song with his dhol (drum).

Before leaving, he said, I will go anyway, don’t make me nervous, it is fifty-fifty; I will return or not.

“A year ago, on this day, we celebrated Azhdahak’s birthday in a dim but more memorable way, the boys lit gunpowder instead of a candle,” he said.

The friend says that a few hours after congratulating him on his birthday, they fell into a blockade.

“He believed in God a lot, he knew that if his life ended on the battlefield, it would not be an end,” his friend Narek Ayvazyan says.

According to him, the idea of ​​Azdahak’s life was to love, take care of people, to be a good person on earth.

“He never complained, he was not upset, he always said everything is fine. The last call was on his birthday. We talked a lot with our comrades-in-arms. It was a war, and he kept it at the cost of his life so that they could live by his ideas and principles,” he says.

As Azhdahak was the commander of the detachment, he was included in the 23-member rapid response squad to go to hot spots.

“A rapid response squad is formed under the leadership of Seyran Ohanyan. According to friends, the enemy was already in ambush, and they were not aware, they fell into a blockade and got injured in cars,” the sister says.

According to her, Azhdahak, who was already wounded, faced the enemy’s fire so that his friends could retreat.

“It is unfortunate that no military aid arrived from Shushi, and the ambulance was blown up on the road,” Anzhela Kirakosyan says.

Azhdahak was studying at the Fine Arts Department of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Armenian State Pedagogical University. He had many dreams and goals, but he remained, the volunteer of the Homeland Azhdahak forever. His last painting was an image of an angel.

IN THE PHOTO: AZHDAHAK KIRAKOSYAN’S MOTHER, VALYA MALKHASYAN

Azhdahak Kirakosyan was born on 3 November, 1997, and died on 3 November, 2020.

On 7 June, 2021, Azhdahak Zaven Kirakosyan was awarded the Order of the Combat Cross of the 2nd degree for his exceptional courage in defending the state border of the Artsakh Republic during large-scale military operations unleashed by the enemy on 27 September, 2020.

Hasmik Sargsyan