THEY ARE ARMENIA!

From a distance, I notice the heroes of my essay – teacher of the Department of physical training and sports of the Military Institute after Vazgen Sargsyan, Lieutenant Colonel Armen Hovhannisyan, his middle son – Lieutenant Arthur, a former student of the higher military school of the Russian Federation and the youngest of the family – 5-year-old Artyom. Elder son of Armen Hovhannisyan, Ara, is a platoon commander, carrying out combat duty at a military unit, the son of his brother David, volunteered to serve on the front line.

All three wear paratrooper’s blue beret. Arthur looks like a kind hero from military films. He says that his father is a very strict person, demanding, but very kind and never degrading. Only one thing he forbade – smoking. He says that a paratrooper is a universal soldier, he is a scout, a signaler and artillerist.

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Lieutenant Colonel Armen Hovhannisyan is a participant of the wars in Afghanistan and Artsakh. “I came back from Afghanistan with the medal “For courage”. My father, too, has such a medal. He was a veteran of World War II… I do not sleep at night, thinking all the time about the border, where are my students. When I saw Lieutenant Sargis Gabrielyan in the hospital, I started to cry. With his injured hand he continued to shoot in the direction of the suddenly attacking enemy. And he said to me: during trainings do not have mercy on the students, as you have not spared us. If you had not done like that, right now I would not be here”.”

SHOUSHAN STEPANYAN
Photo by AREG VARDANYAN