LOOKING AT SOLDIER WITH BEING SHAME

Both soldiers and officers in this military unit speak with great reverence and warmth about Lt Col Alik Babayan.

“He is an honest, dedicated soldier, a wonderful father,” this is how the head of the staff, Lt Col Vahagn Minasyan describes him.

Alik Babayan has been in the armed forces for 23 years. For dedicated, conscientious service, he has received numerous medals and diplomas.

Originally from the village of Herher in Vayots Dzor, he is the first military man in the family.

His love for the military profession became clear during the years of the Artsakh war, when the village boys joined volunteer detachments one after the other and fought to defend their homeland. After graduating from high school he joined the Vazgen Sargsyan Military University.

He has served in various military units, and is currently the deputy of moral and psychological security of the military unit under the command of Col Vazgen Hakobyan.

“Our military unit is on 24-hour combat duty and I would like to stress that there is no one to give up the combat duty. Even those soldiers, who have problems and are relieved of combat duty, ask to be sent to the posts. You have to be a teacher, a psychologist and a senior friend. The officer must guide the conscious and emotional world of the soldier,” he says.

“The officer should treat a soldier like his child. After all, the soldier-officer relationships do not begin and end in the army. In the civilian life you meet the soldiers who have served under you, and the most important thing is to be able to look at them without shame,.”

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We are at the lieutenant colonel’s hospitable house. At the end of last year, 28 servicemen of the military unit were allocated apartments.

“We have overcome many difficulties in our lives,” says his wife, Arpine, a lawyer specializing in psychiatry. “There was no water, we were collecting it, but every difficulty can be overcome when there is a loving and caring husband next to you, when there is mutual understanding, confidence in your family.:

By ALIC ALAVERDYAN

PHOTOS by AREG VARDANYAN