A 19-year-old resident of the Azatan village of the Shirak province, Hrach Mahtesyan, died during the battles in Jabrayil during the Azeri-Turkish aggression against Artsakh.
He was a contract soldier and his parents’ eldest son. He had a younger brother.
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The hero’s mother, Almast Harutyunyan, said that her son was serving at one of the military positions in Meghri. He never needed anything during his military service. In fact, he told his family, “The food here is better than anything else. I don’t need anything.”
After the war started, he was taken to Jabrayil on October 1st. He died on October 9th.
Hrach studied at the Gyumri driving school when he graduated high school. When he went to the army, he worked as a driver.
“He was always happy when I spoke to him. He lied and told me that he wasn’t in Jabrayil. He said that he had left on October 4th and returned on the 6th. He said, ‘Mom, we survived two shellings, so nothing will happen to me.’ We spoke to him on the day he died. He said, ‘Mom, this is a different fight, it is nothing like the April War. Gunfire is falling from the sky.’ And they were caught in the gunfire. Their commander died with them. No one from their battalion survived. Only one of the twin brothers survived, but he was wounded,” the hero’s mother said in mourning.
Almast said that her son was a serious, modest, smart, understanding, and hard-working young man. He was not very demanding.
“He was like a father to his brother. His brother is four years younger than he is, but he was different. Hrach thought like an adult when he was already six. He was my rock… Many people from Azatan died. At the moment, there were eight. I had not seen Hrach in nine months. I last saw him at his swearing-in ceremony.”
The hero was buried at the Azatan military pantheon.
Nune Arevshatyan
