On March 16, 1992, battles of life-or-death took place on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border. Four young men from Goris, Mushegh Mkrtchyan, Arayik Mkrtchyan, Karen Mirzoyan, and Karen Baghdasaryan received orders to guard the Lalazar hill in Kubatlu. They had to prevent the enemy’s progression at any cost. The Azerbaijanis had four times as many people as the men from Syunik did.
The enemy was able to kill Arayik Mkrtchyan, Karen Mirzoyan, and Karen Baghdasaryan.
Mushegh was surrounded and the Azerbaijanis captured him. Since he had served at the Afghan border, 21-year-old Mushegh used his military strategy. He waited patiently for the troop’s forces to increase. At that moment, he used his grenade to explode himself and many Azerbaijani soldiers. The hill remained under Armenian control.
Read also
In November of 2014, Mushegh’s cousin, Russian-Armenian Gevorg Arzumanyan funded a monument to be placed on the hill they liberated in memory of the fallen soldiers. However, the residents of Karahunj must transfer the cross to Karahunj because, in accordance with the agreement signed between Armenia, Russia, and Azerbaijan, Kubatlu will be transferred to Azerbaijan on December 1st.
“We decided to bring the cross to Karahunj to place next to the memorial dedicated to Mushegh. We cannot allow the enemy to vandalize our memorials and crosses. They were created in the sacred memory of our boys, and no one has the right to disrespect that,” Mushegh’s cousin, Arpine Mkrtchyan, told Aravot Daily.
Armen Davtyan
Photos by Arpine Mkrtchyan
