Andranik Ohanyan, who was born and raised in Yerevan but served at the Jrakan (Jabrayil) base in Artsakh, participated in his second war.
Andranik raised his three children with his wife at the frontlines, or, as he said, ‘in the center of hell.’
The shooting range commander, who was on his break when the war began, remembered that he went to the frontline after sending his children to safety.
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“While my children were still in their pajamas, I made them get in the car and I took them to the village so we could find a car and they could go to Armenia. I needed to go back to the frontlines. The entire road was being shelled as we were driving to the village. When we reached the village, tanks came out in front of us, and we didn’t know if they were ours, or if they belonged to the enemy. My children started to cry in fear. I had an automatic rifle with me, and I was telling them not to be scared. But what was a rifle going to do against a tank? Until we approached and saw that they were Armenian tanks, my children became half a person. My children saw what no child should see,” Ohanyan said.
Despite the fact that Andranik proudly remembers that his shooting range was recognized as the best shooting range seven times, and his soldiers were like sons to him, what he saw during the war changed him as a person. “I treated my soldiers like my sons, and I risked my life for each of them. That is perhaps why I almost died four times, but I was saved and I am now with my family. This war changed me a lot. I always liked peace, and I was always the one to calm the situation down when people were fighting, but after the war, I can get angry at the smallest things. I don’t know how much time I’ll need to become the relaxed joker Andranik again.”
Andranik was saved more than once during the war from shelling. The explosion from a Smerch took place only a few meters away from him. He keeps one of the fragments like a charm. The fragment tore his vest apart.
“I was unable to breathe due to bruises on my chest, but we didn’t go to the hospital because anyone who was able to carry a weapon stayed where they were. Only those who received serious injuries were taken to the hospital.”
He had difficulty counting the number of days he spent at the frontlines because they didn’t know the day or hour. They only knew that if they woke up in the morning, they were still alive.
Andranik, who has grown used to the sound of shelling, believes that the Armenian military was not prepared for this war because our army did not prepare for the modern war that the enemy has been preparing for these past 30 years. “I knew the sounds of projectiles better than I knew the sounds of my own children, but you cannot defend yourself against aerial weapons. If a soldier is hiding in some places, that’s not treason, but a decision to survive. Even if they stood up, they would have been killed. I went to the frontlines with a rifle in my hands, but we didn’t see any Turks to shoot. There were only aerial weapons. The Turks prepared 30 years for this war, but we were asleep. Our wealthy were building palaces and mansions, that’s why we lost. Every single one of those mansions is worth one UAV. We lost because you don’t even have enough gas in your car to see the entirety of those millionaires’ mansions.”
The family, after losing everything in Jrakan, no longer has hope for a bright future in their homeland and is even prepared to leave the country to ensure their children’s future. “For me, the homeland begins with my family, and after dedicating all these years of my life to the army, I want to create a better and safer life for my children. The majority of my three children’s lives was spent at the frontlines, and they didn’t even have the opportunity to get a good education. My children saw and lived through what no child should see. I don’t know how my children will overcome this. Now, I lost everything, and I’m living in a kind person’s house, but I didn’t sacrifice so many years of my life to become a refugee and homeless person. As a parent, I don’t want my children to live through this again, and I want to create a safe and calm life for them,” the commander said.
Satenik Hovsepyan
