The mother told her son, ‘Ashot, please tell me that you will come back.’ But Ashot said, ‘I will try, Mom…’
“I saw Ashot on September 30th. We stayed in our positions for five days and defended them. Then we retreated and went to Jabrayil, where we stayed for one day, and then they took all of us to Hadrut. The homes of commanders were in Hadrut, and we stayed in the basements. We went to Hadrut early in the morning. We were going on foot. We didn’t have binoculars, so we used the sight on Ashot’s rifle. I didn’t see Ashot after that,” Ashot’s friend in combat, Tigran Grigoryan, told Aravot Daily. He stayed with Ashot for five days in the positions, where he got to know Ashot.
Months have passed, but the wounds left behind by the 44-day war are still fresh. The relatives of fallen special forces sniper Ashot Meliksetyan have not forgotten about his heroism. They want to talk about it so that future generations can use him as a role model. Tigran said that he frequently asked Ashot whether or not he was an adult because Ashot looked young for his age. The war ended and months went by before Tigran knew that Ashot died. He said that he learned the news from the Internet, and it made him very sad. “There are many soldiers about whom I know nothing. But there’s one thing I can say for certain: those who fought were very brave. They gave us hope and strength.”
Tigran said that he lost many friends during the war.
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“Ashot was my nephew. He was a wonderful boy- kind, happy, well-behaved, and modest. Everyone loved him. When he graduated high school, he decided that he wanted to become a dentist, but he wanted to wait until he was done with his service, and that when he returned, he would definitely go on to study. We were so happy when he was born. He is named after my father, Ashot. We raised him. He was a very well-behaved and understanding boy since childhood,” Ashot’s aunt, Tiruhi Budaghyan, told Aravot Daily.
Ashot began his service on December 16, 2019. He served in Jabrayil. According to his relatives, he never complained about his service, and he always said that everything is fine. He was taken to Stepanavan on September 1st for training. “He was supposed to stay in Armenia until December. We were so happy, but then the terrible war began. We thought they wouldn’t take him, but on the next day, September 28th, we found out that he was already on the way to Jabrayil. He didn’t tell his father when they spoke. Then, his father decided that he should volunteer, but Ashot begged him not to. We were praying every day for nothing to happen. Every day began with the same question- “Has Ashot called?”- and when the answer was yes, we thanked God and waited for his next call,” his aunt said. The last time they spoke to Ashot was on October 27th. His aunt said that it was difficult to talk to him because they were crying. Once when they were speaking, she told him to stay strong because everything would be ok. She remembered that during their last conversation, he spoke to everyone, and he told his father that he wouldn’t call for a few days because he was going to the trenches, where there was no connection. After that, they did not receive any news, and the call they were waiting for did not happen.
They believed and prayed that their light would come back. Ashot’s father searched for him everywhere, both among the dead and wounded. A little while later, they received the news that there were heavy battles where Ashot was and no one survived. Later, they were told that some soldiers escaped into the forest. “Since his name was not among the fallen, we started to live with hope, and we continued that way for 75 days. We believed every dream. People we knew and didn’t know would have dreams and tell us that he would definitely come back. We believed them, we really did. His father gave two DNA tests at that time. We prayed for nothing to come out of that, for there to be a mistake, but it was confirmed. They called us on the night of January 10th and said that there was a DNA match. They called us to find his body. He died on October 28th. Now, everything has changed in our lives. Nothing will be the same as it used to. When people tell my sister that she is a hero’s mother, she responds with tears in her eyes, ‘I don’t need a hero, I need my son.’ I came to Armenia, and when I heard the terrible news, I saw his grandparents crouching in pain, his father who grew older by 20 years, and his mother who turned to nothing. I wish I didn’t see that. I would give everything to not see my family in so much grief…”
Natalie Mkrtchyan
“Aravot” daily
