“He called once and said, ‘Mom, I stole a melon from a Turkish village, I’m taking it to the boys so we can eat, we’re hungry,” Hayk Hakobyan’s sister, Anahit Hakobyan, told Aravot Daily as she remembered episodes from her brother’s service.
Hakob Hakobyan was born on September 17, 1997, in the Ashotsk village of the Shirak Province. Anahit and her brother were their parents’ only children. Hayk was the older sibling. His sister said that Hayk wanted to buy a new home when he got married, but the war put all of his plans on hold. He is buried at the Ashotsk pantheon.
Hayk Hakobyan died during the second Artsakh War launched against Armenia and Artsakh by Turkey and Azerbaijan. He also participated in the April War of 2016.
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Hayk was part of the National Security Service border guard troops. He began serving in Horadiz on September 29th. After graduating high school in 2015, Hayk was accepted into the Crisis Management State Academy. Then, he began to serve in Askeran. When he was discharged, he began to work for the Armenian border troops.
Anahit said that her brother left the academy due to his work. Then, he was accepted into the Shirak State University to continue his education in military studies. He was going to finish his second year this year.
Anahit said that they spoke twice a day, every day during the war. She always hoped that he would come home. “He would always ask me what was going on, what people were saying, when will all of this be over, what are they saying on the news? My brother was always in a good mood.”
However, his family did not receive any information from Hayk after October 19th. His sister said that they only found out that the border troops’ car exploded, but they didn’t know which car it was. Anahit remembered, “They told us that the car belonged to his base. They brought all of his friends’ bodies. After that, on January 5th, we found him through DNA test results. We found out that he was also in that car. The car burned because of a UAV attack, and he was with his sixteen friends in the vehicle. Seventeen of them burned to death, and only three of them survived.”
His sister said that Hayk fought heroically according to his friends. “He hid the soldiers’ bodies so that they wouldn’t remain under Turkish control, and so that the Armenian side would be able to bring the bodies back to the soldiers’ families. They brought his other friend from the positions. When my brother’s clothes were soaked in blood, the soldiers would tell him to change. He said that he washed blood with blood, and he won’t calm down until the boys are avenged.”
When asked if his family was against his decision to become a soldier, Anahit said that her brother never did anything without consulting his parents, and his uniform looked good on him.
Friendly, hard-working. These are words Hayk’s friends and family used to describe him. His sister said that he would always try to help his parents, and he started working at 12-13 during his summer vacation or days off.
Hayk’s fellow soldiers would call him “Bear” because of how he walked. One day, they didn’t have food, so he snuck out into the forest and brought food while hiding so that the Turks wouldn’t find him.
Hayk’s nickname remained “Bear” after that.
Tatev Harutyunyan
Photos provided by Hayk Hakobyan’s sister, Anahit Hakobyan
