“The war took an honest, kind, and pure person from us who hated lies and superficiality,” fallen soldier Vruyr Ghukasyan’s wife, Armine Afyan, told Aravot Daily in an interview. According to legislation on military service, Vruyr, as the father of four young children, was not supposed to be drafted, but he was sent a conscription letter anyways.
“Vruyr was not a traitor, and he also participated in the sacred Armenian effort. I don’t want to speak about the days we lived in panic. I don’t want to politicize anything, but I can say one thing for certain: our fight would have had a different outcome if we didn’t have internal traitors. I am trying not to grow bitter. My only comfort is my children, and I try to find Vruyr in them,” Armine Afyan said.
She said that Vruyr was the pillar and support of their home, as well as an exemplary father and a good husband. The children remember their father with great affection and longing. According to his daughter, Mariam, her father’s day started and ended with his family. He was a friendly person with great values.
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“He never was absent for any occasion, and he was very proud of his ancestors who also participated in the war and returned with medals. When the Artsakh-Azerbaijan war began, he also participated and gathered help for the soldiers like many others. On October 11th, he came home from work and with his typical laugh, he said that he received a conscription letter. I didn’t believe him; I thought he was joking. Then, when I asked him if he was being serious, he said yes. Despite all of that, we believed as a family that they made a mistake because my father was legally not supposed to participate in the war,” Mariam said. After the commissariat called, he gathered his warm clothes and left. He told his family that he would be taken for military preparation for three days.
“My mother went to the commissariat the next day to tell them about their mistake. She filed an appeal for my father to be brought back. There, they assured my mother that a man with many children was not going to be taken to the border, and they were going to send a volunteer so that he could come back. We got a phone call from a strange number on Monday night. It was my father. He said that they are in Hoktemberyan for training and he was with people he knew. My mother asked him to come home if they approved the appeal. But my father refused and ended the call. That was our last call. We found out from incoherent sources that he was last seen in Goris. We thought that they were training in Goris, too, but an entire unit of 90 people escaped from there, including the treacherous commander, but my father and 11 others went to the border,” Mariam said. Vruyr was in the Hadrut-Jrakan area.
On October 15th, his family members received a phone call from Artsakh. They were happy because they thought it was Vruyr. Then, they called again and again, but the number was unreachable. His older son received a call in the afternoon of October 19th. They said that they found a body and this phone number was found in the person’s pocket. They asked this person to send a photo to understand if they found the right body.
After receiving the phone, Mariam said that they understood from her brother’s tears that the worst had happened. “During his ceremonies, people who served with him came to us and told us about my father. They said that he was the oldest among them, and despite the fact that he did not know how to shoot, he went forward and started gathering all the weapons left on the field. When the boys asked him why he needed those if he didn’t know how to shoot, he said that he didn’t know, but the boys knew how to shoot, so they would need the weapons. My father was shot in the head by a sniper at dawn. We learned from one of his friends in combat later on that they removed him from his unit and were going to send him home based on the appeal, but then he volunteered and went to fight. He knew where he was going before he left. He gave fatherly advice to my brothers. He secretly paid off all our debts and left,” Mariam said, and told the story behind the pictures of the medals and soldiers. “It was May 9th, one of the most important days for my father. He asked me to help him take pictures of his ancestors’ medals and photos. Then, we noticed that he placed his own picture among those of the fallen heroes. This was the last photo he shared on his page.” Vruyr Ghukasyan was recently posthumously awarded the Combat Service medal.
Natalie Mkrtchyan
