Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan asked a question during the May 22 press conference. “If that fragment killed Ashot Pashinyan, he would be a hero, but if he didn’t kill him and passed him by millimeters, did he become an anti-hero? If that fragment had killed Ashot Pashinyan, Anna Hakobyan would have been a heroic parenting mother. Now that it has passed by millimeters, isn’t Anna Hakobyan a heroic parenting mother? What makes her not to be it? Can anyone explain? At that time, Anna Hakobyan was on the front line with a weapon in her hand.”
We asked journalist Alisa Gevorgyan, the mother of Davit Gevorgyan, who died in the 44-day war, to answer these questions. Let’s remind you that the recorded question of Alisa Gevorgyan was heard at the same press conference. “Once you announced that Artsakh is Armenia, and that’s it.
Your government conscripted our sons into the army and took them to defend Artsakh the Armenia you mentioned; our sons died in the 44-day war. Now you declare with the same proud expression that Artsakh is Azerbaijan; it’s just that the former authorities cheated and did not say about it. If Artsakh was Azerbaijan, why did you take our sons and kill them in Azerbaijan? You took them and not the previous ones.”
In response to Nikol Pashinyan’s questions, Alisa Gevorgyan, who was a guest on “Aravot” ”Areresum” (“Confrontation”) program, said: “Death does not determine the degree of heroism of a person. Death does not determine whether a person is a hero or not. In my opinion, the life lived by a person determines whether he is a hero or not. In general, I have always thought that the real hero known to us from history is the person who voluntarily puts his life on the altar of his motherland and sacrifices everything for it.”
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Alisa Gevorgyan is the author of the program “Say Yes to Life,” broadcast on Public Radio since January 2022. “I photograph the boys who returned from the war. They are also heroes in the accepted patterns of the time. But in order not to set an example for others, not to offend others, let me say that I do not consider my David, a hero. Yes, he behaved like a hero; the Commander personally came and told how he fought.”
Let’s quote excerpts from what she told “Mediamax” about her son: “I received the last call on October 16. He said that his place was unsuitable and he would call when convenient. Then I discovered he got a contusion and was at the Varanda medical center. When the troops were transferred from Varanda to Martuni, there was also a medical station car with 15 wounded in the convoy of vehicles, including very seriously wounded, who, for some reason, was in the medical station of the military unit, not the hospital. The car broke down on the way. Our relative’s son, who was in the first car, offered for Davit to move to them, but Davit did not go; he said: I am on my feet; the boys are injured; I am helping them move. They were ordered to wait in some area until they came and took them out. And as far as I know, no one went after them. Fifteen were left with wounded, and we no longer had any information about them. I applied to the HRD, and on September 27, 2021, I received an answer that 14 relics were approved. From the remains of the head, it became clear that he died from a gunshot wound. They explained that Davit stayed with his friends until the end; they fought, and he died from a gunshot wound; even though his injury was light from the beginning, he could go.”
Now Alisa Gevorgyan said: “He got into that car just because his wounded friends were there, even though he had the opportunity to get into a regular car and get there, and today I wouldn’t be standing here as the mother of the victim David… I do not devalue what he did. But, also, I’m not too fond of it when words are manipulated.
Moreover, I don’t consider myself a heroic parenting mother because I’m not too fond of that expression. It is something like a curse for any mother when on her forehead is written a heroic parenting mother. I don’t like it; I can’t stand that. So, if it’s a race and Anna Hakobyan wants to be a heroic parenting mother, let her be. I don’t like it and don’t particularly appreciate being called like that. My David is proper man; they may not call him a hero. You know, in the end, in that situation, someone may die while fleeing, someone may fight very bravely, and it turns out that he does not die and returns home. Who said that only the gunshot decides whether you are a hero?
The other guest of the program, the Artistic Director and Founder of the “Sasun” national song and dance ensemble, and the Founder of the “Gata Band” group, Reverend Deacon Andranik Manukyan, said: “Any complete person, a devotee is a hero.” He added, “The man sacrificed himself and is a hero.”
Anna ISRAELYAN
