He took up a machine gun instead of a photo camera

Anahit Danielyan
Hetq.am
26-04-2008 13:34:33 – KarabakhOpen

`Before the war I never thought that I would need a certificate of
disability to get medicine or treatment in hospital,’ says Garik
Harutiunyan, a veteran of war in Artsakh, who is getting treatment for
already 3 months.

Doctors say it is a chronic disease.

`I suffer from headaches all the time but sometimes they are so severe
that I cannot bear it any more. Doctors say it is the consequence of
shell-shock. I have problems with my brain, the vessels become narrow
and the flow of blood is very bad,’ says the 58-year-old azatamartik.

Before the war Garik was a photographer. He had to put down the camera
and take up a machine gun. He fought at Krkjan, Malibeklu, Shushi,
Lachin, Jebrayil.

`In the early 1993 after the liberation of Alashan which is in
Martakert we stayed there overnight and at the dawn the battle started
again. We moved toward Mets Shen and the bridge near Maghavuz where I
was injured from a mine blast. My hands were injured. First I was
treated at the field hospital in Alashan, then I was taken to the
hospital of Stepanakert. In 20 days I returned to the battlefield,’
Garik Harutiunyan says.

He remembers every detail of the battles. He says most losses were in
the fight at Gyulidge. He remembers the fight for the village of
Gyulatagh which is in Martakert. At night they were caught in a siege.

`I went through many hardships but what happened in the end of 1993 was
the worst. In August we moved from Hadrut to Jebrayil. Our guys were
dancing on a hill, celebrating success in fight. Suddenly I noticed a
tank on the opposite hill, I knew the only target were our guys. I
tried to signal but they did not notice. I ran up to them and the shell
exploded in front of me. The wave threw me 20 m away, and I was knocked
out,’ the azatamartik tells with amazing calmness, who was the
commander of the platoon, and afterwards the company.

`When I opened my I eyes, I was in a dugout. I did not feel my body.
For a week I had to lie in the dugout until the next shift arrived,’
Garik says.

In a month after the cease-fire in 1994 his position in the army was
made redundant. In two years he returned to the army but in 1998 he had
to quit service because of health problems.

The azatamartik is now working at one of the schools in Stepanakert as
a worker and gets 23 thousand drams a month.

`I even cannot afford to buy medicine,’ says his wife Arega. Her
husband says if he had known he would need a certificate of disability
to get medicine, he would have prepared a heap of documents.

`However, there are no documents, and I cannot get a certificate of
disability. So I cannot get free medicine and treatment,’ Garik says.

His wife also has problems with health, she has a disability of second
degree but she works to support the family and to buy medicine.

Garik has three children and two grandchildren. Two daughters are
married, Garik lives with his wife and son. The son Igor works for the
factory of furniture and gets 40 thousand drams a month.

Garik Harutiunyan says with sadness that for several years the friends
have not met. `Everyone is busy with their work,’ Garik says.