CivilNet: A Soldier’s Story from the Trenches

Emil Lazarian 2021
CIVILNET.AM

22:17

Mesrop Tadevosyan was 18 when he began his mandatory military service in August 2020. Mesrop was finishing nearly two months of training at the start of the Second Karabakh War. At the beginning of October, Mesrop’s commander announced that he and his fellow servicemen were going to the north of Artsakh, to a detachment called Yeghnikner. 

“Whoever is afraid, may stay behind,” said Mesrop’s commander.

Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS