A 23-Year-Old Woman-Freedom Fighter Lost her Feet in the War, but didn’t lose her Love Towards Life

About ten years have passed since the day when I met Shushanik wrote my first report about her: I was a first-year student. And I was very surprised when a few days later I received a phone call of a very respectable man and thanked me, as through the article with Shushanik he was excited about this wonderful, brave and noble woman, that during the Karabakh war she was protecting his home and country with her husband one-year-old daughter on the border.

Many people now wonder, maybe a little unclear it may seem that the 23-year-old young woman with one-year-old child in her lap, could participate in military operations. But during those years, especially if you were living in the border village, you were already war veteran: as Shushanik tells, in the village, from little and old ones – women or men, took part in the fight, while the men did not come home for months. “The village was under the shots, and residents could not participate. We were not thinking when doing a special, it was automatically derived. You were thinking something about what benefits you can give. And you were doing it without getting what can happen with you,” says Shoushanik.

Aram and Shushanik were married in 1990, and with their newborn daughter lived in the Red Tavush internal source in the village, where Armenian-Azerbaijani border was just 700 meters away.

At the very start of the war, Aram enrolls in the army and Shushanik –with him. “I was working in the military unit as a nurse, a cook, I did everything,” says Shushanik and remembers the ill-fated day. – April 16, 1993, that day ours had to take back a major elevation which a few days before the enemy had captured. I was to take dinner to the frontier soldiers. I was at the foot of the elevation when the bomb fell next to me, and I lost my two legs … Ours took back the pick.”

At the very start of the war, Aram enrolls in the army and Shushanik –with him. “I was working in the military unit as a nurse, a cook, I did everything,” says Shushanik and remembers the ill-fated day. – April 16, 1993, that day ours had to take back a major elevation which a few days before the enemy had captured. I was to take dinner to the frontier soldiers. I was at the foot of the elevation when the bomb fell next to me, and I lost my two legs … Ours took back the pick.”

Shushanik was taken to the capital, where she remains in bed in hospital for a year. “The child was with me in the hospital. My husband and I were taking care of her. During that one lag year my husband didn’t leave me for a second,” she says.

After lying in hospital a year she returned to her native village. The war had ended, the village had got piece, but they could no longer live there: village humid air, which was so familiar and dear to her, was no longer good for her health.

They moved to the capital, where long and intense years of hardship, inconvenience and suffering were waiting for them: there were many problems, but they were more profound when you were tied to the wheelchair. Everyone loved and respected her, the state institutions granted awards and medals, but that made neither the social situation better, nor health …

As a first-degree war veteran Shushanik should be provided housing by the state, but housing was the issue of delayed. They lived at their friend’s or for a rent. Aram did not work, took care of his wife daughter. The only income were small pensions.

Shoushanik has a dream that did not materialize in time, and who would want to implement this year: it is a church wedding ceremony, white wedding dress. “We married without the church blessing,” says Shoushanik, Aram adducted me and we went to the Offices. but my dream of church wedding in a white bride dress, never remained a dream. This year is the 20-th anniversary of our marriage, and we decided our marriage to be blessed in the Church. I will sureli wear a wedding dress …”