ON THE FATHER’S PATH

Captain Valery Mehrabyan is company commander in one of the military units of the NKR Army of Defense. He is military service medalist, a military with the best performance in exercises. He also singles out for his high growth.

– My height I inherited from my father. My father Ivan was not only tall, but he was a giant of enormous power. During the war he was the commander of the detachment. Once he got lost and ended up in enemy strongholds. All were frightened and ran away. From that day Azerbaijanis started to call him “Shaitan”.

I was born in Stepanakert, I was small, when the war began. I only remember one episode. My mother, my grandmother and I are in the hospital room. They cry, and I look at my father’s amputated leg. He hit a mine, trying to save his wounded comrade. On that day, a hatred to war emerged in me, and I decided that I would not be a military. However, when I graduated from high school, I changed my mind. My father continued service with one leg, he was the commander of the regiment. That day I realized that I had won the war within myself. My father was so excited, he said – my second leg recovered.

I entered the Military Institute after Vazgen Sargsyan. Here really helped me my father’s strict upbringing. And now, too, during the exercise, alerting I am convinced that a strong discipline is the key to efficient army. Conscious soldier always seeks to serve where there is rigor and discipline. Indeed, in these conditions, the probability of mistake decreases. My father said: “Know, even during the battle wins the discipline.”

I am very picky about myself. When they wanted to assign me as a company commander, I refused and asked to be sent on retraining courses. I always compare myself with my father, he is the ideal image of the military. He never said he was proud of me. But the other day he came home very happy and said: “If before somebody saw you, they said – this is Ivan’s son, and now somebody greeted me and asked – are you the father of Captain Mehrabian?”

Interview by SHOUSHAN STEPANYAN