Especially in the days of hardship for the homeland, the spiritual presence and participation of our clerics always inspires, gives strength and vigor to the people. We witnessed this during the hostilities unleashed by the enemy in Tavush in July. And like everything that is sincere and from God, the love and encouragement that the priests passed on in those days to our soldiers and the people who guard our border with them is reciprocal and strengthens especially in such difficult days.

Our conversation with Father Abel Kartashyan, a priest of the Movses border village of Tavush and the surrounding communities.

Q: Father, our magazine always talks about the mission of the military priests, but there are times of hardship when this case becomes more important than ever. For you, what was the ordeal of the recent fighting on the Tavush border?

A: In those days I visited our boys standing at the base. The boys who fought in the battlefields came to me and hugged me with longing … I could only see their eyes blinking through their earthy eyelids … At that time I realized that these were people who were more devoted to God and Love than I was. It seems that I am going to console, but I find myself coming back with great consolation… They do not realize how great is the work they have done, that simple humility, with which they are ready to give their lives for the sake of the generations that are yet to be born, for the sake of the fact that we should have a happy Armenia. We learn the depth of faith from them … I say, “Guys, if you are careful, you will see that those calculations, those injuries that you are doing, God is working with your hands to stop the wave of evil coming from the front.”

If a person did not have faith in all the turmoil of the war, the animal fear would rise in him and he would become a deserter. Can you imagine, at the same time that our guys were doing serious combat tasks, hitting each other with targets, young guys like them in the enemy army could not solve any problem. The impression was that the soldiers of the enemy army were sluggish.

Q: Among other military equipment, the guys hit the Elbit Hermes-900 drones causing tens of millions of dollars in damage to their army.

A: There are many examples in the Bible when God introduces such horror, alarm, blindness in the enemy’s army that the enemy runs away headlong. If you asked the fleeing Azeris, ‘Why are you running away?’ they could not explain, because they were inexplicably terrified. We have never targeted their peaceful population. And they targeted our Paravakar, Nerkin Karmiraghbyur Aygepar, Chinari villages, Berd city. This is also a horrible reaction. When there is nothing left, they try to intimidate unarmed civilians …

Q: What was the situation in Movses village in those days?

A: It is a fact that the military operations were completely spread around the village of Movses, but there was no damage. Moses was not shot this time, thank God! We were in prayer in those days

By KNAR TADEVOSYAN