Today in the bus one woman’s mobile rang. Excitedly she asked the passengers not to make noise: «This is my son, calls from the regiment, 10 days I haven’t talked to him… Please, don’t make noise», – and everybody kept quiet.
«Hello, my son. How are you? How did duty go? You are not hungry?… Yes, just like that, behave like a man. Military service is a man’s job… Listen to the officers, don’t argue with them, Treat them as senior fellow … Your whole life we with your father protected you, and now is your turn to protect us. My son, be careful… You must know, we are waiting for you… Ok, bye, go to sleep… Kisses».

Recently our photographer Areg Vardanyan was sent to one of the south-western regiments. Face of one of the soldiers seemed him familiar. It was soldier Rustam Greyan, whose picture Areg took six months ago in the assembly point. Now he’s grown up, he held machine in his hands confidently.

On July 23 graduates of the Military Institute after Vazgen Sargsyan on the principle of the draw had to choose their place of service (regiment). Before the draw 1st Deputy of Defense Minister D.Tonoyan asked – are there those who are willing to serve on the front line voluntarily? Dozens of graduates stood up and without hesitation chose the military units which implement combat duty and are away from the capital for several hundred kilometers. Their choice was awarded with a storm of applause.

Yet in 2012 we prepared and published a three-volume collection of documents “Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire: evidence of survivors”, which includes the evidence of miraculously saved people about massacre and genocide by Turkish authorities in their settlements in 1916-1917. The book has received a great response among the readers of both Armenia and the Diaspora, even in Turkey. Even Turkish historians asked me to organize the publication of the collection in the Turkish language. Recently the Turkish translation of the book was published in Istanbul by the publishing house of Turkish human rights activist Zaqep Zakaroglu. The book will be translated also in Russian, French, Spanish and other languages.

From July 26 to August 16 in the Russian Alabino training ground an international competition “Tank biathlon 2014”, World Championship of tank crews will be held. It is the second time that RF armed forces authorities organize such a championship. Together with certain sports component, competition first of all is regarded as an event of combat training, which aim is – to increase the professional training of crews.