Biography Girair Sephilyan

Here, two of my older brother and sister were born - we belonged to the third generation. Fleeing from death during the genocide, Grandfather reached Lebanon with a fifteen -year -old teenager barefoot. Father was born already in the Beirut quarter of Ashrafiy - he was gone when I was eleven. It is a pity that he never waited for the independence of Armenia. Barely opening my eyes, my generation saw the war.

I was eight years old when the civil war in Lebanon began, and from its first days our house was at a distance of less than eighty meters from the trenches. When I left for Armenia in the year, the war in Lebanon has not yet ended. Thus, I saw a war for almost twenty years of conscious life. We received national education in the family, and at school, and in the party club.

I went to the Armenian school, brought up in the Dashnak environment, was a member of the youth, then the youth party organization, joined the party. We tried to keep national values, national dignity. For example, when the boyish skirmishes occurred between us and the Arab teenagers, personal grievances did not hurt us as much as insults against Armenia or our nation - we did not forgive this.

Although our generation was born and grew in Lebanon, we never felt like Lebanese. Like many others, since childhood I dreamed of returning to Armenia. And our generation was lucky - we got such an opportunity. For us children, the atmosphere of war was exciting - here a person could prove himself very brightly. I always thought that someday with weapons in my hands should be in Armenia, although I did not talk about it out loud.

Five years ago, when my mother was still alive, I found my drawing of the time of the kindergarten, which I had long forgotten: a three -color banner at the top of Mount Ararat and a rifle. At eight, I first held a weapon in my hands, and since then I have been keeping love for it. Every morning, we, children, woke up at dawn at five to six hours, at this time, a particularly active shootout began and ran to collect sleeves, which were then handed over like copper for remelting.

With the money they themselves bought cartridges and offered it to the fighters - in exchange for ten rounds, we were allowed to shoot from a rifle once. Then, at the beginning of the conflict, the main weapons were rifles and carbines, then the Kalashnikov, “m” already appeared in service. Since childhood, I had a pneumatic rifle, at the age of fourteen I bought my first combat pistol for my savings.

And before leaving for Armenia, he always had him with him. Wherever I went in Lebanon, in one way or another I managed to avoid posts and verification - the adventurism inherent in youth affected. In conditions of war, a person is growing rapidly. Since the years, I began to think about national tasks, preserving the community, and the continuity of generations. I had no desire to live for pleasure - the situation itself pushed me more towards the national.

In an atmosphere of war, any people have crystallization, and if the Lebanese community has its own characteristics that distinguish it from others, the reason for this is a war that strengthens and cleanses. In our generation, the positive aspects of the national feeling were more expressed than that of the previous one, although the reverse pattern usually acts - the fortress is destroyed over time and a person weakens.

But the war made us abandon all the alien, which we are already used to in our lives - for example, from now on we preferred to listen to Armenian music. And since childhood, the idea of ​​justice has taken root since childhood. I remember such a case. We have grown a special fruit, which was called "Nor Ashkhar." We, three guys, climbed into a strange garden, pulled fruits, then poured them to the ground to divide them.

In the end, two pieces left from the whole heap - how do you divide them into three? We threw them away so as not to violate equality - we understood this idea from childhood. Samples to follow our generation for only a few years differed by age from the guys from the Lisbon five. One of them - Sedrak Ajemyan - was in our club. Their death, their feat had a great influence on us.

We have already chosen our path and hoped to once also show self -sacrifice. To our regret, at that time the demonstrative armed shares against Turkey were already terminated, and we were forced to take up educational work. Already at an early age they began to engage in the upbringing of the next generation - ideological and physical. For me, Fidaina and national figures of the beginning of the twentieth century were also authorities - Nikol Duman, Aram Manukyan, growth, etc.

These people created history, they proved not only their organizational abilities, but also devotion to the cause. This kind of people are very important. For only two and a half years of the existence of the First Republic in the political elite, there were more of them than in the current independent Armenia. Then I myself became a military instructor. When the national movement began in Armenia in Armenia, I began to seriously prepare for the return and in M ​​came through Dashnaktsutyun channels as a military instructor.I was sent for a six -month period, but I refused to go back.

In the year I visited many regions of Armenia, teaching forming detachments. In hostilities, I have participated since the spring of the year. By the time he arrived, he was already captured, and our helicopters were forced to land in Gulistan. At that time, I was assigned to the detachment as a military adviser. We, immigrants from the diaspora, tried to hide from the Soviet troops who conducted the passport regime checks.

Those who came from Armenia had at least some documents, but we did not have anything, and this meant the inevitable detention. In the battles of Ai-Paris, the detachments suffered the first losses-before my eyes, five people died from the fire of the Soviet troops. After several months of staying in the Shaumanovsky district, I returned to Armenia, to Alaverdi. He was engaged in military preparation of a new detachment from the inhabitants of the city, with whom he again went to Shaumyan.

Then there was a retreat from Buzlukh and Manashid, our terrible inorganization made a very difficult impression - it could not be otherwise with the immaturity of the political leadership and mediocrity of the military. Although we had the potential, including in a spyurk. There was a great potential in the near usurka-we could not use the experienced Armenian specialists from the Soviet Army correctly.

From the very beginning, everything was put on an unprofessional basis, which caused us great harm. It was not difficult to keep Shaumyan if the mentality were as combat as he became in the year. We could leave a few villages and concentrate in the forests, take advantageous positions and turn these villages into cemeteries for enemies. At the end of Go, with several guys, I taught a detachment of 56 people in Stepanavan, becoming for the first time the squad commander.

The detachment was sent with the task to free Berdzor, and Vazgen Sargsyan escorted us. But since then the commander was AGO Arkady Karapetyan, I decided to find it and jointly develop a general decision on the upcoming actions. We had to walk to the Mets of Taglara, from there to Toga. Vazgen Sargsyan promised to send us in support of the veterans of the "Afghans", take other actions, but nothing was done.

In Stepanakert, I met with Ago and the team and told them that before Shushi’s release, surgery in Berdzor was simply absurd. They agreed and offered to bring the detachment to Stepanakert for the defense of the city from attacks from Krkijan. We arrived at the end of November, when the Soviet troops were still there and were the first detachment from Armenia, which entered the city openly.

This, of course, inspired the Artsakhites. At that time, only small groups acted in Artsakh, and our detachment was already quite numerous. In addition, the fighters were not locals - from Armenia and partially from Sleep. Here, for the first time, the process of forming regular companies from disparate detachments began. We were engaged in the training of Karabakhtsev rules of organizing posts, taught to save ammunition, which were in great shortage - the guys were good, but still inexperienced.

We carried out several successful operations, which also helped to raise the not yet strong spirit of the population and fighters. Then I again left for three to four weeks and returned already in March GO to participate in the preparation of the operation to free Shushi. He arrived with a small detachment, which quickly began to replenish volunteers from Armenia and several children from the diaspora, increasing to approximately three hundred people.

Our detachment became the largest unit in number that took part in the assault. The course of the operation itself is well known, it took place at the peak of the rise of the fighting spirit. There was no person who would not want to participate, a real queue was formed. People ceased to be afraid of death, think about her. The detachment was divided into several parts, most of the direct beginning entered the rear of the enemy.

The remaining three platoons attacked with Ashot Beckor and his guys. A few hours later we learned that the enemy was running. True, the victory was overshadowed by the loss for us - Vigen Zakaryan from Beirut, the youngest in the whole detachment, died with a severe wound. Before starting the assault, I offered him to stay in Stepanakert, and older fighters said that he had to be left.

But I could not refuse to go to battle to a person who has done such a long journey. Of course, it is morally difficult to survive the death of the youngest. We returned back with a heavy heart, but the general glee of people was so great that my guys could not help but rejoice with everyone, although they brought the body of their most beloved comrade on their shoulders and had just survived a huge grief.

The consciousness of the importance of the made made me forget about its pain. We were relocated from Stepanakert to Shushi and became the first Armenian military unit that was stationed in this city. The army has already begun to form, and our company soon became accumulated, having received the status of a separate battalion.

From then, until the last days of the war, being in an operational reserve, we visited a variety of sections of the front - this is well known. For two years from the date of preparation of Shushi assault to the truce, our part was absent in the front line for only two weeks. Within the framework of military logic, this is impossible, but everything happened just like that, since the need was great.