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April 17, 1993: A Fateful Day In The Battle For Shahumyan

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  • April 17, 1993: A Fateful Day In The Battle For Shahumyan

    APRIL 17, 1993: A FATEFUL DAY IN THE BATTLE FOR SHAHUMYAN
    Sona Avagyan

    11:58, April 17, 2013

    Commander Shahen Meghryan and 7 "Yeghnik" partisans killed when their
    helicopter is hit over Gyulistan

    "As a leader, Janbulad, flew out in front and I would follow. We
    reached the hydro-electric and passed through into the forest
    surrounding the Sarsang Reservoir where the guys from a partisan
    unit were waiting for us. The guys warmly received us and we began
    unload the arms and ammunition we had brought. Two or three minutes
    later, we heard a loud explosion and we all ducked for cover. The
    guys pointed in the direction of the fire, over to our right. They
    were firing at us from the direction of Talish."

    This is how Rafik Mehrabyan, helicopter captain with the Armaero
    airlines, remembers the fateful flight of April 17, 1993.

    During the Artsakh War, helicopters would always fly in pairs to the
    partisan units operating in the Shaumyan Region. On April 17, 1993,
    the second chopper that took off with Rafik Mehrabyan was shot down
    over the village of Gyulistan.

    Flying in the downed chopper were Shahen Meghryan, leader of the
    "Yeghnik" partisan unit and seven fighters under his command. The
    chopper crew of Captain Janbulad Muradyan, Second Pilot Aram Grigoryan,
    and Mechanic Iosif Mikayelyan, also died.

    The helicopter was transporting large amounts of arms and ammunition
    to the partisan unit. Janbulad's chopper was the first to land.

    Rafik's touched down not far away.

    "We've been spotted, take immediate evasive action..."

    "By a stroke of luck, we later found out that the enemy was firing
    "Strela" missiles at us. These are missiles especially used against
    airplanes and choppers. If we had known this at the time, we could
    have immediately turned off the engines and taken up positions with
    the partisans and relocated elsewhere. I was already in contact with
    Janbulad, telling him that we should go to the other said where it's
    safer. Janbulad hovered for a moment and then moved off to the right,
    behind the hill, where we wouldn't be visible. I touched down a bit
    away and we started to unload our cargo. But they still hadn't told us
    what missiles were being fired at us. I got back on the horn and told
    Janbulad to watch his back and that there was incoming fire. Janbulad
    answered, 'make it snappy, we've been spotted.' We knew that we had
    trouble on our hands," recounts Rafik Mehrabyan.

    Rafik says that Shahen Meghryan and his fighters piled into Janbulad's
    chopper because it was closer.

    The "Yeghnik" unit leader was preparing to return to Yerevan. After
    unloading, Rafik's chopper was the first to take off.

    "I had just taken off and was descending into the valley and turning
    right to get away from the fire we were taking. I was getting into
    the flight path for Martakert. I realized the enemy had fired off a
    second missile at us that most likely missed hitting us. I realized
    the second missile had indeed been fired when it slammed into a
    nearby mountain, scorching the place to cinders. I told Janbulad
    to watch out, that they had fired a second missile. By that time,
    Janbulad was also airborne and we spotted one another. I told him,
    'let's get the hell out of here'. I made a wide turn and then saw
    that Janbulad's chopper was engulfed in smoke. He had been hot with
    a third missile. I frantically tried to get him on the radio, but it
    was too late," recounts Rafik Mehrabyan.

    Flames were shooting out of the chopper. Rafik says that had no idea
    where the missiles were being fired from.

    We retrieved all those who died and buried them in Yerablur

    Rafik Mehrabyan says that he and his co-pilot Mushegh tried to land
    but that the groundcover was too densely forested. On the way back to
    Martakert, they got in touch with Yerevan and reported that Janbulad's
    chopper had been hit but that they couldn't say what had happened to
    those inside.

    The rest of Shahen Meghryan's unit had seen what had happened and
    made their way down to the chopper and reported back to base. Two
    days later, two helicopters flew in and removed the remains of those
    who had died.

    Stepan Ohanyan, now Deputy Director of Flight Management at Armaero
    Airlines, was in the helicopter that day that landed on the hilltop
    as a decoy while the other went down below to retrieve the bodies.

    "We didn't take off until all the bodies had been removed. The Azeris
    were waiting for us but they only spotted us and opened fire. But,
    we had landed in a spot just out of range. We got them all out and
    laid them to rest in Yerablur. They're all buried side by side in
    Yerablur," said Stepan Ohanyan.

    Aram Grigoryan, Second Pilot of the downed chopper and Mechanic
    Iosif Mikayelyan, were posthumously awarded the NKR Military Cross,
    2nd Class. Janbulad Muradyan was awarded with the RoA Military Cross,
    2nd Class, and the NKR Military Cross, 1st Class.

    Helicopters the only way in or out of Artsakh

    Rafik Mehrabyan points out that helicopters were the only means of
    contact with Artsakh from the start of the war till the liberation
    of Shushi and Lachin in 1992. Afterwards, ground vehicles could also
    ferry in supplies and personnel.

    Rafik says that Erebuni Airport had been completely turned over to the
    war effort and that they also used military choppers to fly sorties
    and for transport runs.

    Stepan Ohanyan says the best time to fly was when there was cloud cover
    over Karvatchar and Martakert. The most difficult runs were when they
    had to make flight to reach the partisan units in Shahumyan. They
    had to make their way through a wide and dangerous military front.

    "We would fly in over the clouds in Shahumyan and see where we could
    land. It was seat-of-the-pants landing. You have to remember there
    were no landing strips or anything. You had to pick your spots. If
    the valleys below were covered we had to land on mountain tops and
    unload the passengers. Back then we didn't care who belonged to what
    political party. Those who arrived armed and ready to fight were the
    first to get seats in the chopper. Of course, doctors were also a
    priority, said Stepan Ohanyan.

    Sergey Melkonyan, who served as the communications chief for the RoA
    domestic airports, was in touch with the two choppers who flew in to
    meet up with the Shahumyan partisans.

    Code 200 crackled over the radio...there were fatalities

    "I was in contact with the partisans when they reported what had
    happened. Contact was sporadic due to the weather. When the airwaves
    cleared the first voice I heard was that of Commander Chalyan Sergey.

    He gave the code '200' that there were helicopter fatalities," said
    Sergey Melkonyan.

    Mr. Melkonyan had travelled to Shaumyan back in 1989, to take
    communications equipment. He was the one to set up periodic
    communications between Yerevan, Stepanakert and the partisan units
    and the overall links needed to monitor flights.

    "My office became a veritable transceiver station with people filing
    in and out. There were times when our dead had been evacuated and
    the news was received with jubilation because our fallen heroes
    hadn't fallen into the hands of the enemy. We couldn't afford to let
    the enemy use our heroes, whatever their affiliation, to be used as
    leverage against us in the war. We had already sacrificed so much. We
    had no right to make any further concessions. The Armenian struggle
    in Artsakh was something that hadn't been witnessed since the days
    of Tigran the Great. Today, lowland Karabakh is completely in the
    hands of our malevolent neighbor, said Sergey Melkonyan.

    Shahen Meghryan and his "Yeghnik" partisan unit were fighting to
    liberate lowland Karabakh and Shahumyan. Shahen's brother, Petros
    Meghryan, who also fought in the war was with Sergey Melkonyan on
    April 17.

    Special brigade named in honor of Shahen Meghryan

    "The partisan movement basically started out with 25 local guys. Later
    on, guys from the "Arabo", "Tigran Metz" and "Broshyan" units joined up
    with us in addition to guys from Hoktemberyan. By 1993, after Shahen's
    death, a special military unit had been established that was named
    the Shahen Meghryan Special Operation Brigade. If it hadn't been for
    the "Yeghnik" unit our border today in the north would have been the
    Tartar River, much further south. The Turks were holed up in Haterk,
    north of the Sarsang, and in Mataghis. But, thank God, due to the
    "Yeghniks" we control all the way up to Talish, even though there are
    7-8 villages in Martakert occupied by the enemy," said Petros Meghryan.

    He lost seven close relatives during the Artsakh War. On April 17,
    1993, another relative, Hayk Meghryan, was killed in the helicopter.

    The other partisans who died that day were Artak Khachatryan, Grigor
    Grigoryan, Poghos Simonyan, Rafik Badalyan, Armen Bazyan and Aleksandr
    Mezhunts.

    Poghos Meghryan - Yerevan should recognize Karabakh as part of Armenia

    Poghos Meghryan recounts, "While in Shahumyan, I always tried to stay
    at my brother's side, that is if he wasn't ordering me to Yerevan to
    bring back this or that. Me and Shahen grew up together and we were
    very close. We were seven brothers and four sisters in the family. I
    was the tenth child and Shahen, the ninth. He was two years older
    than me."

    Shahen Meghryan was born in 1952 in the Shahumyan village of Gyulistan,
    on the northern bank of the Inja River, the current line of contact
    in the north. In 1975 he graduated from the Faculty of Economics at
    Yerevan State University. Returning to his native village, he worked
    as an economist at the Regional Administration.

    >>From 1991-1992, he was President of the Regional Executive Committee.

    >>From the start of the Karabakh Movement, he assumed the task of
    organizing the local defense forces.

    After the occupation of Shahumyan in 1992, Shahen Meghryan and the
    partisans under his command waged a nine month struggle to liberate
    the region until he and the others died on April 17, 1993.

    Just a few days before he was killed, Shahen and his men liberated
    his home town of Gyulistan. They were only able to hold on to the
    town for two days.

    "It was Shahen's dream that the lands from the Kur to the Araks rivers
    be united with Armenia. I too, as an Armenian, would like to see such
    unification. Today, there is much talk and speculation going on about
    the recognition of Karabakh and such. In my opinion, and I admit I
    might be wrong or politically a novice, the time has come for Yerevan
    to recognize Karabakh as an integral part of Armenia, and not as an
    independent state. Shahen was a wonderful brother and friend to me.

    Let those who knew him and fought with him add their own comments.

    There is no one who is without fault, but Shahen was, in my opinion,
    one of those men who had very few and who took a wealth of knowledge
    with him to the other world," said Petros, his brother.

    Shahen's brother and war buddies are convinced that had Shahen not died
    on that day in the helicopter, Armenian forces would have liberated
    the whole of Shahumyan in 1993-19994.

    Photos by Hakob Poghosyan

    April 26, 2010. www.old.hetq.am

    http://hetq.am/eng/special/332/april-17-1993-a-fateful-day-in-the-battle-for-shahumyan.html



    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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