Sgt. Narek Martirosyan: My Back Burned While Firing the ‘Muka’ Weapon, but We Managed to Escape the Encirclement

One of the heroes of the Artsakh War, Senior Sergeant Narek Martirosyan, shared some episodes from wartime incidents on ‘Factor’ program.

“There was a moment when we were leaving Hadrut to position ourselves on Mount Tutak, which is a very high point from where you can take the whole city under fire. When we were climbing that mountain to take our positions, the enemy had already positioned themselves there before us, and while we were moving in the open field, we fell into an encirclement and they began firing at us. At that moment, we lay down on the ground and tried to retaliate against the enemy, but we couldn't neutralize them because we were positioned in the open field while they were on the high mountain. There was no way out – we had to fire so much that either they would die or we would. We had casualties and wounded, and every moment there were more injured and killed. There was no option at that time.

I had a weapon called ‘Muka’ with me; that weapon is supposed to be fired while standing because it backfires and can ignite you, and if someone is behind you, they can get harmed. You need to fire it while standing. There was no way to fire it standing because I was in an open field and standing would make me an easier target, I would get hit sooner and die faster. I fired from a lying position so we could escape from that encirclement more quickly. While firing, my back caught fire, but we found a way out. After my firing, they panicked, and while they were trying to move their wounded and hide, thinking there would be more shots, we had time to get into a suitable position to fight back against the enemy. That’s how we continued to fight, evacuated the wounded from there, stopped civilian cars on the road, and sent the injured to the hospital, so their lives wouldn’t be in danger. After that, we continued to fight against the enemy,” he said.