Mother of Fallen Hero Alen Margaryan Refutes Prime Minister's Assistant's Statements About Satisfactory Meeting

It is surprising and distressing for me that a high-ranking official would allow himself to distort the truth in such a way. This was stated by Nazeni Terteryan, the mother of Alen Margaryan, who was killed in the Artsakh 44-day war, during a candlelight march towards "Yerablur," responding to Prime Minister's assistant Nairi Sargsyan's statement that the parents of the fallen soldiers were satisfied with the meeting held days earlier and had agreed to participate in the Independence Day celebrations.

“A group of parents met with Nairi Sargsyan to clarify the format of the Independence Day event and what kind of music would accompany it. Taking advantage of the opportunity, we also tried to seek clarifications regarding the questions that have accumulated over this year. As any educated person would do, we entered, greeted, and thanked for the opportunity upon leaving, but it is unacceptable to fundamentally distort what happened. The other 15 mothers who were present can confirm that none of us expressed satisfaction regarding the organization of the event,” said the mother of the fallen soldier.

She emphasized that it was surprising to them that such an event is being organized when the graves of their children are still not prepared and as the one-year anniversary of her son’s death approaches on the 30th of this month. “We presented our questions and received an invitation to participate in the event, but none of us accepted that invitation; no one has even considered such a thing,” she added.

According to her, after the meeting, only a small part of her interview was shown, which would benefit the government. “About a 15-minute interview was given, in which we talked about the issues concerning us, our grievances, and all of this was presented in a short fragment. There are questions we received answers to, but many questions remained unanswered, which is why I used the term 'partially satisfied.' We demanded the exclusion of the terms celebration and festivity, and to only have classical and organ music played, something that would correspond to the emotional state of the fallen soldiers’ families. The issue is in the format and style of music that will be played. It would have been appropriate to hear Komitas, the chants of Makar Yekmalian, but our anger was directed at the idea of a colorful celebration,” emphasized the mother of the fallen soldier.