There Are Still Children and Wounded People in That Gorge, They Need to Be Rescued: Parent of a Soldier Raises Alarm

The father of missing soldier Serozh Ghazaryan, Serzhik Ghazaryan, has not received any news from his son since early morning on September 13. This was reported by Hraparak.am.

Below is an excerpt from the media's interview:

“During the military operations, my son called his parents, but amidst the general noise and chaos, we did not manage to understand what was happening. The father recounts that he received information about his son from a soldier who had served with him in the Upper Shorzha region. This soldier was the only one who survived from the position and told that the three of them fought for several hours against a group of 50 enemy soldiers. When they were left with only three people, they threw a grenade toward the approaching enemy, but their comrade Varujan was killed by enemy gunfire, while another friend was wounded, whom Serozh Ghazaryan managed to pull out from the positions to the gorge. According to the comrade’s testimony, after that, Serozh went deeper into the gorge with his automatic rifle to help the other soldiers who remained in the positions.

Serozh's father mentioned that currently, the parents of eight other boys from the Upper Shorzha region are also trying to gather any information about their children. “We appealed to the Red Cross, but they said that until there is an agreement from both sides, they cannot do anything. I sent a healthy child to the army; now I want to get information about my son. One department shifts the responsibility onto another, sending us from one office to another. What should I and other parents like me do now, where should we go?” said Serzhik Ghazaryan.

He noted that there could be wounded individuals and soldiers hiding in various shelters in areas under enemy control, who could have been rescued if action had been taken, but the Armenian side has not made any efforts. S. Ghazaryan stated: “I know that there are still children and wounded people in that gorge; they needed to be rescued; they could have been saved—no measures have been taken; they’re waiting for an order, but there is no order.”

In a conversation with us, Armenian Ministry of Defense spokesperson Aram Torosyan reported that on September 14, the Ministry of Defense officially appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross to assist in the process of handing over the bodies of fallen soldiers to the Armenian side during a ceasefire.

“After carrying out several clarifications regarding the number of deceased soldiers and other work, the Ministry of Defense of Armenia will provide summarized information on the matter,” said Aram Torosyan.

It is noteworthy that as of now, the Azerbaijani side has handed over the bodies of 32 Armenian soldiers to the Armenian side, and there has been mention that the transfer of the bodies occurred without the mediation of the Red Cross.

Head of communication programs at the Armenian Red Cross, Zara Amatuni, stated that the Red Cross is ready to initiate search operations at any moment and retrieve the bodies from the positions, but it all depends on security guarantees and the agreement from both sides. “There are prerequisites from our side for our mediation to be effective. It is very important for achieving results in this case. The issue concerns ensuring security guarantees for teams to operate safely, on one hand, and on the other, agreement to carry out such operations in various geographical directions, and so on. In this respect, the agreement must be clear,” said Amatuni.

Serzhik Ghazaryan calls on the parents of all soldiers who served in Upper Shorzha and are currently considered missing to get in touch with him to find any solutions together.