Karabakh war hero Vardan Stepanyan, who was later nicknamed as Dushman (Persian: enemy) by the Azerbaijani warriors, dreamt about the liberation of Shoushi since the early stages of the national movement.

Speaking to Tert.am, the hero’s mother, Zaruhi Stepanyan, recalled her son’s promise to seize Shoushi and return home via the Lachin corridor. She said Vardan’s friends would laugh his words off, saying that he had just suffered a brain concussion and didn’t need the battle.
 

“He was as good as his word,” she said. “They say Vardan took an armored troop carrier after the liberation of Shoushi; breaking prison doors to free the Armenian hostages and touring the city’s church to kiss all the stones, he was suddenly seen missing. They thought something had gone wrong: probably an enemy was hiding in the ambush. But Vardan was found in an Armenian cemetery, pouring out wine on the martyrs’ graves and screaming , ‘Grandfather, Shoushi is liberated … Calm down!’”
 

Ms Stepanyan explained that the Azeris called her son Dushman and demanded a ransom for liberating lands and supplying weapons.
 

She remembered that before the war in Karabakh Vardan, who was only 20 years old, refused to serve in the Soviet Army as he wanted to fight in Afghanistan.


“He went to Afghanistan in 1984, and in 1986, returned from the foreign land with medals. He was a student at the Law [Department],” she said, regretting that Vardan did not manage to leave an offspring.
 

Speaking of the present-day Shoushi, Ms Stepanyan was very sorry to note that a street named after her son remains forlorn in the city.
 

“That’s very pity of course. The Armenian land belonged to the half-starving Armenian in all periods, and today, those half-starving people are taking care of the land. Hopefully, the situation will change, and our youth will realize what price was paid to free the territories,” she said.
 

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