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“You made me remember those ill-omened days, my girl. This is an important initiative. Please, submit it for publication.” Emma Simonyan, a student of the Faculty of Philology, followed the advice of a mother whose son participated in the four-day war along the Nagorno-Karabakh line of contact in April 2016. Her talks with the participants of the bloody clashes were compiled and published in a book entitled “Aprelu April” (An April to Live).
The second-year student is the same age as the April War participants. This very fact and the field which reminded of the episodes of the war, made Emma meet the participants of the war, the parents of the deceased and their friends.
She travelled to various marzes to meet and talk to them. Although different, her meetings and conversations had certain things in common. “When I addressed the young people calling them heroes, they blushed and asked me not to call them heroes. They consider heroes their friends, who were killed in clashes, and their mothers,” Emma said. She added that many of them asked her to meet and talk in the church. She thinks it helped them somehow.
Emma worked on the book for six months. She confesses that 2,5 years after the war, the boys were talking about their friends who lost their lives on those horrible days with tears in their eyes. They were unable to hide their grief and emotons.
The presentation of the book was held at the Pedagogical University. The war veterans, the parents and relatives of the deceased soldiers were also invited to the event. Once again they were convinced that people will continue to write about the horrible scenes of the April War as long as the last person who saw and experienced the horrors of that day is alive.
“We are going to tell the next generations about the April War and the feats of our boys. This book which presents the reality – the defense of our homeland - will also tell them about the heroic deeds of our boys,” said Ashot Galstyan, Dean of the Faculty of Philology and the editor of the book.
He assured the attendees that it was not easy for a girl who is just starting her writing career to compile and summarize the struggle for existence in some 70 pages. He expressed his hope that she will write a sequel to the book.
Aelita Dolukhanyan, Head of the Chair of Old and Medieval Armenian Literature and its Teaching Methods, said she was excited, at the same time very happy to have a chance to bow her head to the heroes and parents of the martyrs. She added that the inner world of every Armenian is stirred up when hearing the name or seeing the picture of any of the heroes. “Christians believe that God will grant eternal life to such martyrs. I want all of us to believe in it,” she said.
Naira Khachatryan, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Philology, spoke about the literary value of the book viewing it as a chronicle and documentary record that will be passed on to the next generation.
“Only those who participated in the military operations have the right to write about the war, but the 96 hours and emotions of the April War absorbed in each of us have become a source of inspiration for new victories and feats. Any encroachment on our honor is doomed to failure as long as such books are written, as long as our mothers give birth to heroes and as long as there is a nation which glorifies its heroes and is proud of them,” Naira Khachatryan said. She added that Emma Simonyan proved that she thought like each and every soldier on the battlefield, she considered herself to be a part of her homeland.
The mothers of the soldiers and heroes thanked the author of the book and all those who helped her publish the book. They said the book will give future generations an opportunity to get acquainted with the heroic pages of our history, to remember the names of the heroes, and to become convinced yet again that ‘Armenian soldiers are courageous and fearless and the Armenian people will never tolerate injustice.’
