KHACHATUR ABOVYAN ARMENIAN STATE PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY

May is a month of glorious victories for the Armenians and has great historical significance for the nation. May 9 marks the victory over fascism in the Great Patriotic War, anniversary of Shushi liberation and formation of the Defense Army of Karabakh.

On the occasion of May 9 triple celebrations, representatives of Armenian State Pedagogical University laid a wreath at the Memorial to the Artsakh War heroes and then went to Haghtanak Park (Victory Park) at the top of Cascade in Yerevan.

Arriving at the park, the group laid flowers at the Eternal Flame and bowed their heads in a moment of silence for the victims. 

“Everyone is speaking about victory today but they cannot even imagine how difficult it was to obtain,” said war veteran Roza Pashinyan, a former ASPU lecturer, who annually joins the teaching staff and students to march to Haghtanak Park on the occasion of the triple holiday.

The war veteran, who spent two months on the Crimean front, was again excited today: seventy years later she remembers the glorious moment of victory with the same delight and pleasure and says ‘although she has not felt the lack of attention throughout her life and has always been surrounded by love and care, she regrets that war veterans are remembered and honoured only during the May 9 celebrations.’

Among ASPU representatives who visited Haghtanak Park, was also Head of the ASPU Academic Library Tigran Petrosyants who fought in the front of Aghdam [as a battalion commander] during the Artsakh war.

As a historian, Tigran Petrosyants says the number of Armenians killed in the Great Patriotic War was not 600 000, as it is mentioned in textbooks, but about one million. Then he adds with pride that many of them were ASPU representatives: as an educational institution, the Pedagogical University also had a major contribution to the victory.

“I thank my fortune for having my modest contribution to the victory in the Artsakh war,” Tigran Petrosyants told old.aspu.am, advising everyone to appreciate old victories and celebrate new ones.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLqVNREXiA8