APRIL 17, 1993: A FATEFUL DAY IN THE BATTLE FOR SHAHUMIAN
Wednesday, April 17th, 2013
Yeghnik battalion commander Shahen Meghrian died on April 17, 1993
(photo by Hakop Poghosyan)
BY SONA AVAGYAN
>From hetq.am
Commander Shahen Meghrian and 7 “Yeghnik” battalion soldiers killed
when their helicopter is hit over Gulistan
“As a leader, Janbulad (Muradyan), flew out in front and I would
follow. We reached the hydro-electric and passed through into the
forest surrounding the Sarsang Reservoir where the guys from a partisan
unit were waiting for us. The guys warmly received us and we began
unload the arms and ammunition we had brought. Two or three minutes
later, we heard a loud explosion and we all ducked for cover.
The guys pointed in the direction of the fire, over to our right. They
were firing at us from the direction of Talish.”
This is how Rafik Mehrabyan, helicopter captain with the Armaero
airlines, remembers the fateful flight of April 17, 1993.
During the Artsakh War, helicopters would always fly in pairs to the
partisan units operating in the Shaumian Region. On April 17, 1993,
the second chopper that took off with Rafik Mehrabyan was shot down
over the village of Gulistan.
Flying in the downed chopper were Shahen Meghrian, commander of the
“Yeghnik” (Asbarez: The Yeghnik battalion was formed by the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation) partisan unit and seven fighters under his
command. The chopper crew of Captain Janbulad Muradyan, Second Pilot
Aram Grigorian and Mechanic Iosif Mikayelyan also died.
The helicopter was transporting large amounts of arms and ammunition
to the partisan unit. Janbulad’s chopper was the first to land.
Rafik’s touched down not far away.
‘We’ve been spotted, take immediate evasive action…’
“By a stroke of luck, we later found out that the enemy was firing
‘Strela’ missiles at us. These are missiles especially used against
airplanes and choppers. If we had known this at the time, we could
have immediately turned off the engines and taken up positions with
the partisans and relocated elsewhere. I was already in contact with
Janbulad, telling him that we should go to the other side where it’s
safer. Janbulad hovered for a moment and then moved off to the right,
behind the hill, where we wouldn’t be visible. I touched down a bit
away and we started to unload our cargo. But they still hadn’t told us
what missiles were being fired at us. I got back on the horn and told
Janbulad to watch his back and that there was incoming fire. Janbulad
answered, ‘make it snappy, we’ve been spotted.’ We knew that we had
trouble on our hands,” recounts Rafik Mehrabyan.
Rafik says that Shahen Meghrian and his fighters piled into Janbulad’s
chopper because it was closer.
The “Yeghnik” unit leader was preparing to return to Yerevan. After
unloading, Rafik’s chopper was the first to take off.
“I had just taken off and was descending into the valley and turning
right to get away from the fire we were taking. I was getting into
the flight path for Martakert. I realized the enemy had fired off a
second missile at us that most likely missed hitting us. I realized
the second missile had indeed been fired when it slammed into a
nearby mountain, scorching the place to cinders. I told Janbulad
to watch out, that they had fired a second missile. By that time,
Janbulad was also airborne and we spotted one another. I told him,
‘Let’s get the hell out of here.’ I made a wide turn and then saw
that Janbulad’s chopper was engulfed in smoke. He had been hit with
a third missile. I frantically tried to get him on the radio, but it
was too late,” recounts Rafik Mehrabyan.
Flames were shooting out of the chopper. Rafik says that he had no
idea where the missiles were being fired from.
We retrieved all those who died and buried them in Yerablur
Mehrabyan said that he and his co-pilot Mushegh tried to land but that
the groundcover was too densely forested. On the way back to Martakert,
they got in touch with Yerevan and reported that Janbulad’s chopper had
been hit but that they couldn’t say what had happened to those inside.
The rest of Shahen Meghrian’s unit had seen what had happened and
made their way down to the chopper and reported back to base. Two
days later, two helicopters flew in and removed the remains of those
who had died.
Stepan Ohanyan, now Deputy Director of Flight Management at Armaero
Airlines, was in the helicopter that day that landed on the hilltop
as a decoy while the other went down below to retrieve the bodies.
“We didn’t take off until all the bodies had been removed. The Azeris
were waiting for us but they only spotted us and opened fire. But,
we had landed in a spot just out of range. We got them all out and
laid them to rest in Yerablur. They’re all buried side by side in
Yerablur,” said Stepan Ohanyan.
Aram Grigoryan, Second Pilot of the downed chopper and Mechanic
Iosif Mikayelyan, were posthumously awarded the NKR Military Cross,
2nd Class. Janbulad Muradyan was awarded with the RA Military Cross,
2nd Class, and the NKR Military Cross, 1st Class.
Helicopters the only way in or out of Artsakh
Mehrabyan points out that helicopters were the only means of contact
with Artsakh from the start of the war until the liberation of Shushi
and Lachin in 1992. Afterwards, ground vehicles could also ferry in
supplies and personnel.
He said that Erebuni Airport had been completely turned over to the
war effort and that they also used military choppers to fly sorties
and for transport runs.
Stepan Ohanyan says the best time to fly was when there was cloud cover
over Karvatchar and Martakert. The most difficult runs were when they
had to make flight to reach the partisan units in Shahumyan. They
had to make their way through a wide and dangerous military front.
“We would fly in over the clouds in Shahumian and see where we could
land. It was a seat-of-the-pants landing. You have to remember there
were no landing strips or anything. You had to pick your spots. If
the valleys below were covered we had to land on mountain tops and
unload the passengers. Back then we didn’t care who belonged to what
political party. Those who arrived armed and ready to fight were the
first to get seats in the chopper. Of course, doctors were also a
priority,” said Stepan Ohanyan.
Sergey Melkonyan, who served as the communications chief for the RA
domestic airports, was in touch with the two choppers who flew in to
meet up with the Shahumian partisans.
Code 200 crackled over the radio… there were fatalities
“I was in contact with the partisans when they reported what had
happened. Contact was sporadic due to the weather. When the airwaves
cleared the first voice I heard was that of Commander Sergey Chalyan.
He gave the code ‘200’ that there were helicopter fatalities,”
said Melkonyan.
Melkonyan had travelled to Shaumian back in 1989, to take
communications equipment. He was the one to set up periodic
communications between Yerevan, Stepanakert and the partisan units
and the overall links needed to monitor flights.
“My office became a veritable transceiver station with people filing
in and out. There were times when our dead had been evacuated and
the news was received with jubilation because our fallen heroes
hadn’t fallen into the hands of the enemy. We couldn’t afford to let
the enemy use our heroes, whatever their affiliation, to be used as
leverage against us in the war. We had already sacrificed so much. We
had no right to make any further concessions. The Armenian struggle
in Artsakh was something that hadn’t been witnessed since the days
of Tigran the Great. Today, lowland Karabakh is completely in the
hands of our malevolent neighbor,” said Melkonyan.
Shahen Meghrian and his “Yeghnik” partisan unit were fighting to
liberate lowland Karabakh and Shahumian. Shahen’s brother, Petros
Meghrian, who also fought in the war was with Melkonyan on April 17.
Special brigade named in honor of Shahen Meghrian
“The partisan movement basically started out with 25 local guys. Later
on, guys from the ‘Arabo,’ ‘Tigran Metz’ and ‘Broshyan’ units joined up
with us in addition to guys from Hoktemberyan. By 1993, after Shahen’s
death, a special military unit had been established that was named
the Shahen Meghrian Special Operation Brigade. If it hadn’t been for
the ‘Yeghnik’ unit our border today in the north would have been the
Tartar River, much further south. The Turks were holed up in Haterk,
north of the Sarsang, and in Mataghis. But, thank God, due to the
“Yeghniks” we control all the way up to Talish, even though there are
7-8 villages in Martakert occupied by the enemy,” said Petros Meghryan.
He lost seven close relatives during the Artsakh War. On April 17,
1993, another relative, Hayk Meghrian, was killed in the helicopter.
The other partisans who died that day were Artak Khachatryan, Grigor
Grigoryan, Poghos Simonyan, Rafik Badalyan, Armen Bazyan and Aleksandr
Mezhunts.
Poghos Meghryan – Yerevan should recognize Karabakh as part of Armenia
Poghos Meghryan recounts, “While in Shahumyan, I always tried to stay
at my brother’s side, that is if he wasn’t ordering me to Yerevan to
bring back this or that. Me and Shahen grew up together and we were
very close. We were seven brothers and four sisters in the family. I
was the tenth child and Shahen, the ninth. He was two years older
than me.”
Shahen Meghrian was born in 1952 in the Shahumian village of Gulistan,
on the northern bank of the Inja River, the current line of contact
in the north. In 1975 he graduated from the Faculty of Economics at
Yerevan State University. Returning to his native village, he worked
as an economist at the Regional Administration. From 1991-1992, he
was President of the Regional Executive Committee. From the start of
the Karabakh Movement, he assumed the task of organizing the local
defense forces.
After the occupation of Shahumian in 1992, Shahen Meghrian and the
partisans under his command waged a nine-month struggle to liberate
the region until he and the others died on April 17, 1993.
Just a few days before he was killed, Shahen and his men liberated
his home town of Gyulistan. They were only able to hold on to the
town for two days.
“It was Shahen’s dream that the lands from the Kur to the Araks rivers
be united with Armenia. I too, as an Armenian, would like to see such
unification. Today, there is much talk and speculation going on about
the recognition of Karabakh and such. In my opinion, and I admit I
might be wrong or politically a novice, the time has come for Yerevan
to recognize Karabakh as an integral part of Armenia, and not as an
independent state. Shahen was a wonderful brother and friend to me.
Let those who knew him and fought with him add their own comments.
There is no one who is without fault, but Shahen was, in my opinion,
one of those men who had very few and who took a wealth of knowledge
with him to the other world,” said Petros, his brother.
Shahen’s brother and war buddies are convinced that had Shahen not died
on that day in the helicopter, Armenian forces would have liberated
the whole of Shahumian in 1993-1994.
http://asbarez.com/109464/april-17-1993-a-fateful-day-in-the-battle-for-shahumian/