Dashnaks tell Yerevan mayor where they were during 44-day war of 2020

ArmInfo. On September 27, 2020, during Azerbaijan's large-scale aggression against Artsakh, Dashnaks lined up to be sent to the front as part of the first company. This was stated by Gerasim Vardanyan, a member of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun, in response to Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinyan's comment about the Dashnaks' whereabouts during the 44-day war of 2020. 

"On September 28, we were already in one of the hottest spots on the  front. After November 9, there were many times when I envied my  friends who didn't return from the war and didn't see or hear about  the tragedy we found ourselves in. They died with hope, with faith,  that the struggle would continue after them. It was preferable to die  with hope and faith than to live and witness the tragedy that befell  us. We didn't give up, we didn't break, despite all the setbacks and  difficulties, we continued to fight for the values for which many of  our friends didn't return from the battlefield. Then came the  crushing defeat of a betrayed war-the fight against defeat and  humiliation," Vardanyan wrote on his Facebook page.

He added that the struggle for Armenian national dignity led many of  those fortunate enough to return from the battlefield alive through  prisons, trials, persecution, and many other hardships. "They  realized that this didn't break us, and other methods are needed to  break and discredit us. Now they, with disrespectful insolence,  declare where we were during the war, or that if you're alive and not  killed, then you weren't on the battlefield.  This is our shameful  reality, when those who fled the battlefield accuse those who  returned alive of remaining alive," the Dashnaktsakan wrote.

Artur Khachatryan, a member of the Armenian parliament from the  opposition "Armenia" faction, also responded to these attacks, noting  that more than 50 Dashnaks did not return from the 2020 war. "Today I  learned that Tigran Avinyan, who became mayor of Yerevan with the  support of only 9% of Yerevan residents, expressed a desire to know  where the Dashnaks, including the ARF leadership, were during the  44-day war.  I'll tell you, they were at the front, at combat posts.  Moreover, Dashnak volunteers were in military units even before Nikol  Pashinyan's Defense Minister returned to Armenia.  Dashnak volunteers  went to war from the very first day, without waiting for Pashinyan to  find booklets with the so-called 'we will win' slogan," the MP noted.   He added that the Dashnaks went to war led by Simon Simonyan,  Chairman of the ARF Bureau in Armenia, and that among their ranks  were the children of Bureau members, as they themselves were not of  that age. "Hrant Margaryan's two sons, Gegham Manukyan's son, Artsakh  Dashnaktsakans and their sons, Dashnaktsakans from the diaspora,  including those from the Central Bureau. During the 44-day war, we  lost approximately 50 people-freedom fighters included in the  Dashnaktsakan volunteer unit, conscripts, including those serving in  the Artsakh Defense Army. I'm not counting them, because if we were  to count them, the number would be much higher. And yes, I'm not  asking how many representatives of the ruling Civil Contract party  died in this war, because I would prefer this war and these  casualties not to have happened. But to deny and consign the  Dashnaks' participation in the war to oblivion in this way is the  height of cynicism," Khachatryan stated.