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Armenian soldier, tanker Vahe Zakaryan, heroically fallen during the four-day April war, would have turned 22 today.

His family and relatives describe Vahe as an intelligent, modest, kind, friendly and a truly sincere individual.

Born on 12 October 1995, in Hrazdan town of Armenia’s Kotayk Province, Vahe Zakaryan was one of family’s three children and the only son. Vahe, together with his family, moved to Russia when he was a school student. However, he decided to return to his native town Hrazdan with his sisters eight months later. After graduating from school, Vahe entered Armenian State Institute of Physical Culture and Sports, being drafted to the Armenian Army in the same year.

Vahe was an accomplished athlete. He had practiced karate for many years, won multiple awards and obtained two black belts. 

Vahe began his military service in Hoktemberyan (Armavir Province) in 2014. Later on, he was transferred to Jebrail (Jrakan) in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) to serve in a tank battalion.

According to his parents, Vahe was very excited to join the Armenian army, never complaining during his military service.

Tanker Vahe and his fellow servicemen Hayk Grigoryan and Norayr Gasparyan performed a heroic act during the early battles of the four-day War in April 2016, inflicting significant losses to the Azerbaijani manpower and repelling the enemy. Vahe heroically fell in the battlefield along with the rest of his tank crew when their tank was hit by a drone of the adversary.

Vahe and Norayr were close friends, who fell together two months before the completion of their military service.

Vahe Zakaryan was posthumously awarded with the ‘For Bravery’ and “For Services to the Homeland” medals by the presidents of Armenia and Artsakh.

To remind, the Azerbaijani armed forces unleashed a large-scale offensive along the Artsakh-Azerbaijan line of contact at the night of April 1 to April 2. The defense installations of the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army and civilian settlements came under heavy bombardment by artillery, tanks, armored vehicles, multiple rocket launchers, and air force along the Line of Contact and deep inside the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijani Armed Forces, in the course of their recent large-scale military offensive, intentionally targeted civilian infrastructures and civilian population, including children and the elderly. The Azerbaijani military beheaded three Armenian servicemen in ISIL style.

Those barbaric acts go beyond elementary norms of civilized world, constituting violations of core international conventions.