Shoushi liberation broke the back of the Turks, Karabakh war veteran says
By liberating Shoushi, we broke the back of the Turks, and the inspiration made our guys make a step further, a Karabakh war veteran, recipient of the first level Military Cross medal and the Courage Medal awardee Mikael Andreasyan told reporters at a press conference.
He emphasized that Shoushi served as a key strategic position and its liberation was of high importance; Shoushi was the heart of Artsakh, he said.
The veteran pilot recalled the times they were transporting balloons and tones of fuel by plane right ten days prior to Shoushi liberation: “In case of an accidental spark our plane would have been evaporated.”
Andreasyan noted that on May 9 his plane was hit for the second time, though he managed to land successfully in Sisian. The only injured was Andreasyan himself, who broke his backbone.
The second pilot Ashot Manucharyan remembered when their plane was first hit on March 27 while severe clashes were underway. The first motor crashed, the second one was partly damaged. The damaged plane hardly landed in Yerevan
“Those were civilian jets as no military jets were available in those times. We used them to transfer armaments and units,” Manucharyan noted.
Andrasyan next underlined that today the Armenian military aviation has a quite good potential. “We have five pilots for a jet. The four-day war in early April demonstrated that our young pilots are prepared well. We asked to take us to the battle field for three times and they rejected asking us to stay where we are needed most.” Veterans then made recommendations on how to combat the adversary’s drones.
Veteran flight engineer, also present at the press conference, Armen Sayadyan, whose son is currently serving in the army, assured that Armenian soldiers' spirit is high.
“Whenever I receive a call from my son, I never hear complaints from him. Whatever I ask, he says everything is great. All honor to our soldiers,” he concluded enthusiastically.