Dushman Vardan – Origins of the Creation of the Armenian Defense Army

Dushman Vardan (born Vardan Stepanyan) was born in Yerevan on March 9, 1966. After graduating the Hovhannes Tumanyan school №32 in 1983, he requested the military commissariat of Yerevan to send him to Afghanistan in the Airborne Troops.

In 1984, Stepanyan commenced his service in Afghanistan. In 1986, he returned from Afghanistan as a hero. In the same year, he entered the law faculty of Yerevan State University. In 1988, he led a group of volunteers in the defense of the borderline regions of Armenia and Artsakh.

Vardan Stepanyan for the first time arrived in Artsakh in 1988 as a military instructor. He was one of the key contributors to the establishment of the Defense Army of Artsakh. After the fall of Shahumyan District in June 1992, he was sent to Artsakh to carry out his last military mission.

On July 3, 1992, during his combat mission, Dushman Vardan was killed. He would be posthumously awarded the Order of Combat Cross of the 1st degree of the Arstakh Republic and the medal “For the Liberation of Shushi.”

Read also: Nelson Stepanyan – Twice a Hero of the Soviet Union