An old Azerbaijani man gave his weapon to Vardan: “You deserve to wield this weapon more than us!”
It was winter – February – when we took Khojalu. Azerbaijani mothers with babies in their arms ran off into the woods. Vardan realized that they would not survive the cold and hunger. He went to the forest, found them, lead them out, and took care of them.
First of all, he thought about the children: he opened condensed milk, diluted it with water, poured it into bottles, found a pacifier, and began to feed them. Then, he ripped blankets apart and gave out to the mothers so that they wrapped their frozen legs. He was very worried that these women’s legs would probably be amputated due to freezing.
Vardan’s friends at some point even got offended – there was little food, but Vardan fed Azerbaijani prisoners, the enemy.
Then, Vardan took the women and children by a bus to a safe place so they could reunite with their people.
An Azerbaijani girl who shot at Vardan was killed by one of our soldiers, although Vardan shouted: “It is a woman, don’t shoot her!”
Vardan smeared the lips of a crying hungry baby with chocolate. Then, he found a box with vitamins for the mother and said: “Eat so you can have milk.” The face of the mother first expressed surprise, but she then smiled.
She could not believe her eyes: what kind of a strange foe was Vardan, an Armenian warrior whose strength was a subject of legends? He treated them like he was their brother.
“From this baby,” said Vardan, “Educate a worthy man so that he does not attack us, and if not, my son will fight against him and win. Do not try to seize our land as it is given to us by God!”
Vardan already wanted to leave, but suddenly their grandfather – the eldest in the family – called him: “Sonny, sonny…”
And the old man asked him to go down to the basement with him for a gift. He gave his weapon to Vardan and said: “Sonny, your humanity comes from God, the truth is on your side. With this weapon, they want to seize your lands, your homeland, and you should have it.”
