Astghik Galstyan: “My homeland was above everything”

97-year-old Astghik Galstyan is one of the few in the Great Patriotic War years, who voluntarily went to the front, 3 years served in the Soviet Army and victoriously returned home Goris.

At the age of 18  Ms. Galstyan was working as a  school director in Harjis. She was 21 years old when the news of the war broke. Law exempted school principal from service, but Astghik thought that law is law,  but to protect the homeland is more important.

 I was born in a peasant family, my father was semi-literate people, but liked to read very much and knew many poems by heart …

• How were you overcoming the difficulties of war?

There were so many difficulties, at nights we were waiting for bombardment. We were defending Azerbaijan…Most of all, it was difficult the problem of water. We had to collect water supply from station to station.

• What did the war take from you and what did it gave?

Mainly education, higher education remained incomplete .I lost my my brothers, my autn’s only son,… , another my aunt’s 4, uncle’s sons perished in the war, many friends … In our village there was a young man who was devotedly in love with me, he did not return from the war … There is no war without loss…

Full text in Armenian