On August 25-31, 15 women of different ages and professions took part in a seven-day combat training course at one of the military units in Artsakh. The training was organized on the initiative of Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of City of Smiles and My Step charitable funds, RA Prime Minister’s spouse Anna Hakobyan. The training course sought to familiarize the participants with army life and provide them some military skills.
For seven days in a row, the women led a full-fledged military life, wore uniforms and spent the night in a military unit. The participants underwent more than 20 professional line, fire and physical trainings, were introduced to the fundamentals of tactical operations and first-aid skills. The Defense Army officers taught them drill regulations without weapons, the meaning of shooting and field rules, instructed them on battlefield actions: taking a position in a trench or a specified place, maneuvering across the battlefield, changing the firing position during defensive operations, moving ammunition under enemy fire and so on.
During the fire training sessions, the participants got acquainted with the Kalashnikov assault rifle’s basic parts and mechanisms, optical sighting devices, night vision devices, their role and meaning transmitted from an assault rifle, KG machine guns, training firing from machine gun installations and from a standing position. As regards the first-aid training, the participants were briefed on cases of damage to vital organs, the importance of dressings and other lifeline issues.
On the last day, the women were tested for firepower training. The participants were supposed to hit all enemy targets in the prescribed manner. Each participant was given 15 seconds to hit the target. According to the test results, the platoon was rated “four,” which means satisfactory. Five members of the platoon received “excellent” marks, the rest were rated “good.”
Artsakh DA Lieutenant-Colonel Vrezh Avanesyan, UDA Major Matsak Khachatryan, and senior officer of the moral and psychological department, Major Karen Sarukhanyan noted that the participants showed great responsibility and good preparedness. Karen Sarukhanyan stressed that following several days of training the participants lived up to ordinary soldiers’ 3-4 months’ performance.
The participants had the opportunity to visit the Defense Army’s frontline positions, called at the Missing and Perished Freedom-Fighters’ Museum and the Historical-Geographical Museum in Stepanakert, where they met with President of the Artsakh Republic Arayik Harutyunyan.
P.S. On May 22, the presentation of the Women for Peace website was held in Stepanakert. A meeting was organized with Artsakh-born women, which highlighted the interconnectivity between peace as a value and “necessary self-defense.” The speakers suggested that women should take combat fire training courses. Anna Hakobyan promised to organize a meeting to that effect in the near future.
The seven-day training course of August 25-31 was held as part of the Women for Peace campaign. As the Prime Minister’s spouse has repeatedly stated, not only our army, but all Armenian citizens will take up their defensive positions in the event of a military aggression against our country.
“Like many other women, me too, I am prepared to take up arms to protect our homeland and our children. But not for the sake of war, but to prove that there is no alternative to peace,” Anna Hakobyan said.
