As clashes continue to rage between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, Armenians living abroad have headed back to their homeland to fight. FRANCE 24 met with Vardan, an Armenian builder living in western France, as he flew back to his native country.
Vardan, an Armenian builder living in western France, flew back to his native country to fight in the conflict with Azerbaijan over the breakaway, ethnic Armenian region of Nagorno-Karabakh. “We are very proud of him,” one of his sons said, seeing him off at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport.
A veteran of the first war over Nagorno-Karabakh in the 1990s, the 45-year-old plans to return to his native town Yeghvard, form a group of volunteers, and go to the front. By the time he arrived, two men from Yeghvard had already been killed in the fighting. “It’s our homeland, we’re going out there to avenge our brothers, we must get out there and win,” said another volunteer.
Vardan is still waiting for authorisation to join the armed forces.
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