Yura Hovhannisyan: How am I Going to Look into the Eyes of My Daughter if We Lose the War?
"Armedia" Information, Analytical Agency presents a series of articles about the heroes of the Artsakh war. The aim of the articles is to raise the awareness of the society, especially of the youth, on courage of our heros, their devotion to their Motherland and to evaluate their role in our society.
"If we lose the war how I am going to look into the eyes of my daughter when I go back to home? What I am going to answer if she asks why you lost the war?" These were questions often raised by Yura Hovhannisyan during the Artsakh liberation war. Yura Hovhannisyan, among his military friends known as Yura 26, became one of the heroes of the Artsakh war, due to whose strength and devotion now we have independent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.
Yura Hovhannisyan was born in Aygeshat village of Artashat region (Republic of Armenia) in November 19, 1953. He graduated from the local village school with a golden medal. At the same year in 1970 he was accepted to the faculty of Radio Physics in the Yerevan State University. After graduating from the University he worked as a senior engineer in the Institute of Applied Problems of Physics of the National Academy of Armenia, and had intentions to do a PhD. In 1979, he got married to Ruzanna Hakobyan and had two children, a son, Vahe Hovhannisyan, and a daughter, Irina Hovhannisyan. After the start of the Artsakh liberation movement he without hesitation left his academic career and devoted his life to the liberation of his homeland. 
In 1989, he became one of the founders of the "Sasuntsi David" unit consisting of volunteers from Davtashen district of Yerevan and other parts of the city. In 1991, when "Sasuntsi David" went to fight in Karabakh, Yura Hovhannisyan became a commander of the unit that was fighting in the most dangerous parts such as Askeran, Hadrut and Martuni regions.The unit also had a determinant role in the victories of the Armenian forces in Haterq and Drnbon.
Source: hetq.am
In 1992, when wider military operations started and Stepanakert (current capital of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic) was encircled by the Azerbaijani military units and peaceful residents of the city became the target of their fire, Yura Hovhannisya along with his unit had a determinant role in breaking the Azerbaijani cycle and in liberating Shushi stronghold. "If we do not liberate Shushi, Karabakh will fall back to Azerbaijani forces in couple of years," he once noted.
The unit of Yura Hovhannisyan managed to successfully liberate the hill known as N 26 Height (hence his military nickname Yura 26), which was one of the most dangerous points on the way to the Shushi stronghold. Before the start of the operation, when Yura Hovannisyan was asked by his military friends, how it would be possible for the Armenian forces to liberate the heights, when the Azerbaijani soldiers exceeded the Armenians in numbers and they had more military equipments, Yura Hovhannisyan's answer was very simple "We will win with our courage."
Yura Hovhannisyan was seriously wounded four times during the war, but each time he was quick to return to the battlefield even with a walking stick in his hand. Unfortunately, on June 27, 1993, on the way from Martakert to Stepanakert their car exploded on the mine and Yura Hovhannisyan died. His military friends remember Yura Hovhannisyan saying that he is not destined to be killed by an Azerbaijani bullet in "an honest battle" and his words turned to be right. Today on the place where the car exploded a cross stone with the record "Yura 26" stands.
Sources: "Հայրենասեր" calendar, 2014, H1 TV "Նվիրյալներ" program