Colonel-General Gourgen Dalibaltayan, who served as Chief of the General Staff of Armenia’s Armed Forces during the 1992 Battle of Shoushi, died today at the age of 89.

Dalibaltayan was born on June 5, 1926 in the town of Bogdanovka (present-day Nnotsminda) in the Samtskhe-Javakheti district of Georgia.

He became the first Deputy Defense Minister of Armenia after the country regained its independence in 1991.