Lieutenant Colonel Valentin Burnusuzyan, aged 34, was killed in the war last year. He was a tanker, commander of the N armored military unit.

On September 27, when the war started, Lieutenant Colonel Burnusuzyan was in Astrakhan, Russia, to participate in the Caucasus-2020 military drills. Narineh Zhamkochyan, his wife, recalls him saying on the phone that he would not leave his soldiers alone and would come back to Armenia on foot if the flights weren’t allowed.Burnusuzyan returned on September 30. His wife and children met him at Zvartnots airport, then saw him off to Jrakan (Jabrail) in Artsakh. He died on the third day after he arrived in Artsakh, on October 3, receiving a fracture injury from the explosion of a tank shell that killed him within seconds.

Valentin Burnusuzyan was born in Javakhk, in the village of Aragva, Akhalkalaki region. His parents died young, so he grew up in his uncle's family. After graduating from the village school, he moved to Yerevan and was admitted to V. Sargsyan Military Institute. After graduating, he entered the service in Dilijan tank military unit. In 2016, Valentin Burnusuzyan was admitted to V. Sargsyan Academy Command and Staff Faculty, joined the service of the commander of the armored battalion in Kapan, and then was appointed commander of the N military unit. Since 2019, he has lived with his family in Vorotan (Kubatlu).

"During the first years of our marriage, I sometimes asked where his family was for him. He would reply, 'I can't say, but I know for sure that my job comes first,'" says Narineh. 

She says that her husband felt anxious before the war. "During our 12 years together, he seemed to be preparing for all this. He used to say that if a war broke out, I shouldn’t wait for him, since he was a tanker, and nothing was left of the tanker, tankers got burnt, “says Narineh. Her husband's body was removed from the battlefield by his army friends the same day he died.

The last time he called was on the day of his death, talking and asking questions for a long time. Before leaving for Artsakh, he wrote encouraging letters to Narineh. "It has made me so strong, I almost don’t cry, I don’t complain, I just don’t have time to get weak," says Narineh.

She still receives letters from her husband's friends and soldiers. There are soldiers who say that he was not only a commander for them to teach how to take up arms - he taught them life. He was especially attentive to soldiers who were orphaned or came out of poor families. He used to say that there were many who come after the rich, while the poor should be taken care of.

Narineh's parents live in Russia, and Valentin Burnusuzyan's uncle's family lives in Javakhk, but Narineh has decided to stay in Armenia with her children. The children go to school, while she works in Shirkatsi Lyceum. She is determined to carry out the unfinished work of her husband - providing a good education for the children, and creating a house for them. Currently, the family lives in a rented house.