Doctor Taron Tonoyan’s cell phone never stops ringing. His patients are constantly calling him. “Yes Hayk, you can bring your mother tomorrow” says the doctor. This call sets the tone for our conversation in his office at the Yerevan Medical Center.

“Hayk is one of our friends who fought in the war. He’s bringing his mother tomorrow for surgery. His brother, Vahe Baghdasaryan, was a doctor who served with me in the same detachment. He fought in the Shahen Meghryan detachment and was killed in the Shahumyan region. Now I have to perform surgery on his mom.”

When the war broke out in Karabakh Taron Tonoyan was completing his studies at the Yerevan State Medical University.

“There are people who by nature are enterprising, who get things done. They live well whether or not there’s a war. But what type of person, in the main, volunteered and went off to the front lines? They were somewhat crazy, romantics, idealists and patriots. Business however requires the skills of a pragmatic individual and those guys could have never played a role in either politics or the business world. I haven’t seen traces of the ‘Vietnamese Syndrome’ in any of our friends. Instead, I know many people who’ve had health issues that have prevented them from getting ahead after returning from the war. It’s in this regard our government and society are culpable in not lending them a hand and getting them back on their feet.”

Raised in a ‘Sasuntsi’ family, Taron didn’t imagine any other choice but to volunteer for military service. After the events in Sumgait he and a few friends tried to get their hands on some guns. Taron remembers that while they were helping out in Spitak after the earthquake he spotted a hunting rifle in the home of his friend’s uncle. The others were also able to procure weapons from here or there. Taron and three others joined the ‘Sasuntsi’ detachment and left for the town of Meghri. Later on Taron became a soldier with the Armenian Revolutionary Federation and was dispatched to Karabakh.

It turned out that doctors were in short supply in Karabakh. The skilled surgeon Valery Marutyan appointed the newly graduated doctor as chief of an army field hospital in Hadrut. It was located in the basement of the building housing the executive committee. Throughout the war Taron, along with his wife and six month-old daughter, lived in that basement. When Fizuli was taken the hospital was transferred to that town, right on the front line. The most memorable days for the doctor were the days of January 5th - 7th in 1994.

He states that, “When you go off to war, you pass through a number of stages. Initially you experience such a level of enthusiasm that masks any pangs of fear. You’re going off with your comrades at your side to save the fatherland. Afterwards, when you’re on the front lines actually fighting and the first time one of your friends gets killed, you realize that death is your constant companion and that it can take you as well. There are some who are hardened by this fat of warfare and there are others who are cowered by it.”

“Recently I saw one of my old friends. On the battlefield his cot was close to where I bedded down. He had trouble sleeping at night, always tossing and turning in bed. Two days went by. We had already lost three guys. Two more restless nights passed. He finally went to the commander and said, “I’m with you heart and soul but I just can’t stay here anymore. You have to send me back to Armenia.” And he did go back. This wasn’t cowardice on his part. That was all he had within himself to give. Not everyone is cut out to be a hero.”

The doctor states comes the period when a person gets tempered on the battlefield; when he becomes more at ease with his surroundings. You know your gun inside and out. When an enemy tank advances on your position you know how to best take cover. You can tell by the whistling that an incoming round makes overhead whether it will fall close to your position and explode or whether it will pass you by. In other words, you become more self-confident through the practical battle experience you have gained.

The fourth and final stage occurs at the height of the war. “When we were clearing out Azeri fighters from the neighboring villages of Stepanakert, our forces took the towns of Aghdam and Fizuli. These were truly great victories and are morale was quite high. We couldn’t control the jubilation we felt afterwards when Djebrail, Zangelan and other towns were liberated. Those were truly historic times. When the enemy was finally driven out from the borders of Karabakh a certain state of calmness set in. The guys started to let their guard down a bit and became overly cocky. The Azeris put up much stronger resistance when we advanced into their own territory. We should have been prepared for such a contingency but we weren’t. Starting on January 5th the Azeris advanced 23 kilometers in two days towards the Arax River. We experienced many losses during that period.”

When the Azeris had advanced to within ten kilometers of Fizuli, the military commander, through the auspices of the Village Mayor of Tumi, ordered that the hospital be disassembled and relocated by in Hadrut. “All the supply and storage outfits had already been relocated in Hadrut. Can you imagine what would have happened if a soldier on the frontline found out that the hospital was being transferred there as well? A general panic would have broken out. We decided to stay put. Two days of fierce fighting waged on until we were able to push the enemy back.”

The doctor remembers how heroic the women were as well.

“They were very difficult days. There was a constant stream of incoming wounded. We had set up a triage post at the hospital where the wounded were prioritized according to medical need: Who required immediate surgery, who could be sent to Stepanakert and who needed to get transported to Yerevan. At one point I was so psychologically affected by that constant stream of wounded bodies that I almost sat down and began to cry; the situation was so hopeless. When I turned around and saw that our nurses were seemingly unaffected by it all and continued to feverously work away, I quickly regained my composure.”

“There were days, the doctor recounts, when we’d celebrate birthdays and other holidays and join in at wedding festivities in neighboring villages.” Taron remembers that the joy he felt on those occasions was much more pronounced and that, in general, all the sensations he experience back then were that much more heightened and intense. “You might find it a bit odd, he says, but those were the happiest days of my life. I was right there were they needed me the most. I was doing the work that needed to be done.”