Residents of the Shirak Province village of Metz Mantash turned out today to pay their final respects to Arman Andreasyan, a 19-year-old soldier killed in the recent round of fighting along the Artsakh Line of Contact.

Arman had been listed as missing in action and his parents held out hope that their son was still alive.

His body, however, was one of those 18 Armenian soldiers exchanged for Azerbaijani war dead on April 10.

The mayor of Metz Mantash said that Arman’s unit was the first to be fired upon in the recent fighting

Arman, the youngest in the family, was conscripted in January 2014. His four older brothers have already finished their military service

Metz Mantash municipality secretary Armanoush Sargsyan, a neighbor of the Andreasyans, says that Arman was a very endearing young man well-liked by all. “We’ve heard that he was a good soldier and wanted to reenlist after being discharged,” said Sargsyan.

The village mayor told Hetq that there are 32 Metz Mantash residents now serving along the borders of Artsakh – 24 conscripts and 8 contractual soldiers.

Residents are awaiting news regarding Argishti Gaboyan, another Metz Mantash native who has been listed as missing in action. The Artsakh military is conducting a search for Gaboyan in Talish, a village in the northeastern region of Artsakh.