A couple of weeks ago, I got a glimpse at the 2004 calendar book that the Ministry of Defense published. Very interesting stories and reprinted articles, including one about my grandfather Shahan Natalie.
I was shown the calendar book by my Godson Lavrent, who also had an article written about him, but it was not as flattering as the one about my grandfather.
Just some really quick background on Lavrent. He was one on Monte Melkonian’s soldiers who Monte was quite fond of and took this boy from a village who drove a bulldozer and made him into a tank driver in a matter less than a month.
In battle, Lavrent was usually the lead tank and during the war, he hit 29 land mines. Once being mistaken for dead after being removed from his blown up tank and while at the morgue, he started to grown and was rushed off to the hospital where they revived him. In short this guy is the real Energizer Bunny who just keeps on going.
So Lavrent came to me with his Ministery of Defense’s 2004 calendar book and showed me the article about him which at the heading read “The Real Story”.
“The Real Story” which was titled “You Never turn your back to the Turks” talked about an operation that Monte executed where they were to capture 5 or 6 Azeri tanks using land mines. It went on to say that Lavrent didn’t understand his orders and hit a tank destroying it. Monte got upset and called Lavrent an “Avanag” (Jackass) and saying that he hit a tank that was to be ours.
According to Lavrent, this never happened and as many times as Monte got upset with Lavrent, he never called him an “Avanag”. On top of that, Lavrent never heard Monte use the word “Avanag” in Martuni, he would use the word “Esh”, which means the same thing, but again, never had he used this word on Lavrent.
Lavrent wanted to find out where this “real story” originated, as it was not all that real and in a sense, made Monte even look bad, as no one in their right mind uses land mines to capture tanks and no such operation had taken place with Lavrent present.
The other day when Lavrent arrived to Yerevan, he asked me if I had looked into who the publishers were of the calendar? I had not had time, but as soon as he asked, we drove to the Armen Press building and went to the administrators office, where I knew that people who love books are always helpful and sure as can be, like a reference librarian, the worker found who the publisher was and in a couple of minutes I was talking to Verg Israelyan, the chief editor, who is a Kuntabed in the Armenian army (he has 3 large stars on his shoulder, one more than my neighbor who commands a large base).
I told Israelyan that I was Shahan Natalie’s grandson and had read the flattering article about my grandfather in his calendar and wanted to meet with him to discuss the origin of some of the other articles. He said that since he office is at the Ministry of Defense, it would be difficult for me to gain access and we should meet somewhere. We agreed to meet at the Armenia Hotel at 3 PM.
At 3 PM Lavrent and I arrived at the Armenia Hotel and waiting for us out front was Kuntabed Israelyan. He was delighted to meet Shahan Natalie’s grandson and as we sat for a cup of coffee (I had tea), he told me of his publishing carrier and how he use to work with a newspaper that had republished Shahan works and articles of his very inspiring work that the Armenian army promotes regularly among the ranks.
I thanked Israelyan for all the nice compliments and focused on the reason of our meeting, finding out the origin of the “real story” that belittles Lavrent. He said that he was not really sure of the origin of the story and said that he didn’t even know if “Lavrent” was a real person? I told him that Lavrent was a real person and was sitting next to him.
Lavrent said that it was important that we find out where he obtained this “real story”, as there was very little in it that was real.
At first he became defensive, which I guess we were expecting, but in time he said that he would do his best to find where it came from, but it would be difficult, as it could have been a story that one of Monte’s friends told. I told him that it didn’t matter who it was or where it came from, he needs to tell us or he himself will have to answer for publishing a not so “real story” which we will visit with Serg himself if need be.
We clearly upset the Kuntabed, who was expecting a friendly meeting with the grandson of someone who he greatly admires. Oh well, if he wants to have a friendly relationship with me, he’s going to have to produce results and show that he responsibly published “The Real Story”.
I was shown the calendar book by my Godson Lavrent, who also had an article written about him, but it was not as flattering as the one about my grandfather.
Just some really quick background on Lavrent. He was one on Monte Melkonian’s soldiers who Monte was quite fond of and took this boy from a village who drove a bulldozer and made him into a tank driver in a matter less than a month.
In battle, Lavrent was usually the lead tank and during the war, he hit 29 land mines. Once being mistaken for dead after being removed from his blown up tank and while at the morgue, he started to grown and was rushed off to the hospital where they revived him. In short this guy is the real Energizer Bunny who just keeps on going.
So Lavrent came to me with his Ministery of Defense’s 2004 calendar book and showed me the article about him which at the heading read “The Real Story”.
“The Real Story” which was titled “You Never turn your back to the Turks” talked about an operation that Monte executed where they were to capture 5 or 6 Azeri tanks using land mines. It went on to say that Lavrent didn’t understand his orders and hit a tank destroying it. Monte got upset and called Lavrent an “Avanag” (Jackass) and saying that he hit a tank that was to be ours.
According to Lavrent, this never happened and as many times as Monte got upset with Lavrent, he never called him an “Avanag”. On top of that, Lavrent never heard Monte use the word “Avanag” in Martuni, he would use the word “Esh”, which means the same thing, but again, never had he used this word on Lavrent.
Lavrent wanted to find out where this “real story” originated, as it was not all that real and in a sense, made Monte even look bad, as no one in their right mind uses land mines to capture tanks and no such operation had taken place with Lavrent present.
The other day when Lavrent arrived to Yerevan, he asked me if I had looked into who the publishers were of the calendar? I had not had time, but as soon as he asked, we drove to the Armen Press building and went to the administrators office, where I knew that people who love books are always helpful and sure as can be, like a reference librarian, the worker found who the publisher was and in a couple of minutes I was talking to Verg Israelyan, the chief editor, who is a Kuntabed in the Armenian army (he has 3 large stars on his shoulder, one more than my neighbor who commands a large base).
I told Israelyan that I was Shahan Natalie’s grandson and had read the flattering article about my grandfather in his calendar and wanted to meet with him to discuss the origin of some of the other articles. He said that since he office is at the Ministry of Defense, it would be difficult for me to gain access and we should meet somewhere. We agreed to meet at the Armenia Hotel at 3 PM.
At 3 PM Lavrent and I arrived at the Armenia Hotel and waiting for us out front was Kuntabed Israelyan. He was delighted to meet Shahan Natalie’s grandson and as we sat for a cup of coffee (I had tea), he told me of his publishing carrier and how he use to work with a newspaper that had republished Shahan works and articles of his very inspiring work that the Armenian army promotes regularly among the ranks.
I thanked Israelyan for all the nice compliments and focused on the reason of our meeting, finding out the origin of the “real story” that belittles Lavrent. He said that he was not really sure of the origin of the story and said that he didn’t even know if “Lavrent” was a real person? I told him that Lavrent was a real person and was sitting next to him.
Lavrent said that it was important that we find out where he obtained this “real story”, as there was very little in it that was real.
At first he became defensive, which I guess we were expecting, but in time he said that he would do his best to find where it came from, but it would be difficult, as it could have been a story that one of Monte’s friends told. I told him that it didn’t matter who it was or where it came from, he needs to tell us or he himself will have to answer for publishing a not so “real story” which we will visit with Serg himself if need be.
We clearly upset the Kuntabed, who was expecting a friendly meeting with the grandson of someone who he greatly admires. Oh well, if he wants to have a friendly relationship with me, he’s going to have to produce results and show that he responsibly published “The Real Story”.
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