Hovsep Kirakosyan

Hovsep Kirakosyan (Հովսեփ Կիրակոսյան; 23 August 1988 – 2 April 2016) was a military captain of a company of engineers in the Armenian Armed Forces who died heroically during the Armenian-Azerbaijani clashes of 2016, saving the lives of all 25 soldiers in his battalion.

Biography
He was born on 23 August 1988 in Apaga village, Armavir region, Armenia. He has an older brother and younger sister, and two young sons. His ancestors came from the town of Sasun in historical Western Armenia.

Hovsep Kirakosyan served in the Armenian Armed Forces starting in 2006. After graduating from high school, he went to the Vazgen Sargsyan Military Institute in Yerevan. Upon graduation he was stationed in Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh, and afterwards, Mataghis village, Martakert region, Nagorno-Karabakh.

He had always dreamed of becoming a soldier. Kirakosyan's father was against it, however his mother was always proud of his high grades at the military academy.

April War
During the night of 1 April into the morning of 2 April 2016, along the northeastern part of the Artsakh-Azerbaijan contact line, units of Azerbaijani Armed Forces carried out large-scale attacks against the Armenian side. Captain Kirakosyan at the time was living with his wife and children in the Mataghis village of Martakert. His wife, Mariam, said that during the night, there was a knock on their bedroom window, from which they both woke up and it was understood that they needed to get their children out of the village immediately. Hovsep's wife asked him to escape with her, but he said, "No, I am sorry, I can't. I have 25 soldiers, I have to be by their side. If anything happens to them, how am I going to look at their parents in the eyes?" Hovsep's wife, Mariam, and their two young sons escaped from the village.

Captain Hovsep Kirakosyan was one of the first soldiers to fall in the April War. He left his soldiers in the trenches and went out onto the battlefield alone. Although heavily wounded, he ran forward 30 meters and used grenades against the enemy Azerbaijani soldiers. One of his soldiers saw that blood was coming from Hovsep's ears and eyes, but he still continued to fight. When his soldiers brought Captain Kirakosyan back to the trenches, they were not able to remove him from the area because of intense shooting. He ordered his soldiers, "Boys, I am fine. You go fight."

Hovsep Kirakosyan's memorial service took place on April 4, 2016 in the culture center of the Apaga village and his funeral took place on 5 April.

Awards
Captain Hovsep Kirakosyan was supposed to have received the title of major in six months from April.

He was posthumously awarded with the Republic of Armenia "Military Service" medal.