Ayatollah Khamenei Visits
The family of Martyr Paylak Avedian
Visit Date: 29/12/1984
The Photo of
Martyr Paylak Avedian
Martyred in Dezful, Khuzistan
Martyred on 15/10/1980
When she paged through the album, she would look at the bill and weep and say: “Oh my son, I love you, your whole thought was to make others happy” Paylak was interested in both traditional and modern sports and nobody could beat him in a wrist match.
When he was about to join the military, we all felt uncomfortable but my father was the exception. He was happy because he believed that now his son had become a mature man. He even bought a sheep and sacrificed it for him. He said to Paylak: when your military service is over, I‘ll myself find a proper girl to marry you!
Anyway, when he began serving in the army, there was no war. His training course was in Birjand and later he was sent to Mashhad. But a few months later when the war started, he was dispatched to a war-front in Dezful. Some of his comrades told him: we must desert the war-front, but he had refused and encouraged others to stay and fight for their country. He had told them: One day we’ll all die, death is a thousand times better than a humiliated life under the aggressors, much better to die defending your country.
Paylak‘s another characteristic was his gift of leadership. Wherever he was the people around would willingly choose him as manager or leader. Of course he did not have the ambition to command and for this reason he had refused to become a regular officer and remained a simple soldier. He also used to read a lot of books to increase his knowledge. While serving in the army he took many photographs that showed him using all sorts of weapons; one photo even showed him driving a Tank! But in fact he never told us about his military duties; he sometimes joked and said: I clean the area with a broom!
On the anniversaries of the genocide of Armenians in Turkey, he was most active and prepared leaflets and placards about this horrible incident and many photos of the people demonstrating. He used to say: The Iranian Muslims have always been kind to Armenians especially when many of them migrated to Iran after being treated so horribly by the Turks and later by the Soviet Communists in Armenia. He sometimes commented: The Turks destroyed Armenian historical sites but the Iranians have always helped us to repair them.
He also collected all the pamphlets, letters and photos concerning the Massacre of the 24th April each year. In the year he was martyred he came to Tehran to take part in the 24th April demonstrations.
Two special days in my life that I never forget were: the day I was asked to go to the morgue to identify my brother’s body and the day when Ayatollah Khamenei was the guest in our house.
This is how we heard about martyrdom: I was at home and so were my father and grandfather. A soldier came and asked us to go to the morgue to identify my dead brother; the three of us went there. The people there were all weeping and wailing. In a corner of the morgue, there were the bodies of 3 Armenian martyrs. The first body belonged to an Armenian whose family did not yet know about his martyrdom: a soldier had gone to meet his family and to give them the news but he had seen that a wedding ceremony was going on, the wedding of the martyr’s brother! So he did not tell them about the martyr because the wedding would have changed into wailing and mourning. The second body was that of Zurik Moradian and the third body belonged to my brother Paylak. A bullet has pierced his left shoulder behind the heart …well, let me say no more, in short Paylak and Zurik were among the first martyrs of the war against Iran. They were killed some 4 days in between but the bodies were transferred to Tehran at the same time. Paylak was martyred in Dezful and Zurik in Piran-shahr.
Let me tell you something about my grandfather: he was an Armenian priest and grandfather on my mother’s side; his name was Asham Arakelian. You see them in this picture. As you see my martyred brother was really a photo-genic person.
My grandfather was a famous priest, all Armenians knew him. After Paylak’s martyrdom, he proposed that we set aside a piece of land in the Armenian cemetery called “Nahatak”, as if he already knew that many more Armenians would be killed in this war. If you visit the cemetery, you’ll see the Nahatak area in the midelle of the cemetery.
The visit
The day, in fact the evening, that I’ll never forget is when Ayatollah Khamenei came to see us in our house. This was a very happy, sweet occasion, unlike the sad day when I identified my brother’s body. For me, he was a completely different Khamenei, not at all like what I had seen on the television on official occasions: He was so warm-hearted, intimate, friendly and loving, just like a very kind member of our own family.
In the morning my mother telephoned me and said: we have guests this evening, so come home straight after your work. That evening I first paid a visit to my fiancé’s house and when her parents asked about my parents, I remembered what my mother had said and rushed home. It was four years after Paylak’s martyrdom when the war was still raging. When I reached home, I noticed two unfamiliar persons at the entrance-door. I was asked who I was and then they let me in. when I entered the house, I was really astonished: Ayatollah Khamenei, then the president, was warmly talking with my parents!
When I entered the reception-room, my father introduced me to the president saying: This is the elder brother of the martyred brother and eldest of my children. The president rose up from his chair respectfully and said ‘salaam’ in a friendly way. To us it was a memorable evening. Mr. Khamenei talked to all of us in turn. He asked my younger brother and sister about their schools, their education and their interest in books. He also explained to us how important the sacrifice of soldiers and fighters such as Paylak was for the future of our country. My mother brought a photo of my brother in a frame and showed it to Ayatollah Khamenei and he studied the photo with great interest, well, I may say again that I will never forget that evening.