Saro Yaqubian's Memories

Machine translation Edited by Mandana Karimi

2026-8-12

Saro Yaqubian, from the Armenian minority and a fighter in the Holy Defense, was a guest on the 287^th Shab-e Khatereh (Remembrance Night) program (January 2018). He spoke about his time in captivity. Yaqubian said: "My brother went to serve in 1985. I was also deployed in 1986. My brother served in the gendarmerie on Minoo Island. The gendarmerie law was that if a person served in a war zone for a year, he could return to the lower ranks. When I wanted to be deployed, my brother said he would get a letter and stay in the zone until I would no longer come to the zone and wanted me to stay with our parents so that they would be more comfortable. I refused and said that whatever God wills and destiny will happen. I said if I stay and something happens to you; I will not forgive myself for the rest of my life.

I was drafted into the military. I went to Ahvaz and from there to Tehran and was trained in Lashkarak garrison. I went to the Safar 1 barracks and was trained. After four months, I was sent to the region. I served in the region for about 20 months and I had completed 24 months of service when I was captured. When they caught us, there were 15 of us. They put us in an open-top KM Jeep. We were all standing. While we were leaving, their tanks were coming from the opposite direction. They tied our hands with a communication wire. The driver of the car was driving very badly. I had a friend named Vahid Jamali who was in my class. I told him to stop because the driver was driving badly and he said I was tired and wanted to sit down. The car turned left in the middle of the road and we all got out. When we came to, we saw Vahid Jamali lying on the asphalt a hundred meters away, bleeding from his head and face. The situation was such that most people were thinking about themselves. I told the pals that Vahid had fallen over there. They said he would not survive. They said let us go, I said where to go?! In short, we went and put him on my shoulder and brought him near the car. He lost consciousness. The pals said, "Let him go Saro. He will not survive. He is bleeding." I put my ear to his heart and saw that he was alive. I said it was not right to leave him. He is our friend. No one came to help me and I was very upset. In any case, I put him on my shoulder and walked to the Iraqi area. This was while so many tanks had rolled over the dirt and asphalt that the dirt was soft up to half a meter and our feet were sinking into the dirt. I handed my friend over. We ourselves went to a place where they had made a camp with reeds. They made us sit there and filmed us. Then they divided us up to go to the camps.

The Red Cross had visited most of the camps there. When we arrived, they had no space and none of those camps would let us in. Finally, they took us to their ammunition and armory. There was an area with three-by-four rooms measuring 12 meters and 20 meters. In those 20-meter rooms, 75 people were put in. They threw 50 of us into a small three-by-four room. It had a small window. They did not give us any water or food for the first few days. We did not have a place to sleep at all. Now I have a problem with my discs and sciatica in my back, which is what happened to me. To sleep, our backs were on the floor and our feet were on the wall. Even four or five people who could not fit had to hang from the window bars in shifts until an hour passed and the next people woke up. They hung on the bars instead of them. They went and slept in their place. Days passed like this and we got used to it. They had not even given us slippers after six months. We went to and from the bathroom barefoot. We had two bathrooms and there were 1,200 of us. If we were out for an hour or two a day and wanted to use the bathroom, the Iraqis would harass us. For example, after we had been standing in line for a long time waiting for our turn, they would blow the whistle of at ease and everyone would have to get back in line.”

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So far, 381 Holy Defense Remembrance Night programs have been held by the Center for Studies and Research on Culture and Literature of Sustainability and the Office of Literature and Art of Resistance of the Hozeh Honari. The next program will be held on Thursday, August 27, 2026.

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