YEREVAN (Public Radio of Armenia) — President Serzh Sargsyan on May 23 attended the ceremony unveiling the statue of the Hero of the USSR, Chief Marshal of the USSR armored troops Hamazasp Babajanian.
The memorial is in the public square adjacent to Babajanian Street in Avan administrative district of Yerevan. The memorial was created by the sculptor Hamlet Matinian and architect Michael Missakian.
Present at the ceremony were also Minister of Defense Seyran Ohanyan, Yerevan Mayor Taron Margarian, veterans of World War II, the Commanding General United States Army Europe Lieutenant General Frederick Benjamin Hodges, the Adjutant General of Kansas, the military commander of the Kansas National Guard Major General Lee E. Tafanelli, military attachés of foreign states, natives of Chardakhlu residing in Yerevan (Khachisarians) and other guests.
Sargsyan laid flowers on the monument and paid tribute to the memory of the great warrior. After the march of the ceremonial guard, the Honorary Citizen of Yerevan, Rafael Vahanian and the Vice Chair of the Armenian Chess Federation Hovik Khalikian handed to President Sargsyan a symbolic gift – chess board which belonged to Babajanian which had been presented by the descendants of the Marshal.
Babajanian, born in 1906, was a Soviet military commander.
