YEREVAN. – Russian Ambassador Ivan Volinkin, several other Russian diplomats, and Rossotrudnichestvo—the Russian Federation Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation—Armenia representatives on Friday visited the Victory Park in Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan, and laid a wreath at the Eternal Flame to mark Defender of the Fatherland Day.
Armenian Deputy Defense Ministers Davit Pakhchanyan and Artak Davtyan, department heads of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, commanders of the102nd Russian Military Base in Gyumri and the Russian Border Guard Department in Armenia, military servicemen and members of their families, veterans of the Great Patriotic War and the Armed Forces, and numerous others took part in this event.
Defender of the Fatherland Day marks the date in 1918 during the Russian Civil War when the first mass draft into the Red Army occurred.
It is celebrated on February 23 in Russia, Belarus, and Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh).
