Backgammon on the table in the house as a silent sign of waiting for  Lieutenant Colonel Stepanyan - disappeared, but not forgotten 

ArmInfo.  On August 29, the International Day of the Disappeared, a photo exhibition dedicated to the families who are still waiting for their missing loved ones, was held  in Goris. Several dozen photographs display stories of pain,  suffering, expectations and simply the hope of seeing them again - a  husband, father, brother, son,  taken by the war. 

One of these photos shows a young man sitting with his back to the  table with a backgammon set spread out in front of him. An empty  chair next to him holds a dark-colored jacket. The young man is  Tigran, the son of Lieutenant Colonel Mher Stepanyan, who was the   commander of the 3rd battalion of the Vayk regiment. Mher went  missing during the 44-day war in the fall of 2020 while defending the  Motherland.  The backgammon has become a kind of symbol for Tigran,  personifying his father. It seems that through this backgammon, the  son is trying to stay connected to the person dear to him,  whom he  has not heard from in almost five years. It helps fill the emptiness  and longing he has inside. In the Stepanyan family, backgammon has  become a  symbol of expectation and hope for Mher's return.   

Lieutenant Colonel Stepanyan's wife Anush told ArmInfo that her  husband went missing on the night of October 13, 2020, his 51st  birthday, while defending Jrakan. To this day, they have been unable   to find out anything about his fate. According to her, her husband  tried to find their son, but the circumstances did not allow it. The  situation was very difficult, there was a chaos and confusion. 

Anush Hakobyan adds that despite numerous search operations, her husband could  not be found. She does not rule out that her husband was captured by  the enemy. "Why not, he was an officer in the Armenian army, a  participant in the first Artsakh war. They even talked about him in  the Azerbaijani media. Maybe he was wounded and captured by the  enemy. We do not rule out this option, as the enemy was very close,"  she noted. She added with bitterness that her husband disappeared on  his 51st birthday. 

She also said that after the news of her husband's disappearance, her  son Tigran was demobilized as the sole heir. "Many people think that  he died. But I don't think so. I'm waiting, and my children are  waiting.  My daughters, grandchildren: We are all waiting. The  authorities have not told us anything to this day.  There are no  answers, there is only an open criminal case and no DNA tests  confirming his death: We gave DNA samples - then his mother and  father were still alive: They could not bear the pain of ignorance  and the thought of loss. Mher's father passed away a few months after  the news that his son was missing, and his mother died waiting for  news about her son: But we continue to wait and believe that he will  return," Anush said.