"Death does not suit him at all"
02.04.2004 – 24.10.2020

16 years old

Suffering a bitter defeat on the battlefields of the 44-day-long Patriotic War ever since it started on 27 September, Armenians resorted to provocations. They carried missile and rocket strikes on cities and villages of Azerbaijan, killing peaceful population far away from the frontline.

According to the General Prosecutor's Office, 93 non-combatants were killed and 454 wounded as a result of these Armenian missile and rocket strikes as of 16 November 2020.

There were also kids among these casualties.

The General Prosecutor's Office reported that the occupant country's military forces launched around 10:00 AM on 24 October a rocket strike on Kabirli village of Terter District. The strike killed Orkhan Rahbar Ismayilzada (b. 2004).

Orkhan Ismayilzada was born on 2 April 2004 in Khoruzlu village of Terter District. He was a 10th grade student in the Khoruzlu village high school.

"I will find a job and buy myself a house"
Orkhan Rahbar Ismayilzada
Orkhan's mother Aynura Ismayilova says Orkhan was a quiet and docile child since infancy:

"Whatever we told him to do, he always complied. Orkhan always listened to me, he would say: "Mom, wherever you go, I will follow." He was a very good kid.

He would say: "Mom, when I grow up, I am going to earn money and take care about you." I would buy Orkhan whatever he desired; I also would cook his favorite meals. Orkhan said that when he'd grow up, he would join the army; when I come back, he said, I would find a job. And I said to him: "But you do not study, you have problems with math." We would get him to a tutor, and he would attend various training courses time and again.

"I am not going to get enrolled at a university; I will be a laborer and I will provide for you. I will save up and buy me a house." "Mom, you will have your own villa", he said jokingly.

Orkhan loved his village
His mother says:

"Orkhan wanted to stay in the village. "Mom, there are so many small companies nearby; I am going to find a job around the village and provide for the family." He would never ever thought of moving away. He had such good friends; they still remember him and come to visit us once in a while.

Everyone loved him. His teacher called me to the school once and complained that Orkhan did not want to study; still, she said he was a very kind boy."

"Let us cook halavah and distribute it among our fellow villagers [as an offering to God], so that nothing will happens to our soldiers"
His mother says Orkhan was fearless even in the days of war:

"Orkhan's uncle called up and said he could provide a shelter for the kids in Baku, but Orkhan refused to go. I also told them to move out of the village for a while. But both my sons said they were not going anywhere. Orkhan said: "I will earn some money, and once the war is over, I will call Gulnaz's mother; we will buy sugar sand and cook some halvah, so that our village does not have any shahids." He had soldier friends, and Orkhan said: "They protect us. Let us cook halvah and distribute it, so that nothing happens to them". And next day he died; there were no shahids apart from him in the village.

The fighting was going on day and night, so we did not leave the house; I eventually dispatched Orkan to Baku. He would stay there for a week, then said "I cannot stay back in the town, knowing that my brother, my father and you are over there." So when my brother came back from Baku, he brought Orkhan with him. The following morning my son started working at my father's sunflower processing shop.

He asked the salesman to find such T-shirt and call him up
"We headed to Barda to buy him some clothes for the money he saved up", says Aynura, adding:

"He did the round of the bazaar, looking for T-shirts with the national flag print. They told us such T-shirts were still out of stock. He said: "Mom, I saw on TV some T-shirts with prints "Karabakh is Azerbaijan" and "Chase 'em like dogs". I will buy a T-shirt with "Karabakh is Azerbaijan", one with the national flag and one with "Chase 'em like dogs"." We entered a store, and the salesman told us they had recently got a new stock. Orkhan asked the salesman to find such T-shirts. He bought the first two, but the one with "Chase 'em like dogs" was not available. So he asked the salesman to find such T-shirt and call him up. Orkhan put on a new T-shirt and showed it to his friends.

They liked it a lot, saying: "Well do Orkhan, you are the only one in the whole village to wear a national flag T-shirt." And he replied: "I close it myself, because Karabakh is Azerbaijan. May my friends who went to the war return safe and sound. Apart from a national flag T-shirt, I will use my earnings to buy halvah and distribute it to people, so that the war ends as soon as possible."

The day when it happened...
His mother says Orkhan's grandfather called her up early in the morning and told her to wake up the children:

"I woke up Murad, and Orkhan said he'd get up himself. They ate and left; a shelling started like 10 minutes later. I heard a deafening roar. We got out of the house; people told us the rocket hit in vicinity of the military base. We headed there, but people nearby told us the rocket hit not the base but rather Kabirli village.

Our relatives called up a bit later and said a rocket hit my niece's house. We headed to Kabirli in a neighbor's car. There was already my eldest son with my brother and nephew on the spot. They were crying. Asked what happened, they said Orkhan had been hit by a shell fragment. His brother said they went to the sunflower processing shop and from there to a garden with persimmon trees. Orkhan was picking up the remaining fruits when a fragment hit him. It went through his body from the rear and exited from the chest. They told me at first that he is merely wounded. We headed to Barda; when we reached the canal, my father called our son-in-law and told him to come back as they are too. The deceived me by saying they need Orkhan's ID. When we came back, I saw people crowded at the door. It turns out Orkhan died at the scene."

Aynura says Orkhan and she were very close and did not have any secrets from one another:

"We did not have any secrets from one another, and ne would never disclose any secrets of mine. He would never convey my words to other people or shy away from me. He would work in the garden. Several days before his demise, Orkhan with his father turned up the soil and watered the trees. He loved working in the garden. He tended to the trees but paid special attention to cherry plum. He would say: we will have a good harvest from the garden and sell it. Keeping trees in bearing was what he did well. When it came to weeding, he would take a hoe and say: "Mom, do not strain yourself; I will go do it." He was a very brave guy.

The meals Orkhan asked his mother to cook
"Orkhan just adored meat courses", Aynur goes on.

"He would have supper by night and go to sleep, but first said: "Mom, come and let me kiss you." Then he asked me what I was going to cook for dinner tomorrow. I would say I was going to fry potatoes, and he said: "Could you please make cutlets." Once he has dined, he would ask what I was going to do for supper.

I would name a meal, and he said in reply: "Cook whatever you want, but put meat in it." His meal of choice was dolma with grape leaves, pilaw, and chestnuts. It is not like he loved everything. Whatever I cooked for him, I had to pick meals very thoroughly.

He was my 16-year-old baby, and I lost him. May the Allah curse the Armenians! They took my son away. I would never let Orkhan go. Death does not suit him at all."

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