May 8 is completely different: the story of a betrayal

On November 8, 2020, the attention of all Azerbaijanis around the world, all of Azerbaijan's friends and allies, was focused on the Alley of Martyrs, from where the words that we have all been waiting for for 28 years were to be heard. And they sounded.

"You're free, dear Shusha! We're back, dear Shusha! We will revive you, dear Shusha!" said the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, President Ilham Aliyev.

Today is May 8, the day of the occupation of Shusha. The city was occupied in 1992 and liberated on November 8, 2020. For many years, the symbol of Azerbaijani Karabakh was in the hands of the occupiers. During this time, May 8 was a day of national mourning for us, albeit not an official one.

In a broad sense, this city symbolizes the concept of homeland for the Azerbaijani people, even for those who were not born in Karabakh and have never been here. At one time, National leader Heydar Aliyev said: "Shusha is a hometown, a native land, a native fortress, a native monument not only for the people of Shusha, but also for every Azerbaijani, every citizen who loves his homeland and nation."

In Armenia, they were very proud of their "Wedding in the Mountains," but only the participants in those events knew that no "heroism" was required from the aggressor. The defense of the city was not organized through the fault of traitors, but those who showed unparalleled heroism were the defenders of Shusha, a few self-defense units and a small group of military personnel who defended the city until their last breath. The enemy had a disproportionate advantage in both the number of personnel and the number of armored vehicles. Despite this, the defenders of the city managed to hold out for several hours. They were hoping for help from Baku, but Baku was busy with other things at the time.

On the night of May 7-8, 1992, Armenian militants shelled the city. Towards morning, all Azerbaijani posts were captured. The defenders of Shusha fought to the last bullet. The name of the National Hero Albert Agarunov is associated with the defense of the city, whose tank, having taken up a position on the outskirts of Shusha, single-handedly held back the enemy for a long time.

Shusha was captured on the day when the so-called peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan were taking place in Tehran...

Armenia had big plans for Shusha. By the 30th anniversary of the occupation, that is, on May 8, 2022, it was planned to move the capital of the "NKR" from Khankendi to Shusha. In 2007, an Armenian-commissioned American company developed a new general plan for the "revival of Shushi," for which the US Embassy later had to justify itself to Baku. The presentation of this barbaric plan took place on May 8th. The occupiers hoped to "revive the traditions of Shusha and its special significance in the history of the Armenian people." But they did not succeed. The city stubbornly resisted the outsiders. For 28 years, they have not been able to settle and rebuild it completely. The occupiers tried their best to erase the Azerbaijani spirit from it, and made a lot of efforts to change the historical appearance of Shusha. Historical buildings and entire neighborhoods were completed and rebuilt, demolished under the pretext of building roads. At the same time, attempts were made to establish the "Gregorian" history of the city, for which the Armenian Orthodox churches located here were converted during the occupation. Moreover, one of them, the Gazanchi Church, turned out to be the city-forming center of the composition after the Armenians changed the city plan.

In Armenia, they could not even imagine that the occupation would not live to see its 30th anniversary.

"We will revive you, dear Shusha!" - the President of Azerbaijan promised. And this process began in the very first weeks after the Victory and continues to this day. Five and a half years after its liberation, Shusha is strikingly different from the dilapidated and mutilated city that the heroic Azerbaijani special forces found liberating Shusha. The Shusha operation has been included in the textbooks of military universities in many countries of the world, but experts still cannot understand how a small group of special forces with light weapons managed to liberate the city, which was considered an impregnable fortress, where the invaders fortified and dug in for 28 years.

But let's go back to the terrible day of May 8, 1992.

No one could have imagined that Shusha would be surrendered. This city was a national symbol, and we thought that the country's leadership would do everything possible to ensure that the symbol did not end up in enemy hands. But Shusha became a victim of betrayal. "Thanks" to the traitors, most of the Shusha garrison left the city without a fight, leaving only a handful of brave men. When the last defender of Shushi was killed, the Armenian militants entered the city cautiously, not believing their eyes. The Armenians abandoned the detachments of Armenian militants and entered the abandoned city cautiously, not believing in their luck. They concentrated an entire armada on the Shusha direction, but it turned out that only a handful of Azerbaijanis defended the city. It is noteworthy that the looting of Shusha began even before the militants decided to enter the city. This is evidenced by the Armenian sources themselves - upon entering, the "victors" came across Armenian looters who were already messing around in the houses abandoned by the Azerbaijanis.

The occupiers were very lucky that no one in Baku thought about Shusha. More precisely, they thought, but only as a tool for achieving political goals. Just as the NFA successfully used the Khojaly genocide against Ayaz Mutallibov, the latter tried to take advantage of the occupation of Shusha in order to return to power, which he was forced to abandon due to the Khojaly events.

The older generation remembers what happened in Baku at that time. There was confusion at the top of the government. The ball was ruled by the opposition, which directed all the processes on the Karabakh front, shuffling army units and field commanders as it needed.

The fall of Shusha gave Mutallibov's supporters an excuse to use this event to return the former president to power. In fact, they wanted to repeat the scenario of a change of power carried out by the NFA-Musavat tandem after Khojaly. But it didn't work out, because the "front-line soldiers" had their own plans.

The new government promised to return Shusha. There were pretentious reports on television, announcers announced how many kilometers were left to Shusha, and the citizens of the country waited with bated breath for good news. And suddenly everything stopped. It's like nothing ever happened. There was no allegedly successful offensive. People realized that they had been deceived.

Addressing the Azerbaijani people on May 10, 2023, in connection with the 100th anniversary of national leader Heydar Aliyev, President Ilham Aliyev said: it was as a result of national treason and betrayal that Shusha was surrendered to the enemy in May 1992. Shusha is an impregnable fortress. Everyone knows that. It was in order to come to power that they left Shusha.

A month after the occupation of Shusha, the NFA-Musavat tandem came to power. Actually, the city was surrendered for this.

"Robbery, pillage, arbitrariness, anarchy, chaos, our lands were seized, and the then government of the NFA-Musavat sold fuel to Armenia. Look at the hatred these people lived with for their people, and even in these difficult days they resorted to dirty deeds to line their pockets. They even started a civil war to stay in power."

Stressing that Shusha was occupied in such conditions, the head of state noted that after that our tragedies increased.: "After the occupation of Shusha, the fate of Lachin was also under great threat, and ten days later Lachin was occupied. Kalbajar was occupied in April 1993, thus, a geographical connection arose between Karabakh and Armenia."

Shortly before the Second Karabakh War, in May 2020, President Ilham Aliyev, appointing his special representative in the Shusha region, named the NFA-Musavat tandem as the culprit of the tragedy. The Head of State recalled that the then Minister of Defense (Rahim Gaziev) promised that if Shusha was surrendered, he would put a bullet in his forehead. But "I still haven't put this bullet in my treacherous forehead."

"They deserted and fled. The Supreme Commander-in-Chief is a deserter, the Secretary of State is a deserter, the Chairman of Parliament is a deserter, other deserters also fled and fled, one to Keleki, the other abroad. If the Supreme Commander runs away during the war, then this is desertion, there is no other name. Everyone should know this and not forget it," said Ilham Aliyev.

The people understood everything. Therefore, the NFA-Musavat government lasted only a year. The political fraudsters turned out to be even more incapacitated than their predecessors. Thanks to their betrayal and incompetence, the situation on the Karabakh front has become irreversible. The enemy was successfully expanding the occupation zone, external forces were also active, and Azerbaijan was on the verge of not only losing territories, but also dismemberment. This would have happened if Heydar Aliyev had not returned to power. 

Do you remember the Armenians' plans to move the separatist "parliament" to Shusha? Of course, how can you forget that? And we also remember the provocative "inauguration" of Arayik Harutyunyan in Shusha and Nikol Pashinyan's dancing on Jydyr Duzyu.

We also remember how after the April 2016 battles, when the revival of Jojug Marjanli began, a sign with the number of kilometers to the city of Shusha appeared on the road near this village. And on May 22, 2019, during the exercises, Azerbaijani servicemen lined up with the inscription "Our goal is Shusha, wait for us!" It was a message to the occupiers that they should not rest on their laurels. A year and a half remained before the liberation of Shusha.

As President Ilham Aliyev said, speaking in the liberated Shusha, "the Armenians invented myths about this alleged operation - "wedding in the mountains." Now we have arranged such a wedding for them that they will forever remember this lesson."

It's obvious that they remembered. And very tightly.