Shushi was liberated 27 years ago

May 8th is a special day for the Armenian people since it was on this very day that Shushi was liberated back in 1992. The liberation of Shushi changed the course of the Karabakh war and pinpointed the path that would lead to future victories. This year marks the 27th anniversary of the liberation of Shushi.

During the war that Azerbaijan had unleashed, Shushi had turned into a military base for Azerbaijan. In late 1991, taking advantage of the high geographical position of the city, the adversary started bombarding Stepanakert, which is the capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. The situation sharply worsened in February 1992 when the adversary started bombarding residential districts. In late April 1992, a decision was taken to liberate Shushi from the armed Azerbaijani groupings by way of an attack.

On the night of 8 May 1992, 3,800 volunteer fighters participated in the liberation of Shushi under the direction of commander of the self-defense forces of Artsakh Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan (Komandos). The military front was 45 km, and the attack was made in several directions.

On the morning of 9 May (04:00), Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan declared that all the groupings of the adversary had left Shushi and that Shushi was liberated.

The operation for the liberation of Shushi is referred to as “Wedding in the Mountains”. In one of his interviews, Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan said the following in regard to the operation: “From the military perspective, we weren’t ready to liberate Shushi. Vazgen Sargsyan (then Minister of Defense) said even though there was no need to rush, Shushi had to be liberated. That was when I promised him that if we seized Shushi, we would organize his wedding in the mountains, and that is how the operation was called “Wedding in the Mountains”.

Let us add that the name “Shushi” originates from the word “shosh” which, in the dialect of the people of Artsakh, means the new branch of a tree that is the highest from the other branches. This name is due to the high geographical position of Shushi.

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