Millions of Azerbaijanis celebrated today the fourth anniversary of the historic victory on November 8, 2020, ending the war in the country's Karabakh (Garabagh) region.
Four years ago, on this day, the Azerbaijani forces liberated the strategic Shusha city in the Karabakh region from decades-long Armenian occupation. The city’s salvation was seen as the pinnacle of the Azerbaijani army’s weeks-long counter-attack operations, codenamed “Iron Fist.”
“On November 8, 2020, the historic Shusha operation broke the enemy’s back. Only one day later, in the early hours of November 10, Armenia was forced to sign the act of capitulation, and we stopped the war,” President Ilham Aliyev said at the inauguration of the Victory Park on Friday.
Shusha was said to be one of the major strongholds of the Armenian occupying forces, who could not repel face-to-face battles with the Azerbaijani troops and retreated in disarray. Liberation of the city has had a crucial impact on the surrender of Armenia's forces and the signing of a tripartite statement on November 10, 2020.
On December 3, 2020, President Aliyev signed an order establishing November 8 as “Victory Day” in Azerbaijan.
The fourth anniversary of Victory Day on Friday was remarkable with the opening of the grandiose Victory Park along the Caspian shore in capital Baku.
“In this beautiful location, one of the most scenic spots in our city, a new symbol of our glorious Victory is being created. The Victory Arch is located at the intersection of two roads leading into downtown. It has a modern style and a majestic appearance. It is 44 meters high, and the number of its pillars is also 44,” President Aliyev said at the park’s opening ceremony.
Victory Park locates on a 10-hectare (24.7 acres) territory. It features a monumental Victory Arch, the Victory Monument, and a huge park. The Victory Museum is currently under construction at the park.
President Aliyev said throughout 44 days of war in 2020, the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan advanced every single day, liberating more than 300 towns and villages from Armenia’s occupation on the battlefield. The triumph in the war also paved the way for the non-combat withdrawal of the Armenian military from the Aghdam, Kalbajar, and Lachin districts of Azerbaijan by the end of 2020.
Armenia and Azerbaijan had been in an armed conflict for nearly 30 years over the Karabakh (Garabagh) region, which is an internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan.
Armenia launched full-blown military aggression against Azerbaijan following the Soviet Union’s dissolution in 1991. The bloody war lasted until a ceasefire in 1994 and saw Armenia occupying 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territories. Over 30,000 Azerbaijanis were killed, and one million were expelled from those lands in a brutal ethnic cleansing campaign conducted by Armenia.
Although the United Nations Security Council adopted four resolutions in 1993 demanding the immediate withdrawal of the occupying forces from Azerbaijani lands and the return of internally displaced Azerbaijanis to their ancestral lands, Armenia failed to comply with all four legally binding documents.
Armenia occupied Shusha on May 8, 1992. The city underwent a policy of destruction by Armenians aimed at erasing Azerbaijan’s historical and cultural heritage. Shortly before the 2020 war, the illegal Armenian separatist regime established in the occupied Azerbaijani lands held a self-designed bogus “presidential inauguration” in the city.
On September 27, 2020, the decades-old conflict took a violent turn after Armenia’s forces deployed in the occupied Azerbaijani lands shelled military positions and civilian settlements of Azerbaijan. During the counter-attack operations that lasted 44 days, Azerbaijani forces liberated over 300 settlements, including the cities of Jabrayil, Fuzuli, Zangilan, Gubadli, and Shusha, from nearly 30 years of illegal Armenian occupation. The war ended in a tripartite statement signed on November 10, 2020, by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia. Under the statement, Armenia also returned the occupied Aghdam, Kalbajar, and Lachin districts to Azerbaijan.
President Aliyev recalled the OSCE Minsk Group’s infertile shuttle diplomacy that failed to fetch a peaceful end to the occupation of Azerbaijan’s lands.
“The people of Azerbaijan remember well the great powers, the mediators who were allegedly trying to resolve the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, repeatedly insisting that there was no military solution to this issue,” he stated.
After the end of the Karabakh conflict, President Aliyev has been calling for the official termination of the non-functional OSCE Minsk Group's activities and all associated institutions. The Minsk Group, he said, has turned into a relic of the past simultaneously with the conflict in the Karabakh region.
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