Azerbaijani Forces Liberate Strategic City of Shusha In Nagorno-Karabakh Region

Azerbaijani armed forces have Sunday liberated the city of Shusha, located in the country's occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region, as part of the ongoing clashes between the Armenian and Azerbaijani forces.

In a public address on Sunday, President Ilham Aliyev announced about the liberation of the city, which was occupied by Armenia's forces in 1992.

"Shusha, which was under occupation for 28 and a half years, has been liberated! Shusha is free now! We have returned to Shusha! We have won this historic victory on the battlefield. 8 November 2020 will eternally go down in the history of Azerbaijan," the president said in a televised address, according to President.Az.

Shusha is one of two key cities along with Khankendi in the Nagorno-Karabakh region due to its geographical location and significance as one of the major cultural, economic and administrative centers of Azerbaijan. Armenia's forces occupied the city on May 8 in 1992 during the first war in Karabakh region of Azerbaijan in 1991-1994. Liberation of Shusha is said to have a critical impact on liberating the entire Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is an internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan but occupied by Armenia. The city is located approximately ten kilometers from Khankendi, the region's largest city.

Shusha was built during the reign of the Azerbaijani Karabakh khanate's Panahali khan in the 18th century. According to the historical sources, Panahali khan decided to build an "eternal and invincible fortress in a firm and impassable place in the mountains" given the unfavorable location of the previous castles. Construction of the city kicked off in 1752 at about 1,600 meters above the sea level in Karabakh and the capital of the khanate was moved to the city in 1756-1757.

Shusha has long been one of the main administrative, economic and cultural centers of Azerbaijan since its establishment by indigenous Azerbaijanis. The city has played a key role in the development of Azerbaijan's carpet weaving industry. Shusha was Karabakh region's carpet-weaving center in the second half of the 19th century and carpets produced in Shusha have been exported to global markets in the late years of the same century. The ornamental and plot groups of Shusha carpets defined the mainline trend in local carpet-weaving. Shusha’s carpet-weavers, Meshedi Bayram Gurban-oglu, Djabbar Haji Akber-oglu, Fatima Aga Sherif-gizi, Ahmed Dashdamir-oglu took part and won awards in an international show in Paris in 1867. Shusha carpets also received prizes in 1872 in Moscow Polytechnic Exhibition.

At the end of the 18th century, Shusha became one of the important trade centers in the entire South Caucasus region. Merchants brought to Shusha various goods from other Azerbaijani cities such as Baku, Sheki, Nakhchivan, and Ganja. The cities of the Ottoman Empire, Russia, Iran, India, and European countries played an important role in Shusha's trade relations. Merchants from Shusha were regular participants of the famous fairs in Leipzig, Germany, and Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.

Shusha is to Azerbaijan what Vienna is to Austria and Naples is to Italy in terms of music. The city is well known as "the temple of Azerbaijani music" and the conservatory of the South Caucasus. The founding father of Azerbaijani composed classical music and opera, Uzeyir Hajibeyli was born in Shusha, a city also home to world famous Azerbaijani poet Molla Panah Vagif and poetess Khurshudbanu Natavan.

The city of Shusha, built by Azerbaijanis and inhabited by the ethnic Azerbaijani population, faced serious problems after the occupation by Tsarist Russia in the early 19th century. The Russian Empire made a decision to relocate Armenians from Iran and Turkey to Azerbaijani territories, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region, in the wake of a war between 1804-1812. Under the auspices of the tsarist government, the Armenians began to oust the Azerbaijanis, who were the Nagorno-Karabakh region's indigenous inhabitants. In 1905-1906, bloody terror and genocide were organized against Azerbaijanis. In 1918-1920, Armenians launched multiple armed attacks on Shusha, but failed to occupy the city due to the heroic defense by Azerbaijanis.

With the establishment of the Soviet Union in 1922, Armenians in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan increased repressions against the indigenous Azerbaijani population of the region. Granting autonomy status to the Nagorno-Karabakh region within Azerbaijan in 1923 and the election of Khankendi as its center, deprived Shusha of its status of Nagorno-Karabakh's administrative center. Subsequently, the life of the Azerbaijanis living there has significantly deteriorated. Many historical and architectural monuments belonging to the Azerbaijani people were blown up and destroyed. The population of the city has declined by three times in about 50 years. Thus, in 1917, Shusha had a population of around 44,000 people, but in 1970 their number decreased to 14,000 following massive forcible expulsion of ethnic Azerbaijanis.

Following the Soviet Union’s dissolution in 1991, Armenia launched a military campaign against Azerbaijan that lasted until a ceasefire was reached in 1994. Armenia occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territories - the Nagorno-Karabakh region, including Shusha, and seven surrounding districts. Over 30,000 ethnic Azerbaijanis were killed and one million were expelled from those lands in a brutal ethnic cleansing policy conducted by Armenia.

President Aliyev said the liberation of Shusha comes after decades of failed negotiations over the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region.

"I have said many times that, despite all the statements, there was a military solution to this conflict, the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and we are proving it on the battlefield today," he said.

"Nearly 30 years of meaningless negotiations did not bring us any closer to the result. Our ancient historical lands had been under occupation for almost 30 years. In the process of negotiations, the Armenian side simply wanted to gain time, strengthen the status quo and perpetuate it. Negotiations did not yield any results. They were trying to fool us. They were trying to freeze the issue."

President Aliyev went on to add that Shusha has a special place in the history of Azerbaijan, as an ancient and historic city where Azerbaijanis have lived for centuries. He added that Azerbaijan will restore all the historical monuments and mosques destroyed by Armenia's forces in Shusha.

The ongoing fighting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani forces broke out on September 27 when Armenia's troops deployed in the occupied Azerbaijani lands began shelling heavily the military positions and civilian settlements of Azerbaijan. The move prompted immediate counter-attack measures by the Azerbaijani army to push back Armenia's offensive. Since the start of hostilities to date, Azerbaijani army has liberated the occupied cities of Jabrayil, Fuzuli, Zangilan, Gubadli, and Shusha, as well as around 300 villages, settlements and strategic heights in the districts of Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Zangilan, Gubadli, Tartar, Kalbajar, Khojavend, Khojaly, Shusha and Lachin.