The liberation of Shusha from occupation was not only the desire of our people but also the expectation of history. Because neither our people nor history forgave the surrender of our fortress city to the enemy. Traitors from within created this opportunity for them to celebrate the occupation like a festival in the mountains. As a result of the „Mountain Festival“ operation, Shusha was occupied with the help of national betrayal. Our city lived in captivity for many years. The remnants of those who established a state on our historical lands brazenly declared that they would never return Shusha. But they forgot one truth. Shusha’s fate was not decided by the statements of the occupiers. Shusha belonged to Azerbaijan, and the Azerbaijani people believed in the day their historical city would be liberated. Because history also does not remain silent, it speaks. As a herald of justice, it reveals the truth, who is right and who is wrong, and rewrites the pages of history.
On November 8, the history of Azerbaijan wrote a new lesson for world military centers. Under the leadership of the great commander Ilham Aliyev, the heroic page of our people amazed the world. Our soldiers, climbing mountains and rocks, looked death in the eye and ascended to Shusha, and Azerbaijan was liberated!
Shusha was also Azerbaijan for us! Because with Shusha, the national pride of Azerbaijan was also occupied. The liberation of Shusha was a victory of our people’s pride, historical justice, and national spirit.
In the 44-day Patriotic War, the decision of the Victorious Supreme Commander was decisive. Shusha had to be liberated! The historical words of the great leader, who acted as a father to his nation, saying, „We will return to those lands, we will drink the water of those springs,“ were a father’s advice, a parent’s will. On November 8, 2020, that father’s advice was fully implemented in history. Shusha was liberated. The desire to return, cherished in the hearts of our people for years, came true.
The liberation of Shusha became a triumph of loyalty to a father’s advice, love for the Motherland, and the determination to return to our historical lands. Those springs, that paradise land were ours, and they became ours again. Jydyr Duzu once again witnessed our horses galloping, experiencing the joy of this victory. The waving of our tricolor flag in Shusha brought happiness to our people as the rebirth of our independence and state sovereignty. We experienced the happiness of owning ourselves with the Great Commander, our national pride, and our greatness as a state.
Shusha preserves both the betrayal of the past and the victory of the present in its stone memory, and it answered the pain written by betrayal in history with the history of victory. Shusha, which has permeated memories as a city of dreams, poetry, art, and culture, is today a symbol of heroism, demonstrating Azerbaijan’s fighting spirit, the unbreakable will of our people, and love for the Motherland as a fortress of unity. The liberation of Shusha is one of the most glorious pages of our history, an eternal expression of our heroism. Numerous battles for the liberation of fortress cities have taken place in world military history. However, the liberation of Shusha was written into history as an unprecedented example of heroism. Because in this battle, all obstacles lost their power before our heroic soldiers. Our brave soldiers first conquered stone and rock, and then the enemy in the complex mountain terrain. The struggle waged by the Azerbaijan Army under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev, especially our special forces, on steep rocks and impassable mountain roads proved that all obstacles appear insignificant in the face of love for the Motherland. Even the highest peaks lost their resistance to our will on the road to Shusha. Because at the end of the road to Shusha lay freedom, and behind the victory leading to freedom stood the determination of the Supreme Commander.
Shusha was liberated from occupation in this way. We live and will live in our city of culture, freed from slavery and subservience at the cost of our lives and blood. All cities have their own symbols. Shusha, however, will always live in memory as a symbol of heroism.
Shusha is a symbol of victory, a triumphant celebration of the Victory and heroism we live with national pride, serving as both a place of residence and a sacred place visited with reverence by every Azerbaijani. Our fortress city has regained its historical grandeur, cultural richness, and heroic spirit, becoming an eternal symbol of pride for our people, a living chronicle of our national memory and historical existence. No treacherous intention can cast a shadow on the freedom, security, and peace of Shusha in the face of the decisive leadership of President Ilham Aliyev, the power of our state, and the strength of our army.
Rəşad Mahmudov,
Member of the Board of the YAP,
Member of the Milli Məclis