Armenians celebrate 25th anniversary of Shushi liberation

Today marks a remarkable date on the calendar of modern Armenian history.

The liberation battle for Nagorno-Karabakh reached its historic culmination 25 years ago today after the Armenian troops seized Shushi from the Azerbaijani army which repeatedly shelled their towns and villages from the city’s castle.  

The strategically important city was liberated in an operation named “Wedding in the Mountains".

In memoirs shared only years later, Major General Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan, a legendary hero of the Nagorno-Karabakh war, would recall that the idea to seize back the city was declared unfeasible by the then defense minister, Vazgen Sargsyan, who was briefed on the plan by him and commander Samvel Babayan.

The plan, developed in top secrecy, outlined steps to crush the adversary, shelling several key settlements (Lisagor, Zarslu, Janhasan etc) and later step up the fight in four major directions.

General Felix Gndoyan, a veteran who also fought in the battle, says this day has been very special for him in the past 25 years.

“I wake up in the morning with an unusual sense of happiness. That’s something I experience every time as I remember our feats. I remember absolutely everybody and everything connected with that day. We marked the beginning of the liberation of Armenian lands. I remember also our young men who fell,” he said.

Arkady Karapetyan, another veteran of the Karabakh war, also shared his recollections from the victorious moments. “It was like the Soviet films featuring combatants of the Red Army greeted [with enthusiasm]. This was how we were greeted in Stepanakert,” he added.

The liberation of Shushi was then treated a unique kind of crusader raid, says Archbishop Pargev Martirosyan, the supreme patriarch of Nagorno-Karabakh. “As early as on May 7, the soldiers had already painted red crosses on their cups, shoulders and shirts.”

“They had the clear understanding that after 600 years [of yoke], an Armenian land, an ancient Armenian mountain city, was  being liberated by Armenian people,” he told Tert.am.