On November 6, 2020, Shushi was 99 percent occupied by the enemy. One of the officers participating in the battles for Shushi said this in a conversation with Forrighst.am. In the publication we do not reveal the identity of our interlocutor.
“On the 6th of the month, the enemy met us right at the gates of Shushi. I can say with certainty that on November 6, Shushi was 99 percent under the control of the enemy,” said the officer, noting that he received an order to participate in the defense of Shushi on November 4. “On the sixth of the month, I was given a task: I had to open a corridor to our forces using tanks and military equipment. We met the enemy at the crossroads of Shushi entrance, fierce battles began and our advance was blocked.”
The two platoons of the Armenian side, which were accompanied by seven tanks, took part in hot battles in the Shushi area. It was here that they realized that the situation was out of control. The Armenian military destroyed the enemy at a fairly close distance. “The tanks hit the enemy precisely; our unit effectively destroyed the enemy,” the war participant tells exclusive details.
By the way, on November 6, when, according to the officer, the situation in Shushi was unmanageable and the fortress city was already 99 percent under the control of the enemy, the official propaganda led by Nikol Pashinyan announced that “the battles for Shushi continue.” Nikol Pashinyan wrote about this on November 9. In connection with the fall of Shushi, we also witnessed the contradictions between official Yerevan and Stepanakert. Later it turned out that the information about the loss of Shushi, which was reported hours before the November 9 defeat in Stepanakert, was the truth.
There were no necessary means to protect Shush, says the officer who participated in the battles almost three years after the war. “There was manpower, but without aviation, without drones and without all the technical means that would help us advance. I saw nothing but manpower and tanks.”
Shushi fell, but the mystery was not revealed: how did the enemy capture the fortress city, which was liberated on this day 31 years ago through the unique military operation called Wedding in the Mountains. The participant of the war says that 28 years after the liberation, in 2020, Shushi was occupied because its defense was not properly organized.
“We were called for the defense of Shushi later than planned, but on the sixth of the month we met the enemy right in the vicinity of Shushi, which means that Shushi was under the enemy’s control. The enemy met us at the gates of Shushi; we could not pass the crossroads and we did not reach the walls [of the fortress].
There was a lack of operative information, many wrong decisions were made, which resulted in many victims. We could have organized the liberation of Shushi in a completely different way; however, we met the enemy where we did not expect them. I can’t say what this is attests about, but we met forces that, according to our information, we should not have met.
From the beginning of November, it was necessary to carry out a competent defense on the roads leading from Karin Tak to Shushi, which was not implemented. If it were done, Shushi would remain invincible, because you are on a high ground; from wherever you roll a stone at the enemy, you will damage him. This did not happen; the enemy was able to advance with small tactical groups.
They entered Shushi without any obstacles. If one looks at Karin Tak village from Shushi, one will understand that the dominant position is his, but the enemy did not encounter any opposing force. This means that the enemy came on foot. I am not saying that there were no battles, but they were not organized in a way that it was necessar,” said the participant of the war, who was injured on the battlefield and taken to the hospital unconscious.
On the night of May 8, 1992, at 2:30 a.m., the liberation of Shushi began with a unique military operation called Wedding in the Mountains. For three years now, attempts are being made to turn Armenian Shusha, which has been occupied for three years, into Azerbaijani Shusha [as Azeris call the city].
Narek Kirakosyan