44 days of the Karabakh war through the eyes of Russian Baku citizen

The Patriotic War of the Azerbaijani people will forever remain in the hearts of representatives of all nationalities living in Azerbaijan. "Vestnik Kavkaza" invites you to get acquainted with the material of Arkady Khalturinsky, who lives in Baku, who shared his impressions of how the 44-day war was experienced in the country.

Since 1920, Nagorno-Karabakh was part of the Azerbaijan SSR, however, at the end of the USSR, in 1987, the leadership of the Armenian SSR raised the issue of transferring these territories to Armenia, as a result of which relations between the Armenian and Azerbaijani populations of the republic began to aggravate. Since 1991, the conflict has grown into an armed confrontation, where Armenia and Azerbaijan, already independent from the USSR, acted as the opposing sides.

The main question that arises for an independent observer when studying the history of the conflict is what goal was pursued by the leadership of Armenia, sending troops to the lands where the Armenian and Azerbaijani peoples peacefully coexisted for many years. The supporters of the decision to annex Nagorno-Karabakh in favor of Armenia have many versions, but in this case it is necessary to proceed from the norms of international law. De jure, the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh after the collapse of the USSR remained a part of Azerbaijan, which means that no one had the right to violate the sovereignty of an independent state, which is fixed in the Declaration on the Inadmissibility of Intervention and Interference in Internal Affairs and which was adopted by Resolution 36/103 of the UN General Assembly from December 9, 1981

And yet, since 1994, Armenia has occupied the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh by forceful intervention. For a long 26 years anarchy reigned there, the creation of the so-called Nagorno-Karabakh Republic was announced, the existence of which was illegitimate and was not recognized by any sovereign state, including Armenia itself. The leadership of Azerbaijan - Presidents Heydar Aliyev, and then Ilham Aliyev - for many years attempted a peaceful settlement of the conflict, appealed to international organizations in order to return their legitimate territories by diplomatic means. But these attempts were not crowned with much success - the international community took a passive position. Then, on September 27, 2020, on the day of another provocation by the Armenian armed forces, it was decided to launch a counteroffensive.

As an eyewitness to these events, I cannot help recalling how in Baku, from the very first day of the armed clash, every citizen worried about the course of hostilities and supported the course chosen by President Aliyev. All these years, the number one issue in the foreign and domestic policy of the Republic of Azerbaijan has been the return of its territories and the restoration of territorial integrity within the internationally recognized borders of the republic. 20% of the occupied lands literally did not allow every citizen of Azerbaijan to live in peace, this sensitive and delicate moment has always occupied a special place in the minds of people. Everyone understood that sooner or later justice would prevail, but they hoped that everything would be realized peacefully without bloodshed.

But Yerevan, year after year, fed Baku with promises to start negotiations on the peaceful transfer of the occupied territories. Only when all hopes for a diplomatic resolution of the smoldering conflict were exhausted, and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that Nagorno-Karabakh is Armenia, the Azerbaijanis realized that they could not tolerate further.

The people of Azerbaijan, rallying around the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev, decided to return the lands of Nagorno-Karabakh by all means. The confrontation between the Azerbaijani military and the Armenian lasted 44 days, every day the citizens of Azerbaijan waited for the morning news about the successes of their army, where their husbands, children and grandchildren fought. The flags of Azerbaijan were hung all over Baku, there was general solidarity around only one problem, everything else was relegated to the background. Over time, photographs of those who went to the front and did not return, those who became martyrs who died during the offensive on the territories occupied by the enemy army, began to appear on the windows and doors of houses. There were men of different ages and professions, students, athletes, doctors, workers at the military registration and enlistment offices. Everyone wanted to go to the front and help their army. But thanks to the competent military leadership, mainly people who connected their professional life with military service left for the war. Thus, it was possible to avoid numerous losses among civilians.

For a month and a half, the whole of Azerbaijan closely watched the successes of its army, which day after day, not without difficulty, advanced deep into Karabakh, conquering more and more regions. Since September 27, five cities, a shooting range of a village and about 300 villages have been liberated, including the heart of Karabakh - Shusha, liberated on November 8. Khankendi was very close to the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, and victory was inevitable.

On November 10, 2020, thanks to, among other things, the efforts of the President of Russia, the war was stopped. Baku, Yerevan and Moscow have adopted a joint statement on a complete ceasefire in Karabakh. That night Baku literally did not sleep, the townspeople took to the streets, sang songs, rejoiced, national music was heard everywhere and the flags of Azerbaijan were seen. The city plunged into a general atmosphere of euphoria from the news, which had been waiting for more than a quarter of a century. President Aliyev made a speech from all TV screens, the key thesis of which was the long-awaited "Karabakh is Azerbaijan".

This day seemed to divide the time into before and after. It was clear that there was still a lot of work to be done to restore the returned territories, to reconstruct the entire infrastructure, residential buildings, roads, but the most important thing had already been done - the territories that had been outside the control of their rightful owner for so long were returned. Let not tomorrow, but in the near future people will be able to return there, who almost thirty years ago, leaving everything, were forced to flee from their land.