The director, screenwriter and producer of documentary films, politician, the deputy of the State Duma four convocations Alexander Nevzorov, has been the leading Russian television reporter for many years. He was contused, wounded twice and been a voluntary hostage of terrorists in exchange for released people. As a person who has experienced many wars, he now comments on contemporary conflicts and recalls his participation in local armed confrontations, particularly in Vilnius, Transnistria and Nagorno-Karabakh, where he made a series of reports about Soviet and Russian soldiers in dangerous places. Regarding this, Nevzorov has recently spoken about the bravery of Azerbaijani soldiers in Nagorno-Karabakh and the mercenaries who fought for the Armenian side.
The reporter says that he stopped appreciating who is right or wrong in one or another conflict a long time ago. "In any case, everybody looks both right and wrong in such events. The main thing is the number of casualties that proved the rightness, as well as how it can influence our fortunes."
Nevzorov recalls how he made materials about the Goranboy battalion during the Karabakh war.
''I have a very serious attitude to this, so I remember the heroes with great affection. The bravest man I saw in my life was an Azerbaijani. His name was Vizir. He was a little man in a dirty padded jacket with a smell of herring who didn't stand out for anything. He was a simple, gray-haired man. Panic started when the Goranboy battalion was defeated. I saw how soldiers got on buses that took them from the front. People were fighting for seats in buses.
Suddenly I saw Vizier, who was seated in a UAZ car, driving to the place that people were leaving. It was a mess, a real hell. There were about 500 dead soldiers. Armenians attacked and everything was blazing and blowing up.
When I saw that this person was intending to go there, I asked him: "Are you crazy?''. And he replied: ''There are wounded there." Then we went there together."
When they reached the place, Nevzorov realized why the advancing enemy’s forces managed to knock the Azerbaijanis out of the gorge so quickly. "It turned out that not only Armenians advanced, but also Pskov commandos hired by the Armenians. The Vizir’s car was damaged and we were set down in order to be executed by shooting. But then the Pskov paratroopers recognized me and said: ''You’d better come to our side. And what will we do with the Azerbaijani?" I said: "Let him go!’’
They agreed with me and informed not to shoot at the man who would run. But Vizir didn’t run. First he delved into the broken car for a long time, then took out his gun, turned to me in order to shake my hand and went away. He was walking away as none of Shakespeare’s characters could! He walked showing that he would never run. He didn’t quicken his pace even when he heard shots. The soldiers saluted by firing into the sky.’’
...Vezir Orujov Surkhay oglu was born on December 26th 1956 in the Terter region of Azerbaijan that bordered on Nagorno-Karabakh. In 1949 his father together with 150,000 Azerbaijanis were deported from the native land of Azerbaijan, the Derelaiz region, located on the territory of the Armenian SSR at that time.
The deportation was a crime in itself. It was implemented on ethnic grounds against the Azerbaijani people, who made a great contribution to the victory in the Great Patriotic War – Azerbaijan was the main supplier of oil and petroleum products to the front (about 90% of the total amount produced in the period of the Soviet Union) In addition, more than 700,000 Azerbaijani soldiers were called to the colours. Half of them gave their lives for the victory.
The scale of that crime on ethnic grounds had such catastrophic consequences that even the first secretary of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan in the years of the Great Patriotic War, Stalin’s and Beria’s protege Mirjafar Bagirov, stated during the trial process, ''I am guilty before my people,'' it would be proper to execute by shooting, quartering, or burning. But even he was against the deportation of Azerbaijanis from their native lands and the resettlement of Armenians from the Middle East in their homeland. These were Armenians who had a completely different mentality. The deportation of the Azerbaijanis and the theme of "genocide" laid the foundation of hatred for many years, not only regarding the Turks, but also in creating a new image of the enemy in the person of a former close neighbor – the Azerbaijanis.
Armenians of that mentality kindled the fire of hatred against neighboring Azerbaijanis both inside Armenia and beyond its boundaries. They became the executors and the geopolitical fire lit by the leadership of the USSR: Stalin, Mikoyan and other "gifted professionals".
The point is that the Armenians living in Azerbaijan differed very much mentally from the Armenians living in the Armenian SSR, where anti-Azerbaijani propaganda was conducted continuously. The same policies started being implemented in Nagorno-Karabakh, especially in a more active way in the second half of the 1980’s after Mikhail Gorbachev came to power. Certainly not without his participation. Thus, a new geopolitical game in a small area called Karabakh started at that time, and unfortunately it is still going on.
For many years Azerbaijanis won’t be able to understand and accept such a change in relations. Before the mass deportation of Azerbaijanis in 1988-1989 they treated the Armenians as a friendly people and close neighbors.
From 1984 Vezir Orujov lived and worked in Arkhangelsk, but when the war in Karabakh began in 1992 he returned to Azerbaijan. From May 4th 1992 in the composition of the heroic Tartar battalion he defended the heart of Azerbaijan from the invaders. On September 1st 1992 Vezir was seriously wounded, but two months later he returned to the front. He started as a private, subsequently becoming the deputy commander of the Tartar Battalion. He participated in the battles for Serseng, Childiran and other territories of Karabakh. He died as a hero on March 22nd 1993 in the battle for the Globe Heights in Karabakh.
After Vizier’s death his wife was left with a son. The son’s name, Yadigar, means 'memory'.
Vezir Orujov is buried in the Alley of Heroes in Baku. According to the presidential decree of March 27th 1993, he was awarded the title of National Hero of Azerbaijan.
It is said in Azerbaijan today that the memory of him and the tens of thousands of such heroes who gave their lives for Karabakh makes it a matter of honor to restore the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.
