Four years ago, on November 8, 2020, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev officially declared the de-occupation of the cultural capital of the republic - the city of Shusha. His words "Əziz Şuşa, sən azadsan!" - "Dear Shusha, you are free!" went down in history. The liberation of Shusha essentially ended the Karabakh war, since from its heights the Azerbaijani troops completely controlled both the road to the stronghold of separatism, the city of Khankendi, and the city itself. The 20,000-strong group of Armenian occupation troops found themselves in encircled, triggering a disorderly retreat, and the next day Armenia signed the capitulation.
Victory Day in the Republic of Azerbaijan was subsequently declared not on the day of the capitulation of the occupiers, but on the day of the deoccupation of Shusha, since it was the expulsion of the Armenian army from the heart of Azerbaijan that put an end to the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. Until then, various options for ending the hostilities were considered, as Baku sought to resolve the conflict with minimal bloodshed. However, the heroic operation of the Azerbaijani special forces - who liberated Shusha without the cover of artillery and drones, climbed into the city over the rocks and recaptured the legendary city during street battles - left no doubt about how the Karabakh war should be completed: only with a complete victory for Azerbaijan and the deoccupation of all territories captured by Armenia without exception.
In the following four years, Azerbaijan has consistently reinforced its victory and taken steps to prevent any attempt at Armenian revenge. The separatist regime in Khankendi ceased to exist following the anti-terrorist measures of September 19-20, 2023. In April of this year, Armenia, compelled to seek peace, voluntarily returned four villages in the Gazakh region to Azerbaijan during the first stages of border delimitation and demarcation. The peace treaty between the two republics has been almost fully agreed upon, although its signing is being delayed by Yerevan's reluctance to exclude territorial claims to Karabakh from the Armenian Constitution.
The policy of the Armenian leadership to rearm the defeated Armenian Armed Forces with the support of NATO countries, primarily France, raises certain concerns. However, Azerbaijan continues to increase the combat capability of the army, realizing that Yerevan's peaceful rhetoric still does not deserve trust, thus the residents of the republic, its partners and allies can remain confident in the security of Azerbaijan's borders. Four years later, nothing can cast doubt on Azerbaijan's victory in the Karabakh war.
