Two years ago, on the morning of September 27, 2020, the occupying forces of Armenia, in accordance with the "new war - new territories" military doctrine, launched a large-scale offensive from the occupied Azerbaijani land against the positions of the Azerbaijani army along the entire contact line of the troops. This attack marked the beginning of the last act of the 30-year Karabakh War, also known as the Azerbaijani Patriotic War and the Second Karabakh War.
Azerbaijan was ready for this attack. The attempted cross-border attack by Armenian forces on the Tovuz region in July 2020 and the passive reaction of the OSCE Minsk Group to it showed that Armenia is seriously planning to resume full-scale hostilities against its neighbor, and international mediators cannot stop the escalation of tension and force Yerevan to engage in a peaceful settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. Therefore, on the same morning, the Azerbaijani army repelled the advancing invaders, launching a counter-offensive operation to ensure the safety of Azerbaijani citizens.
Later, the military operation of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Azerbaijan will be called "Iron Fist". In the first days, it focused on three main locations: Mount Murovdağ, which gave control over the northern supply route for the occupiers, the Terter-Agdam direction to reach Agdere, and the Fuzuli-Jabrayil direction, which later became Azerbaijan's main road to victory in the Karabakh war. President Ilham Aliyev immediately addressed the population, stressing that the Azerbaijani army was liberating the territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan from occupation and had no military targets on the territory of Armenia.
The noon September 27 demonstrated the way in which the last act of the Karabakh war would take place: on Murovdağ and in the direction of Agdere, the dominant heights passed under the control of the Azerbaijani army, and a real breakthrough was made in the south: the villages of Garakhanbeyli, Garvyand, Horadiz, Yukhari Abdurakhmanly, Ashagy Abdurakhmanly were cleared of the invaders in the Fuzuli region and the villages of Boyuk Marchanli and Nyuzgar in the Jabrayil region. That is, the Azerbaijani soldiers went deep into the occupation zone for tens of kilometers at once. In the evening, Mount Murovdağ was completely liberated, the largest supply route for the occupiers ceased to operate.
Armenia immediately announced a general mobilization, and a mass exodus of separatists and illegal settlers began from the occupation zone. Armenian troops began shelling the Azerbaijani city of Terter, and the Armenian media and political technologists bombarded the information field with fakes on battles, trying to present Yerevan and its puppets in Khankendi as victims, not aggressors. The international community reacted to the resumption of the "hot" phase of the war with calls for a cessation of hostilities, but it was clear that they could not be stopped so easily: if for three decades Armenia had not been able to convince diplomacy of the need to resolve the conflict with Azerbaijan, it was time to force it to the peace.
The next 43 days of Azerbaijan’s Patriotic War will follow the same accelerating scenario: the Azerbaijani troops will counterattack - the Armenian occupying forces will first try to keep the occupied territories, then retreat either to Khankendi or to Armenia. The most fortified region of the invaders near Agdere fell just a week later, the villages of Talysh and Sugovushan, strategically important for the northeastern sector of the front, were liberated. The next day, October 4, the occupiers were driven out of the city of Jabrayil deep into the occupation zone. Thus, moving along the Araz River bordering Iran, Azerbaijani troops entered the rear of the occupying forces of Armenia and secured a bridgehead for a counteroffensive on Fizuli, Zangilan, and Shusha. The city of Fizuli was liberated on October 17, Zangilan on October 20, Qubadli on October 25, that is, in less than a month, Azerbaijan de-occupied the entire 100-kilometer section of the border with Iran and part of the territories on the border with Armenia.
Yerevan responded to this with war crimes. From the territory of Armenia, missile attacks were regularly carried out on Azerbaijani cities, primarily on Ganja and Mingachevir. These rockets fell on residential buildings and killed dozens of civilians. For every major military achievement of Azerbaijan, the Armenian authorities responded with new terrorist attacks. The worst crime against humanity was the attacks on Barda by prohibited cluster shells on October 27-28, when 30 people were killed. In 44 days of the war, 93 civilians of Azerbaijan were killed, 407 were injured. It should be noted that Armenia has not born any responsibility for the attacks on the civilian population, although its guilt had been established and recorded by international human rights organizations.
The end of Azerbaijan’s Patriotic War was the battle for Shusha, the heart of Azerbaijani culture and a strategic height above Khankendi. In early November, Azerbaijani special forces made a real feat, climbing the steep cliffs on which the fortress city stands, and knocking out the invaders from Shusha without the use of artillery, during street battles. On November 5, they entered the city. On November 8, President Ilham Aliyev officially announced that Shusha was free from invaders. Thus, the Armenian occupying troops found themselves in a trap, since all roads to Armenia were cut. On the night of October 9-10, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed the surrender of Armenia, the Karabakh war ended with Azerbaijan’s victory and the restoration of its territorial integrity.
Since then, September 27 has been celebrated in Azerbaijan as the Day of Remembrance of Azerbaijani soldiers who gave their lives for the liberation of the Homeland. Today at 11:00 Moscow time, a minute of silence will be announced all over the republic in memory of the heroes of the Patriotic War, traffic and pedestrians will stop, state flags will be at half-mast. In 44 days, there will be the second anniversary of Azerbaijan's victory in the Karabakh war. Today, it is the second anniversary of the beginning of the last part of the way to this victory.
