Nagorno-Karabakh: Azerbaijani forces about to capture Shusha

Shusha (Armenian Shushi) is located on a plateau above Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh. Anyone who controls Sjusja is free to fire Stepanakert. Now Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev says his troops are already just below the cliffs that form a natural fortification around the city.

– We have modern equipment and a high fighting spirit. We have proven who we are. We show that the invincible army of Armenia is a myth. They have already acknowledged their defeat, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev wrote in a tweet on November 4.

https://twitter.com/presidentaz/status/1323952062514814977

The last statement it should be considered pure propaganda. Authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh, an unrecognized separatist republic defended by Armenia, confirm that Azerbaijani troops are within a few kilometers from Shusha. However, they have not declared any defeat. On the contrary, everything indicates that they will defend Sjusja to the last man.

Thomas de Waal, one of the world’s leading experts on Nagorno-Karabakh, writes on Twitter that it will be a bloody battle for Shusha.

https://twitter.com/Tom_deWaal/status/1324438422648430593

In a long list of tweets and bombastic speeches in recent weeks, Aliyev has boasted of Azerbaijani military successes. Azerbaijan has regained much of the buffer zone that the Armenians have occupied around Nagorno-Karabakh since the 1994 ceasefire. Much of Aliyev’s rhetoric is based on pure propaganda. But the fact is that Azerbaijan is on the offensive and the Armenians have their backs to the wall.

Before the Azerbaijani army deployed its resources in Shusha, attempts were made to cut off the Latjin corridor, the only road from the Nagorno-Karabakh capital, Stepanakert, to Armenia. Thomas de Waal claims that Azerbaijan has now changed its approach and is trying to take Shusha, which has political significance because Shusha is symbolic in many ways. Before the war, 85 percent of the population was Azerbaijani. Many famous Azerbaijani poets, musicians and writers come from Shusha.

About Azerbaijan They manage to capture Shusha, they not only gain a great military strategic advantage. It will also be a moral victory after the unpleasant outing in 1992. Sjusja is on a hill and therefore much easier to defend than to take. But in 1992, the Armenian army could almost walk into the city. The Azerbaijani army was so misdirected and corrupt that a large part of the troops had already left the city with their lanterns out.

Now the question is whether the Armenians will be able to defend the city. They have geography on their side, but their military equipment is inferior to that of Azerbaijan. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pasjinjan accused Israel of entering into a pact with the devil when high-tech military equipment, including drones, was sold to Azerbaijan. In the Jerusalem Post, Pasjinan warns Israel that it is a matter of time before they themselves become the targets of Turkey’s “imperialist ambitions.” Turkey supports Azerbaijan in the war and, among other things, has made it easy for Syrian mercenaries to go to Nagorno-Karabakh to fight the Azerbaijani army.