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Azerbaijan Celebrates Anniversary Of Victory In Nagorno-Karabakh War

By RFE/RL November 08, 2021

Tens of thousands of people have rallied across Azerbaijan's capital to mark the first anniversary of the country's victory in a six-week war with Armenian forces over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev declared November 8 as Victory Day to celebrate the capture of the strategic city of Susa (known as Shushi in Armenian) by Azerbaijani forces.

Two days after the city fell, Armenia was forced to accept a Russian-brokered truce that handed a significant part of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding regions it had occupied for nearly three decades back to Azerbaijan.

"All of Azerbaijan celebrates this glorious holiday," Aliyev told troops in Susa. "Azerbaijan has restored its territorial integrity and restored historical justice."

"We have shown the whole world that we are a great nation," Aliyev added.

As part of the celebrations in Baku, military marches were held as thousands of flag-waving people honored troops and remembered the roughly 3,000 Azerbaijani servicemen and 100 civilians killed in the war.

Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but had been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces since the end of a separatist war in 1994.

The peace deal that ended last year's war was celebrated as a triumph in Azerbaijan, but the loss sparked months of massive protests in Armenia demanding Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian's resignation.

Thousands of people supporting the opposition rallied in Yerevan's Freedom Square on November 8 against any additional concessions the government may make to Azerbaijan as the two countries engage in Russian-mediated diplomacy to fulfill the terms of the peace agreement.

With reporting by AP, RFE/RL's Azerbaijan Service, and RFE/RL's Armenian Service

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/azerbaijan-nagorno-karabakh -celebration/31551712.html

Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.