The Battle of Shusha ( or ; ) was the final and decisive battle of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, fought between the armed forces of Azerbaijan and the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh, militarily supported by Armenia, over the control of the city of Shusha. The battle is considered one of the bloodiest battles of the war.

Shusha, known to Armenians as Shushi, and the surrounding mountainous terrain, is one of the most strategically important locations in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, and is usually referred to as the "beating heart" of the region. Until the middle of the 19th century, the city was considered the cultural and political centre of the regional Azerbaijani population, as well as one of the two main cities of the Transcaucasus for Armenians and the center of a self-governing Armenian principality from medieval times through the 1750s.Crossroads and Conflict: Security and Foreign Policy in the Caucasus and Central Asia, By Gary K. Bertsch, Scott A. Jones, Cassady B. Craft, Routledge, 2000, , p. 297

The city had a mixed Armenian-Azerbaijani population until the Shusha massacre in 1920, when Azerbaijani forces destroyed the Armenian half of the city and killed or expelled its Armenian population— from 500 to 20,000 people.Richard G. Hovannisian. The Republic of Armenia, Vol. III: From London to Sèvres, February–August 1920 p. 152 Since the massacre left the city predominantly Azerbaijani, it was thereafter incorporated into the Azerbaijani SSR, along with the rest of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. The city was captured in 1992 by Armenian Armed Forces to lift the Siege of Stepanakert during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, and its then-predominantly-Azerbaijani population was expelled from it. The city subsequently served as a defensive backbone within Artsakh, connecting the de facto capital, Stepanakert, to the town of Goris in Armenia via the Lachin corridor.

Advancing from the city of Jabrayil, the Azerbaijani military captured the town of Hadrut in mid-October. The Azerbaijani forces then advanced further north, entering Shusha District through its forests and mountain passes. Although Shusha had been under bombardment since the beginning of the conflict, local warfare erupted near the city on 29 October. Azerbaijan seized control of the village of Chanakchi, followed by part of the strategic Shusha–Lachin road on 4 November, with the Armenian forces subsequently closing the road to civilians. Le Monde reported that the battle had turned in favour of Azerbaijan on 6 November, despite Artsakh's denial.

Supported by artillery fire, Azerbaijani special forces entered Shusha on 6 November. After two days of battle, the Armenian forces were driven out of the city, and on 8 November, the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, stated that Azerbaijani forces had taken control of Shusha; Armenia issued a denial. The next day, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence released a video from the city, confirming full Azerbaijani control. On the same day, the Artsakh's Presidential Office confirmed that it had lost control of Shusha, although this was later contradicted by statements from the Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan, and the Armenian Ministry of Defence. Following the signing of a ceasefire agreement, President of Artsakh, Arayik Harutyunyan reiterated that Artsakh had lost control of the city on 7 November, and Pashinyan admitted to the loss of the city. Due to the strategic advantage the city provided, the capture of Shusha became a decisive moment in the war, with Azerbaijan declaring victory a few days later.

Azerbaijan's victory in Shusha was widely celebrated in Azerbaijani society and its diaspora. 8 November, the day the President of Azerbaijan announced the victory of the Azerbaijani forces, was declared Victory Day in Azerbaijan, and a future Baku Metro station was named "8 November". A military award was created for those who took part in the battle. The name of Nobel Avenue in Baku has been changed to "8 November" Avenue.

Background

Shusha was the second-largest city in the Nagorno-Karabakh region prior to the 2020 war. It is de jure part of the Shusha District of Azerbaijan, although it had been controlled by the unrecognised Republic of Artsakh since the end of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1994, as part of its Shushi Province. The city is located at an altitude of above sea level, about from the regional capital Stepanakert, referred to by the Azerbaijanis as Khankendi. The two settlements are separated by a valley, and Shusha, which serves as a buffer zone for Stepanakert, and is situated in mountainous terrain overlooking the region, has been described as a "strategic height from where one could keep all Nagorno-Karabakh under control". The strategic hilltop town is popularly referred to as an "unassailable" mountain fortress by both the Armenians and the Azerbaijanis. A key road connecting Goris in Syunik Province, southern Armenia, to Stepanakert passes through the Lachin corridor via Shusha; the only other major road connecting Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh passes through the Murovdağ mountains in the northern Kalbajar District.

Directly prior to the Armenian-Azerbaijani War of 1918–1920, Armenians formed a slight majority in the town. However, the town was left with a predominantly Azerbaijani majority after the war, as the Armenian population was massacred and the Armenian half of the city was razed during Shusha massacre. Subsequently, in 1923, under the Soviet rule, the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) was created, and Shusha was the only large settlement with an Azerbaijani majority to be incorporated into the oblast.

In February 1988, the government of the Armenian-majority NKAO voted in favour of seceding from Azerbaijan and unifying with Armenia, leading to a wider ethnic and territorial conflict between the Armenians and the Azerbaijanis living in the Soviet Union. After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the Armenians and the Azerbaijanis vied to take control of Nagorno Karabakh and the fighting had escalated into full-scale warfare by early 1992. By then, the enclave had declared its independence and set up an unrecognised government. Beginning in late 1991, Shusha became used by Azerbaijani forces as a base for daily indiscriminate rocket attacks onto the regional capital of Stepanakert during the Siege of Stepanakert, causing at least 169 civilian deaths. On 8 May 1992, the Armenian forces launched successful offensive to capture Shusha in order to break the siege, and its Azerbaijani population of about 15,000 people, which made up 85.5% of the city's population in 1979, was forced to flee. Most of the city came into ruins, and Shusha turned into a ghost town. The ethnic Armenians, most of whom were the ones who fled anti-Armenian pogroms in Baku and other cities of Azerbaijan, then settled in the city, with about five thousand people living in Shusha prior to the battle in 2020. In 2020, the de facto President of Artsakh, Arayik Harutyunyan announced plans to move the National Assembly of Artsakh to Shusha, which escalated the tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The city has historical, political and cultural importance for both the Armenians and the Azerbaijanis. For Armenians, Shusha has served as a town and ancient fortress for Armenian principality of Varanda during the Middle Ages and through the 18th century.Армяно-русские отношения в XVIII веке. Т. IV. С. 212, as cited in Krunk Hayots Ashkharhin. 8 (1863): p. 622, cited in It was one of the two main Armenian cities of the Transcaucasus and the center of a self-governing Armenian principality, the Melikdoms of Karabakh, from medieval times through the 1750s. It also has religious significance to the Armenians, as the Ghazanchetsots Cathedral is located in the city, and was the seat of the Diocese of Artsakh of the Armenian Apostolic Church until the end of the war.

For Azerbaijanis, the city holds particular cultural significance, who consider the city to their cultural capital in the region, and regard it as more important than Stepanakert. Through history, the city was a home to many Azerbaijani intellectuals, poets, writers and especially, musicians (e.g., the ashiks, mugham singers, kobuz players). Thus, Shusha is often considered the cradle of Azerbaijan's music and poetry and one of the leading centres of the Azerbaijani culture.Mattew O'Brien. Uzeir Hajibeyov and His Role in the Development of Musical Life in Azerbaijan. – Routledge, 2004. – С. 211. – , 9780415302197

The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, had frequently described retaking the city as one of the war's key objectives. In a 16 October interview with the Turkish television, Aliyev said that "without Shusha, our cause will be unfinished", while the self-declared Armenian President of Artsakh, Arayik Harutyunyan, called Shusha "one of our greatest legacies we have inherited from our ancestors", and added that "who controls Shushi, controls Artsakh". Despite the symbolic importance of the town, the International Crisis Group's Azerbaijani analyst Zaur Shiriyev stated that it remained unclear whether the capture of Shusha was a military or political target, while according to the Azerbaijani political analyst Fuad Shahbazov, the victory of Azerbaijani forces in Shusha would be "perceived as a moral victory for Azerbaijanis, whether they are on the front or not", which will also lead to "serious demoralization" among Armenian soldiers, and according to International Crisis Group's senior analyst Olesya Vartanyan, the side that controlled Shusha had "automatically gained control over Stepanakert".

Prelude

On 27 September 2020, an Azerbaijani offensive marked the beginning of clashes in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is de facto controlled by the self-proclaimed and unrecognized Republic of Artsakh, but de jure part of Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani forces first advanced in Fuzuli and Jabrayil districts, taking their respective administrative centres. From there, they proceeded towards Hadrut. The Armenian forces planned to hold out long enough until winter brought the Azerbaijani offensive, and especially its aerial operations to a standstill, buying time for international pressure to propel the Azerbaijani leadership to abandon its offensive. But after the fall of Hadrut around 15 October, the Azerbaijani troops began to advance more intensively, and the Armenians started to retreat, with the Azerbaijanis then taking control of Zangilan. Launching an offensive for Lachin, the Azerbaijani forces also pivoted their war effort towards Shusha, penetrating into Shusha District through its forests and mountain passes.