Capture of Shusha

Battle of Shusha
Part of the Nagorno-Karabakh War
Gagik Avsharyan's restored T-72 tank stands as a memorial commemorating the capture of Shusha.
Date May 8 – 9, 1992 Location Shusha, Nagorno-Karabakh Result Decisive Armenian victory
Belligerents
Nagorno-Karabakh  Armenia	Azerbaijan Chechen militants
Commanders and leaders
Arkady Ter-Tatevosyan Samvel Babayan Seyran Ohanyan Gurgen Dalibaltayan Jirair Sefilian	Elbrus Orujev Elkhan Orujev Shamil Basayev Khunkar-Pasha Israpilov
Strength
1,000 troops 4 tanks 2 Mil Mi-24 helicopters	2,500 troops BM-21 Grad artillery Several tanks
Casualties and losses
35 – 50	159 – 200

Coordinates: 39°45.5′N 46°44.9′E / 39.7583°N 46.7483°E / 39.7583; 46.7483

The Capture of Shusha, referred to as the Liberation of Shushi by Armenians (Armenian: Շուշիի ազատագրում Shushii azatagrum) and Occupation of Shusha by Azerbaijanis (Azerbaijani: Şuşanın işğalı) was the first significant military victory by Armenian forces during the Nagorno-Karabakh War. The battle took place in the strategically important mountain town of Shusha (known as Shushi to Armenians) on the evening of May 8, 1992, and fighting swiftly concluded the next day after Armenian forces captured it and drove out the defending Azeris. Armenian military commanders based in Nagorno-Karabakh's capital of Stepanakert had been contemplating the capture of the town after a hail of Azeri military bombardment had begun shelling Stepanakert.

It was named "Wedding in the Mountains" by the Armenian commandership. The seizure of the town proved decisive. Shusha was the most important military stronghold that Azerbaijan held in Nagorno-Karabakh – its loss marked a turning point in the war, and led to a series of military victories by Armenian forces in the course of the conflict. However, some of the shelling was, according to the accounts of former residents, either indiscriminate or intentionally aimed at civilian targets.

In February 1988, Nagorno-Karabakh had been an autonomous oblast for over seventy years inside the borders of the Azerbaijan SSR. Following its government's decision to secede from Azerbaijan and unify with Armenia, the conflict erupted into a larger scale ethnic feud between Armenians and Azeris living in the Soviet Union. After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the Armenians and Azeris vied to take control of Karabakh with full-scale battles in the winter of 1992. By then, the enclave had declared its independence and set up an unrecognized, though self-functioning, government.

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