29 years pass since the "Dashalti operation" that was launched on January 25, 1992, and ended with defeat a day after. During his visit to Shusha, our correspondent Yunis Orujov visited Dashalti village liberated by our heroic army after 29 years, learnt the opinions of military experts and spoke to the soldiers who had liberated Dashalti. Afterwards, he went to the center of Azerbaijan's cultural capital Shusha.
Dashalti village is situated on the way leading to Shusha. This village is the place where the "Dashalti operation", which went down in history as the black spot, was launched and ended a day after.
When the "Dashalti operation" was held, Azerbaijan had been independent just for 3 months. Not even one year had passed since the collapse of the USSR.
Major in reserve Amrah Jabbarli says that at that time, Armenian bandits seized this area and became a serious threat to Shusha.
Internal disputes worsened the situation on the other hand. Arbitrariness in the political environment also had an influence on the army. This operation was necessary for then newly appointed Defense Minister Tajaddin Mehdiyev to prove himself. Rahim Gaziyev wanted to be a minister himself.
Participant of the first Karabakh War Niyazi Guliyev notes that the "Dashalti operation" had political motives: "They sacrificed the national army in order to preserve their positions."
The newly established first tabor of the Defense Ministry consisting of 120 people and warriors of Shusha Defense Tabor, as well as the diversion group of 11 people of deputy head of the Defense Ministry Intelligence Service Riad Ahmadov participated in the operation. Even guides were allocated for them.
"Who chose guides? Tajaddin Mehdiyev, Nuraddin Abdullayev. There was no need for a guide in Dashalti. If you throw a stone from Shusha, that village will be destroyed," N.Guliyev says.
The inability to organize the operation properly led to the big tragedy. Almost 90% of our servicemen fell into the ambush and died. More than 40 servicemen went missing.
Military expert Adalat Verdiyev has touched upon an interesting fact: "According to the warriors, several days before the operation, everybody in Shusha was talking about this operation. Thus, the operation should have been cancelled; the time and conditions must have been changed. The source of the information leakage should have been identified."
The failure of this operation adversely affected the morale of the army and mood of the population at that time. The heavy failure also led to the division inside the Defense Ministry. When the search for the culprit yielded no results, all the questions also turned into a stone on that infamous night.
Thus, although the seizure of Dashalti led to Shusha's occupation years ago, our brave heroes liberated Shusha by freeing Dashalti 29 years later. Azerbaijan has cleaned the black spot in its military history 29 years later and took revenge for our martyrs.
Our heroes have not only liberated the lands from the occupation, but also restored historical justice. The revenge of Dashalti has been taken.
Yunis Orujov
