Liberation of Gunnut village is the result of  Azeri President’s correct policy

Azerbaijani Army has liberated the Gunnut village of Sharur region in Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, occupied by Armenian armed forces in 1992.

So, after 26 years of occupation by Armenian armed units, the Gunnut village has come under the control of the Azerbaijani Army. Local residents have returned to their native land and paid tribute to the graves of their relatives and Koranic verses were read out at the cemetery of Gunnut village as well.

Azerbaijani Defence Minister Zakir Hasanov also confirmed that the army took control of 11,000 hectares of lands and several strategic heights in the exclave of Nakhchivan and also now controls the strategic road from Yerevan to Lachin region of Azerbaijan on border with Armenia under occupation.

The minister outlined the key task of the army as the liberation of the occupied territories and the restoration of the territorial integrity of the country. "The Azerbaijani Army is ready to fulfil this task at any time. The order to accomplish this task is a political issue" and, according to the minister, "such an order will probably be issued at the most appropriate moment, taking into account the "international political situation."

Military pundits assessed the “Nakhchivan operation” as a very successful one and let Armenia know that there is no notion of 'neutral lands'. There is no “Armenian’s lands”. It is Azerbaijan’s lands and thanks to the successful military operation of the Azerbaijani Army, 11,000 hectares of lands have been liberated," in a comment on the Gunnut liberation said an expert.

Azerbaijani agricultural experts also hailed the liberation of the Gunnut village in Sharur region in the Azerbaijani exclave Nakhchivan. "It is a fact that 11,000 ha of lands have been taken under control, of which 80 per cent are fertile and fit for ploughing, and villagers will use it for agricultural needs,” an expert said.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who is also the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Azerbaijan Armed Forces, said that army-building was the "utmost priority"at a military parade in Baku on 26 June. He explained that the war against Armenia over Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh "has not ended" and that only "phase one" of it was over. President Ilham Aliyev said Azerbaijan's goal was to restore its territorial integrity, and highlighted that Azerbaijan's military spending had increased "15-fold" since 2003, the year he came to power.

The Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Azerbaijan Armed Forces, Ilham Aliyev, also touched on the liberation of Gunnut village at the military parade, adding that the only path Azerbaijan would go along was the path of development and that Armenia was and would be unable to compete with his country in any way. "We have the economic power, the military power, the patriotism, the April victory, and the Nakhchivan victory," Aliyev said. He stressed the army's combat ability was at "the highest level" and there was "very strong patriotism" in Azerbaijan. As an example, he cited the fact that Azerbaijan reclaimed some Armenian-held areas in the April 2016 flare-up of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and in a May 2018 operation conducted in the exclave Nakhchivan.

It was noted that in the 1990s, Sadarak, Gunnut, Havush and Shahbulag villages of Sharur region at the border with Armenia were subjected to continuous attacks by the enemy. In the occupied village of Gunnut, houses were destroyed, as well as many social facilities, schools, the medical centre, the library, the cemetery and the mosque. Local residents had to settle in other settlements of the region. Most of them moved to Mahmudkand in the Sharur region.

Susanbar Aghamaliyeva

Doctor of Philosophy in Philology