page_title: Capture of Shusha
section_title: Preparation
hierarchical_section_title: Capture of Shusha / The battle / Preparation
caption_attribution_description: English: The road leading up to the town of Shusha, Nagorno-Karabakh. Photo taken by Marshal Bagramyan.
context_page_description: The Capture of Shusha, referred to by Armenians as the Liberation of Shushi or the Operation Wedding in the Mountains and by Azerbaijanis as the Occupation of Shusha 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 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 Azeri shelling of Stepanakert.
  It was named "Wedding in the Mountains" by the Armenian commandership. The capture 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.
context_section_description: Planning for the military operation began under the auspices of Colonel-General Gurgen Dalibaltayan with guidance from Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan. All of the military factors were in favor of the Azeri Army. The Azeris had advantage in terms of the quantity and the quality of military equipment; they held a numerical superiority; and also held the high ground and, due to the strategic position of Shusha, the town could be easily defended. Therefore, a direct attack by Armenian forces was not a viable option for Dalibaltayan. Furthermore, according to military conventions and practices, for the operation to be successful, the attacking party should outnumber the defenders by at least 3 – 4 times (even more when attacking an elevation), while the NKR Detachments simply did not have such manpower at the time. Instead, in conjunction with the commander who would lead the troops into Shusha, Arkady "Komandos" Ter-Tadevosyan, they devised a strategy of launching several diversionary attacks against the adjacent villages to draw out the defenders of the town. In the meantime, the forces would encircle and cut off the town from further reinforcements.
caption: The road to leading to Shusha where the encounter between Avsharyan's and Agarunov's tanks took place.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "DSC-P72", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2007:07:04 22:26:25", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "256", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Make": "SONY", "Thumbnail Model": "DSC-P72", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail DateTime": "2007:07:04 22:26:25", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "2379", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3160", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/200", "EXIF FNumber": "71/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:07:04 22:26:25", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:07:04 22:26:25", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "9", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1280", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "960", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "2172", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}