Gurgen Dalibaltayan Gurgen Dalibaltayan ( ; born 5 June 1926 ) is an Armenian Colonel - General . He was the Chief of General Staff of RA Armed Forces during the Battle of Shusha , a battle to capture the city from the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan , often called the Marriage in the Highlands by Armenians . He is credited with devising a strategy to assault the strongly fortified town of Shusha using diversionary attacks against adjacent villages to draw out the defenders of the down while the command of troops , " Komandos " Arkady Ter - Tatevosyan , encircled the town and cut off reinforcements . His strategy is generally considered impossible , or at least implausible , as he was originally outnumbered . General military tactics suggest a force of three times the defender ' s size to successfully storm and win . Early life . Gurgen Dalibaltayan was born in Ninotsminda , Javakheti ( modern Samtskhe - Javakheti , Georgia ) , near the border with Armenia . Although a part of the Georgian SSR , Ninotsminda has an near completely Armenian population . He attended the Secondary School of Gorelovka from 1934 to 1944 . Upon graduating , he spent three years at the Tbilisi School of Infantry . Dalibaltayan then joined the ranks of the Soviet Army . Military career . Soviet Army . Dalibaltayan held various commanding positions in Echmiadzin , Yerevan , Perekeshkul , Prishib , Kirovabad , Abakan and Rostov - on - Don during his service in the Soviet Armed Forces . He was the commander of the 242nd Infantry Division of the Siberian Military District from 1969 to 1975 . Outside of the USSR , he was Deputy Chief of Staff from 1975 to 1980 for the Southern Group of Forces in Budapest . He had also participated in higher academic courses for commanders at the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR ( now Russia ) in 1976 and 1978 . Dalibaltayan held his final position starting in 1987 as Deputy Commander of the North Caucasus Military District for combat training in Rostov - on - Don . In 1991 , he left the Soviet Armed Forces prior to the Fall of the Soviet Union . Armenian Army . The Armed Forces of Armenia , the country of origin for Dalibaltayan , had soon afterward joined him amongst its ranks . Dalibaltayan was appointed Chief of Staff of the Defence Committee of the Council of Ministers of Armenia in 1991 . Within the same year , he had been promoted to Chief of the General Staff of the Armenia and also became the first Deputy Defence Minister of Armenia . Dalibaltayan was one of the leaders of the Armenian military during the Nagorno - Karabakh War . He was the commander of Armenian forces for the Battle of Shusha , with the assistance of Arkady Ter - Tadevosyan . All of the military factors were in the 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 . 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 Daribaltayan . Furthermore , according to military conventions and practices , for the operation to be successful , the Armenians would have to outnumber the Azeris by at least 3 – 4 times ( even more when attacking an elevation ) , with no such manpower available at the time . Instead , together Dalibaltayan and Ter - Tadevosyan devised a strategy of launching several diversionary attacks against the adjacent villages to draw out the defenders of Shusha , while the Armenian forces would in the meantime encircle and cut off the town from further reinforcements . The capture was a success and proved to be a turning point in the war in favor of Armenia . The date Shusha was captured , 9 May 1992 , is celebrated as Victory Day in Armenia , also coincidentally coinciding with the end of the Great Patriotic War during World War II . Following the war , he worked as the Advisor to the President of Armenia and the chief military inspector from 1993 to 2007 . As of 2007 , he is the Senior Advisor to the Minister of Defense . Personal life . He is married to Shushanik Dalibaltayan ( née Khachatryan ) . They have two children , a daughter Varduhi ( b . 1952 ) and a son Varazdat ( b . 1954 ) . Dalibaltayan is an honorary citizen of Yerevan .