Azerbaijan to host military parade in Baku marking fifth anniversary of Victory Day

Under the instructions of President Ilham Aliyev, Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan, a grand military parade commemorating the fifth anniversary of Victory Day is scheduled to take place in the capital city of Baku on November 8.

According to the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence, comprehensive preparations are currently underway, with rehearsals involving multiple branches of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, Caliber.Az reports.

These rehearsals include coordinated movements of troops, military vehicles, aircraft, and naval units across designated routes within Baku and its environs.

On December 3, 2020, President Ilham Aliyev signed an order establishing November 8 as “Victory Day” in Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijani forces liberated the strategic Shusha city in the Karabakh region from a decades-long Armenian occupation on November 8, 2020. The city’s salvation was seen as the pinnacle of the Azerbaijani army’s weeks-long counter-attack operations, codenamed “Iron Fist.”

Shusha was said to be one of the major strongholds of the Armenian occupying forces, who could not resist face-to-face battles with the Azerbaijani troops and retreated in disarray. Liberation of the city has had a crucial impact on the surrender of Armenia's forces and the signing of a tripartite statement on November 10, 2020.

The Azerbaijani army restored Azerbaijan’s sovereignty over Shusha on November 8, 2020, during the final days of the 44-day war, which took place between September 27 and November 9, 2020.

President Aliyev said Shusha's liberation after 28 years of illegal occupation was the pinnacle of Azerbaijan's victory in the 44-day war.

By Vafa Guliyeva