Shushi Mayor: 'We Had a Large Force, Just Disorganized Without Command Structure'

The Mayor of Shushi, Artsvik Sargsyan, has moved to Stepanakert after November 9 and is currently residing in one of the hotels, where he is coordinating assistance to citizens from the so-called Shushi city hall office, reports 168.am.

Commenting on Aliyev's recent visit to Shushi, where he made another anti-Armenian statement, saying that if Armenians try to think about liberating Shushi and Artsakh again, they will face Azerbaijan's 'iron fist', Sargsyan noted, 'Azerbaijanis remain Azerbaijanis.'

'I do not think that we will have brotherly relations or interactions with them, because those people have reached a level where they abuse children, torture and kill elderly people. Recently, in Karin Tak, a 58-year-old woman was tortured and killed; what can you even talk about with them? Aliyev should not speak; this was not his war. In this third war over Artsakh, the Armenian side fought against four countries, led by Turkey, which was able to win and advance. We fought against Azerbaijan and we won; we have always seen fleeing soldiers. They were better armed; the air strikes and drones were more significant, and our forces could not counter them, and that is why they succeeded. Today, Armenians are in a depressed state, but I believe this is a temporary depression. We need a strong, patriotic, and motivated leadership to uplift our soldiers' spirits so that we can achieve victories again. Even now, if Turkey and other states do not interfere, we can still liberate Shushi. They were many; that is why this happened, and we had disorganization,' he added.

Regarding the fall of Shushi and ways to overcome the current situation, Sargsyan said, 'I was there on the day of Shushi's surrender, but I must say that the disorganization was again present. We had a large force; it was just disorganized, without a command structure or a commander. The soldiers were without leadership. Then why should we have fought in the outskirts of Shushi if we could have fought on the road? We should have broken their backbone in the Karin Tak gorge and advanced. As for the liberation of Shushi, if the war was over and it should not have been like this, we should liberate Shushi, what is stopping us?' he emphasized.

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