Azerbaijan celebrates 3rd anniversary of Karabakh victory

BAKU, Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan on Wednesday celebrated the country's Victory Day, marking the third anniversary of the liberation of the Karabakh region from Armenian occupation.

On the occasion of the Victory Day celebrations, marches were held in the capital Baku, in which soldiers and veterans of the conflict participated and those killed during the war were commemorated with a moment of silence.

Marches were also held in the cities of Ganja, Barda, Fuzuli, Lachin, and Zangilan.

Most of the Karabakh region, which had been under Armenian occupation for nearly three decades, was liberated by Azerbaijan during a 44-day war in the fall of 2020, which ended after a Russian-brokered peace agreement and also opened the door to normalization with Yerevan.

On Nov. 8, the Azerbaijani army liberated the city of Shusha, which was later declared as Victory Day by a presidential decree.

Initially, Victory Day was to be celebrated on Nov. 10, the day of the end of the Second Karabakh War, but this was later canceled due to coinciding with the anniversary of the passing of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Republic of Türkiye.

* Writing by Burc Eruygur