At 2:30 a.m. on the night of 8 May, 1992, the attack order was given, and the liberation of the fortress city of Shushi began in four directions, the “Wedding in the Mountains.” The liberation of Shushi was a significant victory of the Armenian Military Forces. It was planned to enter the city on 5 May, but there was a lot of snow on that day, so the operation was carried out on 8 May.

The Commander of the operation was the National Hero of Armenia Arkadi Ter-Tadevosyan (Komandos).

According to Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan’s conviction, with the liberation of Shushi, the backbone of the enemy was physically and morally broken, and the foundation of the regular Armenian army was laid.

The leader of the eastern direction of the attack was Arkady Karapetyan, the First Commander of the Self-Defense Forces of Nagorno Karabakh. Valery Chitchyan was the Commander of the Northern Stepanakert-Shushi direction, Seyran Ohanyan of the Northwestern one. Yuri Hovhannisyan led the Military operation of the reserve force of the “26” base (located near the village of Krkzhan, near Stepanakert). The Commander of the Southern or Lachin direction was Samvel Babayan.

Lieutenant General Mikael Arzumanyan said about Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan: “Taking over the command of the NKR Self-Defense Forces at a time when the newly independent republic was under complete siege and had to face Azerbaijani aggression, the experienced soldier with his characteristic responsibility initiated the difficult task of coordinating combat operations and forming a regular army on the basis of separate volunteer detachments.

The culmination of Komandos’ activity was the “Wedding in the Mountains” military campaign. It was organized and carried out according to all the rules of high military art. When Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan was appointed to another position, Togh and Shushi were liberated, the hostile firing points shelling Stepanakert around the clock were silenced, and Artsakh had a reliable land connection with mother Armenia.”

The Minister of Defense at that time, Vazgen Sargsyan, promised that he would get married after the liberation of Shushi, which is why the Shushi operation was called “Wedding in the Mountains”.

Today, Shushi is occupied by the enemy, the Azerbaijani army. During the 2nd Artsakh War, on 9 November, 2020, Artsakh President’s Spokesman Vahram Poghosyan announced: “Unfortunately, we have to admit that the chain of failures still accompanies us and the city of Shushi is completely out of our control.”

Azerbaijan is doing its best to clean the Armenian traces from the Armenian fortress city.