“The celebrations must feature numerous parades. It must be a long-awaited holiday,” Manvel Yeghiazaryan told journalists in Yerevan.

Dwelling on the liberation of Shushi, he said “it became a driving force for further victories.”

“It made the enemy succumb to panic, while we gained confidence,” he noted.

Asked whether all the participants of Shushi liberation are presently known, Yeghiazaryan noted with irony: “As far as I know, only 1500 people participated in the liberation struggle, however about 3000 individuals were granted awards.”

Shushi, due its impregnability, has long served as a unique defensive point for population of Varanda. In XVIII century it became a fortress town and a major trade and cultural center in XIX. In 1920, Soviet power was established in Shushi and in June 1923 Nagorno Karabakh was transferred to Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. On May 8, 1992, the city was liberated in an unprecedented operation by Artsakh army.