Azerbaijan only moved forward for 44 days, President Ilham Aliyev said, speaking in front of the servicemen in Shusha on November 8, Report informs, citing AZERTAC.
"Prior to Shusha, many of our towns and villages, including Jabrayil, Hadrut, Fuzuli, Zangilan, Gubadli, Sugovushan, about 300 villages, a part of Lachin and Kalbajar, were liberated on the battlefield. The liberation of Shusha broke the back of the Armenian army. As a matter of fact, Armenia was in panic from the first days of the war. In some cases, it was gripped by panic and hysteria. This is exactly why there were more than 10,000 deserters in the Armenian army, according to their own admission. There was not a single deserter in the Azerbaijan Army. This indicates the high moral qualities of our people. Our soldiers were prepared to die. They fought under the slogan “we would rather die than retreat”. There wasn’t a single deserter. This is true heroism of our people. It goes to show that such a wonderful young generation has grown up, many of whom had never even seen Karabakh and Zangazur. They were approaching this sacred land they had only seen on television and photographs and heard about from their parents and elders. However, they came here and fulfilled the historic mission of our people with dignity," the head of state said.