Military expert: Liberation of Hadrut laid foundation for Armenia's defeat in war

The liberation of the Hadrut settlement in the Khojavand district and surrounding heights created the preconditions for the defeat of the Armenian army in the Second Karabakh War, military expert Ramil Mammadli told a Report correspondent in Hadrut.

He noted that the liberation of Hadrut and the Ergunash height during the Patriotic War was of great importance for the Azerbaijani Armed Forces.

"The strategic importance of this territory was that the Azerbaijani army for the first time entered the mountainous part of Karabakh from the southern direction and strengthened its positions there. The liberation of this territory also created opportunities for our army to maneuver and allowed it to move towards the city of Shusha, as well as Mount Kirs, to control supply routes in the direction of Fuzuli, Shusha, Khankandi, Khojavand, and Gargabazar," he said.

Mammadli said that after the liberation of Jabrayil, the Armenian leadership ordered its army to strengthen the defense line in the direction of the Ergunash height. But they did not think that immediately after the liberation of Jabrayil, the Azerbaijani army would begin operations in the direction of Hadrut.

According to Mammadli, after liberating the heights around Hadrut, the Azerbaijani army easily took control of other territories: "After losing Hadrut, the Armenian army realized that it could not resist the Azerbaijani Armed Forces."

Hadrut and several other villages were liberated from Armenian occupation on October 9 as a result of the Azerbaijani army counteroffensive, which began on September 27, 2020. The liberation of Hadrut became one of the key operations that determined the outcome of the war.