"Only in the Evening I Acknowledged What It Meant to Liberate Shushi:" Today is the 77th Anniversary of Arkadi Ter-Tadevosyan

• 05.22.2016, 18:30
•  World,  Armenia,  NKR

 "In 1990 Azerbaijan published a map, on which Zangezur and a half of the Sevan was included into Azerbaijan. My homeland was in danger and a responsibility of each Armenian is to defend his/her homeland despite of his/her views," in one of his interviews noted Arkadi Ter-Tadevosyan, a hero of Artsakh Liberation war.

Motivated by such a sense of responsibility towards his homeland in 1990 Arkadi Ter-Tadevosyan became a member of "Sasuntsi David" volunteer unit, which defended the Armenian bordering villages that on the permanent basis were attacked and shelled by Azerbaijanis. Already on July 31 he left for Artsakh, where he acted as a military instructor.  On October 30, 1991 Artsakh newly formed self-defense forces, under the command of Arkadi Ter-Tadevosyan, organized an excellent operation  and  liberated from the enemy Togh village (Hadrut region) which was of great strategic military importance. In May, 1992 the liberation of Shushi was organized and realized. Shushi was one of of the most inaccessible heights controlled by the Azerbaijani military units from where Stepanakert (present day capital of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic) was bombed for months.

Today is the birthday of Artsakh liberation war hero Arkadi Ter-Tadevosyan. He was born on May 22, 1939 in the capital of Georgia, Tbilisi. He got is secondary education at N 9 then N 10 Russian schools in Tbilisi. After leaving the school Ter-Tadevosyan was called for military service, then was admitted to Military Academy of Communication of St. Petersburg. Afterwards he was engaged in military service in Germany, then in Afghanistan, Czech Republic and Belarus. In 1987 as he noted, missing his homeland, the experienced soldier returned to Armenia. Komandos was first engaged in a military service in Gyumri, then in Yerevan simultaneously lecturing at Agricultural Institute as a head of the military department.

Arkardi Ter-Tadevosyan does not like speaking of how he got the nickname Komandos. However, once surrounded by close people he sincerely noted that he was named Komandos by one of his military friends in Artsakh as a leader, whose words led them during military operations, Razm info reports.

In one of his interviews Komandos said:

"From the military point of view we were not ready and Vazgen Sargsyan noted that we did not need to hurry, but we need to liberate Shushi. At that time I promised him that if we liberated Shushi we would organize his weeding in the mountains. Hence comes the name of the operation "Wedding in the Mountains," Panarmenian Net reports. "When a commander sets a goal he realizes that it can be achieved at the expanse of human lives. However, if he is confident that the goal will be achieved he must select a person who will do such a dangerous step." Realizing this, Komandos gathered the members of his unit and said: "The ones, who are afraid, make a step forward." Komandos hugged and thanked for military service the ones, who stepped forward.

Shushi was liberated in 26.5 hours. The operation was planned for mounts. On May 9 at 4:30 a.m. Ter-Tadevosyan was reported that the town was liberated:

"I did not know what to do, to tell people or not. There were mines in the city and my people could be killed. I struggled with me until 8 am. After I declared that there was no enemy in the town, I fell asleep as I had not slept for days. Thus I was brought to the liberated Shushi asleep," with a smile on his face noted Komandos.  

"I wished a lot to celebrate with my soldiers, but, alas, my organism could not stand it. Only in the evening I acknowledged what it meant to liberate Shushi."

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KOMANDOS!!!