Torpagdan pay olmaz – it’s good for nothing

The town of Shusha plays a monumental role in the historical and cultural self-identity of Azerbaijanis. 

Intentionally I’m constructing a sentence to avoid a nasty declension of "Shusha".

I visited Shusha once per year, in summer 1999 among 6 Azerbaijani journalists escorted by Armenian police and secret agents. While at Baku, my work-fellow, Shusha refugee and correspondent of newspaper «Azadlyg» Hikmet Sabirogly (see Photo), asked me to bring a handful of home ground. Together with ANS TV-correspondent Eldaniz Elgyul, we hunkered down at the entrance to Shusha mosque and collected home-ground to then give it the refuge family. The ground was of finely broken stone, construction dust, pieces of glass and prickles. We were under control of Armenian security guards and random people of the temple complex. Eldaniz and I were streaming with perspiration, scraped a dry ground ignoring mockery. A chief of Karabakh police was laughing at us crying out in Azeri torpagdan pay olmaz, a political slogan was spread in Azerbaijan which meant it’s good for nothing. In the meanwhile, “we gave the land for nothing as of the end of war 1992-93 ".

The Armenians were laughing, some of them were silent realizing a tragedy of the people they fraternized with two years ago and rejoiced at weddings. That day I grew old for the first time.

I brought a ball of earth to Baku and put it before Hikmet at an editorial office of "Azadlyg" in Khagani street 33. We said nothing to each other.  

A week later, a Musavatist Sevindj Huseynova I worked with at the Physiology Institute came to see me as saying that she noticed a woman at a subway car who was reading "Azadlyg", an article of the same journalist titled "A ball of earth on my table", and weeping bitterly...

It should be added that in 2020 our youth managed to overcome a 30 year of nation’s stagnation, remove our hardships, destroy an inferiority complex and bitterness at their rulers’ inactivity. Yesterday I watched a TV-broadcast seeing with great interest the diverting activities of the Azerbaijani army in the other way round but in fact beating a path to Shusha through thick forest, ravines and rocks to come into the town from behind.  

About two kilometers of hellish work with minimum of construction engineering, with no right to rest but at the hazard of life.  

It should be noted that weather was non-flying on on November 6-9, planes did not fly. Special Forces realized the target of Gen. Hikmet Mirzoyev (see Photo). Snipers and groups of assault and breakthrough acted effectively to create a flap among the enemy penetrating deep into the town. These actions were followed by attacks of the Special Forces started a hand-to-hand fight through using knives and pistols to destroy the enemy. 

Severe fight-liberated town will never fall into the wrong hands. From now on, Shusha is a symbol of Azerbaijani heroism and patriotism which is currently celebrated on November 8 as Victory Day. I advise Armenian revanchism ideologists beating the drum of a new war to address needs of their own people. Let them no chance. Torpagdan pay olmaz – it’s good for nothing