The “battle” of Hadrut: When did it start and end?

In recent days, the circumstances of the capture of the city of Hadrut in Artsakh have become a subject of debate on the Internet, especially the date of the capture. In particular, on April 13, MP Sofya Hovsepyan read a letter in the National Assembly written by the parents of missing soldiers, stating that their children had been sent to Hadrut on October 11 although the city had been occupied on October 9.

It should be noted that so far there has been no official announcement about the dates of occupation of many large settlements in Artsakh.

The Fact Investigation Platform tried to find out when the whole city came under the control of the adversary, based on the information of the open sources and the journalists covering the hostilities in those days.

What was going on in Hadrut on October 9 and afterwards?

By launching a large-scale military offensive in the direction of Artsakh since September 27, Azerbaijan had succeeded in making significant progress in the first ten days of the war. From the very first day of the war, Hadrut was also targeted with regular shelling.

On October 9, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev announced that Azerbaijani forces had captured Hadrut and a number of villages.

The representative of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia Artsrun Hovhannisyan immediately denied Aliyev, stating that he was in Hadrut at that very moment, and “was only seeing Armenians.”

The correspondent of Komsomolskaya Pravda Alexander Kots, who covered the war in Artsakh, also confirmed on the evening of October 10 that the city of Hadrut was still under Armenian control, posting a video of the city itself.

On the same day, the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides agreed on declaring a humanitarian ceasefire in Moscow. It was to enter into force on October 10 at 12:00.

However, the Defense Army said on October 10 that before the humanitarian ceasefire, the Azerbaijani side had attempted a subversive infiltration attempt into Hadrut.

A number of facts indicate that the city was not occupied as of October 10, and battles were still ongoing.

The journalists of the Fact Investigation Platform, who were in Artsakh at that time, went to Hadrut on the afternoon of October 10 to understand the situation in the city. Reaching the outskirts of the city, they eventually did not enter the city.

Journalists noticed burning houses from a high spot near Hadrut, which had most likely been set on fire by the subversive group. There was also an active shooting between subversive groups and Armenian servicemen. For security reasons, Fip.am journalists did not enter the city. However, the camera of our journalists captured the Azerbaijani saboteurs standing on one of the heights of Hadrut.

On October 11, the film crew of the Bars Media film studio entered the city of Hadrut while the city was still under the control of the Armenian army (the video was released on October 14).

It is noteworthy that in the video, one of the soldiers tells that the Azerbaijani subversive group entered Hadrut on the morning of October 10, at about 11 am.

On October 11, the film crew of the Public TV Company of Armenia was in Hadrut. In the published video, the correspondent reported that Armenian soldiers were patrolling the city, patrolling the area, in order to destroy the members of the subversive group who had infiltrated into the city on October 10.

Fip.am contacted the mayor of Hadrut Vahan Savadyan to find out when the Armenian forces finally left the city. He noted that Hadrut came under Azerbaijani control on the evening of October 11, and before that fighting had been ongoing in the city.

It is noteworthy that although the Azerbaijani side announced the capture of Hadrut on October 9, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry released a video inside the city of Hadrut only on October 16, which once again proves that the city was captured later.

In fact, the Azerbaijani forces entered the city on October 10, but gained control over it 1.5 days later.

Loosineh Voskanyan