“Najmaddin Sadigov shouted: Why isn’t Madagiz being hit?” – The first minutes of the 44-day war

Military blogger Tofiq Shahmuradov has shared his recollections of the first minutes of the Patriotic War on September 27 in his book.

TodayPress TV reports, citing Globalinfo.az, that the author described the tense moments at the command post at the beginning of the fighting.

According to his account, while artillery fire continued, ground forces launched an offensive with the support of tanks and infantry fighting vehicles:

“It was the first minutes of the battle. It must have been around this time. There was both great joy in the eyes of our officers and a sense of tension stemming from the enormous responsibility placed upon them.

Heavy artillery fire continued. Our ground forces had already launched an offensive with the support of tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. The fighting was extremely intense.

At that moment, Najmaddin’s (Sadigov) shouting voice could be heard. I had heard that voice in some videos from the First Karabakh War. He shouted:

— Why isn’t Madagiz being hit? Why isn’t Madagiz being hit?

— Whose planned target is Madagiz?

Major General Vugar Alverdiyev, Chief of Staff of the Rocket and Artillery Forces, who was commanding the artillery units on the northwestern front, stood up and said:

— Mr. Chief of General Staff, Madagiz is target 9xx.

Najmaddin shouted again:

— Who is the commander of 9xx? Where is he?

The commander of 9xx was also sitting beside me — Colonel Eldeniz Abdullayev, who did not speak Russian particularly well.

I told Eldeniz:

— He is calling you; he mentioned your name.

Eldeniz Abdullayev stood up and introduced himself.

Najmaddin said in Russian:

— Why isn’t Madagiz being hit? I don’t see it being hit.

Since Eldeniz did not speak Russian well, he did not fully understand what was being said. He leaned toward me and asked:

— What is he saying?

I said:

— He is asking why Madagiz isn’t being hit.

At that time, Madagiz was also a target of the Pion artillery division, which was part of 9xx. The Pion division was commanded by our friend, Lieutenant Colonel Rustam Mehdiyev.

Eldeniz called Rustam on the Tetra radio in his hand and said:

— Mehdiyev, why aren’t you hitting Madagiz? Why aren’t you hitting that area?

Rustam replied:

— Colonel, what do you mean, ‘you aren’t hitting it’? I haven’t left a single stone standing there. What do you mean I’m not hitting it?

At that very moment, I burst into a big smile.

Even amid the most intense moments of the battle, this was one of the memories that remained etched in my mind.”