Azerbaijan Commemorates Jewish Tank Commander Albert Agarunov, Killed in 1992 Battle of Shusha

Azerbaijan this weekend marked the memory of Albert Agarunov, the Jewish tank commander killed during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War and posthumously awarded the title National Hero of Azerbaijan. Rabbi Zamir Isayev, the Sephardic chief rabbi of Baku, visited Agarunov’s grave together with students from the local Jewish school and young members of the Jewish community.

Agarunov is buried at the Alley of Martyrs in central Baku beneath the flags of Israel and Azerbaijan, alongside other national heroes.

During the visit, students heard about Albert Agarunov’s life, military service, and role in Azerbaijan’s national memory more than three decades after his death. "His legacy is a lesson in courage, responsibility, and love of homeland," Rabbi Zamir Isayev said. " Agarunov fought in May 1992 during the defense of the city of Shusha, one of the central battles of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.

He was one of the Azerbaijani forces’ most prominent tank commanders and took part in numerous armored battles against Armenian forces. Agarunov destroyed several enemy armored vehicles, after which a bounty was placed on his head. Azerbaijani officers who fought alongside him recounted that he left his tank during the battle in an attempt to recover the bodies of fallen Azerbaijani soldiers left in the streets of Shusha.

While carrying out that effort, Agarunov was shot and killed by a sniper on the Shusha-Lachin road on May 8, 1992. His funeral was attended by both Jewish rabbis and Muslim imams, a moment widely referenced in Azerbaijan as a symbol of interfaith respect.

In a rare interview recorded shortly before his death, Albert Agarunov said he was a Jew fighting for the country where he was born, alongside the Azerbaijani people with whom he grew up. Over the years, Agarunov has become one of the best-known Jewish figures in Azerbaijan’s modern history.

The school where he studied was named after him, a memorial plaque was installed on his family home in Baku’s Amirjan district, and a monument in his honor was unveiled in Baku in 2020.

@Jerusalem_Post reported that for many Azerbaijanis, Agarunov represents not only wartime heroism but also the idea of shared civic identity across religious and ethnic lines. His story continues to hold particular significance in Azerbaijan, where Jewish communities in Baku, Quba, and other areas have lived for centuries with a relatively high degree of public visibility and institutional security.