Agarunov, Albert Agarunovich

The early years

Albert Agarunov was born on April 25, 1969 in the village of Amirjan in the Ordzhonikidze district (now Surakhansky) of Baku in the family of Agarun and Lio Agarunov. Albert’s father, Agarun Agarunov, was an oilman, worked for many years in the Surakhani oil field ^[2] , and her mother Lio Izyaevna had the title “Mother Heroine” , raising ten children. Albert was the youngest son in the family ^[3] . By nationality, a Jew ^{[1] [4] [5]} . The Agarunov family was originally from the village of Krasnaya Sloboda in Guba, inhabited by Mountain Jews ^[3] .

After graduating from eight classes of school No. 154 in Amirjan, he entered the Secondary Professional Technical School No. 101 of the Azizbekov District , after which he received the specialty of a tractor driver ^[6] . Agarunov also studied at the music school in the class of the pipe. According to his sister, Sofia Mammadova, Albert was “the soul of any company, he liked to joke, arrange various rallies, and was generally an extremely sociable person” ^[2] .

After working as a turner at a machine-building plant ^[2] , Agarunov was drafted into the Soviet Army in 1987 and, having served in the Akhalkalaki region of the Georgian SSR as a cadet in the training unit, received the rank of junior sergeant , after which he was appointed tank commander ^[7] . Albert Agarunov repeatedly received thanks from the commanders of the unit, was awarded with the badges " Guard " and " Excellence in the Soviet Army " ^[2] .

After demobilization in 1989, it was restored by a turner ^[2] and for some time worked at the Surakhansky machine-building plant ^[7] .

Karabakh war

With the beginning of the Karabakh war , in the winter of 1991 ^[2] , Agarunov volunteered for the newly formed National Army and went to the front. In those years, the newly created National Army needed skilled tankers ^[7] . Albert also trained his fellow soldiers to control the T-72 tank. In December 1991, Agarunov with the rank of foreman ^[2] was appointed commander of the tank and sent to the Shusha Front ^[7] . He fought in the 777th Special Purpose Battalion under the command of Elchin Mammadov ^[8] . Agarunov shot at targets, the location of which was transmitted by scouts of the 777th battalion. According to the former crew member Agarunov Agababa Gasimov, Agarunov missed only once when the wrong tip was given at the place where, as it turned out later, the Azerbaijani military were located ^[9] .

Agarunov’s crew subsequently became famous along the entire front line. During the hostilities, according to data from Azerbaijani sources, in the direction of Stepanakert , Dashalta , Jamilli, he destroyed a significant amount of enemy manpower and armored vehicles ^[7] . According to the former commander of the Sabail tank battalion, in which Agarunov and Haji Azimov fought, the tank commanded by Agarunov destroyed 9 tanks, 7 infantry fighting vehicles and a number of other enemy equipment during the Karabakh war. According to Azimov, one method of Agarunov’s tank battle was that he waited for two enemy armored vehicles to approach each other and knocked them out with one shell ^[10] .

Shortly before his death, in early May 1992, Albert Agarunov gave an interview to ANS (correspondent - Mirshahin Agayev , cameraman - Chingiz Mustafayev ). To Agayev’s question, “What makes a Jew protect Azerbaijan’s land?”, Agarunov answered: “I live on this land, I was born here, I live here, it doesn’t force anything else” ^{[1] [10]} .

Last fight

May 8, 1992 began the assault on the city of Shusha . In the early morning, tanks of Armenian forces became visible in the direction of the road leading to Lachin. Albert Agarunov received an order to send his T-72 tank with tail number 533 ^{[8] [11]} in this direction ^[7] , near the village of Dashalty. The Agarunov tank stood there for three to four hours, but since the attack began from other directions, the crew returned in the direction of the asphalt plant ^[9] . During the day, fierce battles fought for the Shusha television tower on the northern outskirts of the city and for the prison in the east. The northern approaches to the city, the Armenian command ordered to cover the T-72 tank with tail number 442 ^[12] , commanded by Gagik Avsharyan. Soon one of the three Azerbaijani tanks appeared ^[13] . It was a tank of Albert Agarunov ^[4] . Both tanks opened fire on each other from a distance of 350 meters. “He shot well,” Avsharyan later recalled. At that moment, when the third shell of Agarunov’s tank hit his tank, the commander of the Armenian tank managed to open the hatch and jump out. Despite severe burns, he survived, and the driver Ashot Avanesyan and gunner Shagen Sargsyan died ^{[8] [13]} . This tank duel of two T-72s was subsequently widely reported in the media ^[14] . After the end of the war, Avsharyan’s tank, knocked down by Agarunov, was placed on a rock, above the road leading from Stepanakert to Shusha, as a monument ^[12] .

Albert Agarunov died during the subsequent battle on the road between Shusha and Lachin ^{[4] [14]} . According to the memoirs of a tank crew member Agarunov Agababa Gasimov, when the shells ran out, the tank began to return to ammunition stocks. Along the way, it became obvious that the defenders of the city were losing ground. Albert, according to Gasimov, was calm, confidently stood on the hatch of the tank. Soon, the tank, replenishing ammunition, returned to the firing point. Agarunov all the time left the hatch and looked out for a fired shell, despite Gasimov’s warnings not to do this. Resistance lasted another hour. At the height of the battle, Agarunov’s crew knocked out the enemy’s second equipment ^[7] (according to Gasimov it was either a machine or an infantry fighting vehicle) ^[9] . Agarunov left the hatch of a mechanic to see the result ^[9] . Then Gasimov noticed that Agarunov was not giving any signals. Gasimov got up and saw that Albert was facing the hatch. He clicked on Albert several times, then crawled to him and began to shake, and after a moment he found a bullet hole in Agarunov’s body: a sniper bullet entered his right chest ^[9] and hit his heart. Albert was dead ^[3] . According to another crew member Sarraj Mustafayev, he handed over Albert’s body to the foreman of the company, who, having loaded him into the car, sent him to the hospital, and from there the body was delivered by helicopter to Baku ^[9] .

At the time of the death of Agarunov was single. He was buried in the Alley of Martyrs in Baku ^[7] . When they decided to bury Albert on the Alley of Martyrs, the tanker’s father told his commanders that his son should be buried where “Azerbaijani fighters were buried since his son fought for Azerbaijan” ^[9] . During the funeral of Agarunov, prayers were simultaneously read by both the mullah and the rabbi ^[9] . An American journalist Thomas Goltz was also present at his funeral ^[4] .

After the death of Albert Agarunov, his name was put on the trunk of his tank, and many Azerbaijani tankmen called their combat vehicles "Albert" ^{[15] [16] [17]} .

By decree of the Acting President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Isa Gambarov, No. 833 dated June 7, 1992 , Agarunov Albert Agarunovich for the personal courage and bravery shown during the defense of the territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan and ensuring the safety of civilians, was posthumously awarded the title of National Hero of Azerbaijan ^{[7] [18 ] [18 ] ]} . The President of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev personally handed the medal of the National Hero to Albert’s sister Sofya Mammadova ^[2] .

On May 8, 2014, according to the decision of the Dede Gorgud National Fund, the Council of Elders, the Council of Veterans of the Republic and the journal Azərbaycan dünyası, Albert Agarunov was posthumously awarded the Order of the Son of the Fatherland. The order was awarded to the brother of the hero Rantik Agarunov ^[19] .

On May 6, 2016, Agarunov was posthumously awarded the Order of Azi Aslanov. The award was presented by the head of the Dede Gorgud National Foundation Eldar Ismailov to the brother of the hero Rantik Agarunov ^[20] .

The T-72 tank with tail number 533, on which Albert Agarunov fought, is exhibited at the Museum of Military History of Azerbaijan in Baku ^[11] .

In 2004, the Albert Agarunov Museum was opened at the Chabad Or-Avner Jewish school in Baku ^[2] .

Every year in Azerbaijan, on the 25th day of Albert Agarunov’s birthday, events are held dedicated to his memory ^{[21] [22]} . In 2017, the Minister of Defense of Azerbaijan, Colonel-General Zakir Hasanov, as part of his official visit to Israel, met with his brother Albert Rantik Agarunov ^[23] . And in 2018, Israeli Minister of Defense Avigdor Liberman visited the tomb of Agarunov in Baku ^[24] .

In 2017, in Sumgait ^[25] , and in 2018 in Baku, an international karate tournament in memory of Albert Agarunov was held ^[26] .

Objects bearing the name of Agarunov and monuments

Baku secondary school No. 154, which graduated from Albert Agarunov, bears his name. In front of the school building there is a bust of the hero ^[7] . The school opened a corner of Agarunov, in which there are always fresh flowers, all school events are held near the bust ^[2] .

One of the streets in the village of Krasnaya Sloboda is named after Albert Agarunov, a memorial plaque in honor of the National Hero is installed on the wall of one of the buildings on the street ^[27] .

In 2017, a memorial plaque was installed on the wall of the house in the village of Amirjani, in which Agarunov lived ^[28] .

Also in 2018, one of the streets of Baku was named after the hero ^[29] .

Films about Agarunov

In 2010, the director and scriptwriter Yefim Abramov shot the film “Letter to a Friend” dedicated to Agarunov at the Azerbaijani documentary film studio “Salnam” and is one of the films in the series “Heroes of Karabakh” ^[8] .

In the summer of 2017, the presentation of the feature-documentary film "The Land where I live" was dedicated to Albert Agarunov ^[30] .

In 2019, the Jarci-Film creative association at the Public Television of Azerbaijan made a documentary called “Brave Tanker - Albert Agarunov” ^[31] .

• Israel Barouk. A Jewish Warrior in a Muslim Land // The Times of Israel. - 2015. - 8 May.

Videos

• ANS . Interview with Albert Agarunov from the scene of hostilities (azerb.) . Youtube (1992). Date of treatment November 12, 2018.

• Vüqar Əsgərov. Azərbaycanın Milli Qəhrəmanları / Redaktor: Kamil İsmayılov. - Bakı: Qapp-poliqraf, 2005 .-- 250 p. - 500 copies. Archived January 9, 2019. (azerb.)
• Thomas de Waal . Black Garden. - New York: New York University Press, 2003 .