OPERATION "IRON FIST"
After the Bishkek protocol signed in 1994, the Republic of Azerbaijan, which lost 20 percent of its territory as a result of the first Karabakh war, conducted long-term diplomatic negotiations with the Republic of Armenia within the framework of individual international organizations for the implementation of the UN Security Council's decisions on unconditional withdrawal of the occupying forces from Azerbaijan territories. Moreover, with the peace platforms of international organizations, Azerbaijan also took an active part in the initiatives of the countries of the region to resolve the conflict but the peace talks over the years were ineffective. 
Populist statements of Nikol Pashinyan, who came to power in Armenia 2018, such as Karabakh is Armenia and that is it, and provocative actions such as successive illegal trips to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and the continuation of these provocative actions in March 2019 when Armenian Defense Minister David Tonoyan was on an official visit to the United States, the call for a “New war for his new lands” undermined the possibility of a peaceful settlement of the conflict.
In July 2020, Armenians attempted to go on the offensive using artillery fire in order to seize the favorable positions of the Azerbaijani-Armenian state border in the Tovuz direction.
In August, in the direction of Goranboy District of the contact line, the Armenian Armed Forces, the diversionary-reconnaissance group attempted to sabotage, but as a result of the measures taken, the group of diversions lost and retreated while the group's commander-in-chief Gurgin Alberyan was captured.
In addition to direct military provocations, the resettlement of thousands of Lebanese Armenians to the occupied territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan after numerous YPG, PKK terrorists, as well as explosions in the Port of Beirut, contrary to the principles of international law, deepened the conflict. Tensions peaked at the end of August 2020, when the wife of Armenian Prime Minister Anna Hakobyan publicly took part in illegal military exercises in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. The ineffective and provocative statements and actions of the Armenian side meant a complete rejection of the negotiation process.
On September 25, 2020, İlham Aliyev, the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, at the general debate of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly in a video format noted the death of Azerbaijani military and civilian citizens as a result of the latest provocations of Armenia, as well as significant damage to civilian infrastructure. In particular, the President of Azerbaijan indicated that more than a thousand tons of military equipment were transported to Armenia by military cargo aircraft from July 17, all the way up until September.
The course of the battles
On September 27, 2020, in response to a gross violation of the ceasefire by the Armed Forces of Armenia on the same day, the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan launched counter-offensive operations to prevent Armenian provocations and declared martial law on the territory of the republic. On September 27 was announced partial mobilization in the country.
The defense capability of the army of the occupying country, which is not able to inflict resilience before the shock strikes of the Azerbaijan Army, split in a short time. Our army, which initially liberated a number of villages and strategic heights from occupation at the beginning, liberated Jabrayil on October 4, Fuzuli on October 17, Zangilan on October 20, Gubadli on October 25, and Shusha on November 8. In total, over the years of the war, about 300 settlements were liberated on the battlefield, including the Tartar, Khojavand, Khojaly districts.