Azerbaijan this weekend marked the memory of Albert Agarunov, the Jewish tank commander who was killed during the First Karabakh War and posthumously awarded the title “National Hero of Azerbaijan,” the country’s highest state honor.
As part of the memorial events, 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 beneath the flags of Israel and Azerbaijan at the Alley of Martyrs in central Baku, alongside other Azerbaijani national heroes.
During the visit, students heard about Agarunov’s life and military service, as well as his role in Azerbaijan’s national memory more than three decades after his death.
'Courage, responsibility, and love of homeland'
“His legacy is a lesson in courage, responsibility, and love of homeland,” Rabbi Isayev said during the ceremony. “Albert Agarunov proved that one can be a proud Jew while also being a loyal citizen devoted to his country.”
For many Azerbaijanis, Agarunov represents not only wartime heroism but also the idea of shared civic identity across religious and ethnic lines.
Agarunov fought in May 1992 during the defense of the city of Shusha, one of the central battles of the First Karabakh War. He was considered one of the Azerbaijani forces’ most prominent tank commanders and reportedly took part in numerous armored battles against Armenian forces.
According to accounts from the period, he destroyed several enemy armored vehicles, and a bounty was later placed on his head.
Azerbaijani officers who fought alongside him said Agarunov left his tank during the battle in an attempt to recover the bodies of fallen Azerbaijani soldiers left in the streets of the city. While carrying out the evacuation effort, he was shot and killed by a sniper on the Shusha-Lachin road on May 8, 1992.
Following his death, Agarunov was posthumously awarded the title of National Hero of Azerbaijan. His funeral was attended by both Jewish rabbis and Muslim imams, and has since been widely referenced in Azerbaijan as a symbol of interfaith respect.
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 in 2020, a monument in his honor was unveiled in the Azerbaijani capital.
In a rare interview recorded shortly before his death, Agarunov said he was a Jew fighting for the country where he was born, alongside the Azerbaijani people with whom he grew up.
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.
More than 30 years after his death, Agarunov remains not only a wartime figure, but also a lasting symbol of the connection between Azerbaijan’s Jewish community and the broader Azerbaijani national identity.