Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan

Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan (Արկադի Տեր-Թադևոսյան; Аркадий Тер-Тадевосян; also known by the troops under his command as Komandos (Կոմասնդոս); born May 22, 1939) is a Soviet and Armenian Major General, a military leader of the Armenian forces during the Nagorno-Karabakh War and Armenia's former Deputy Minister of Defense. Ter-Tadevosyan is best known as being the commander of the operation to capture the town of Shushi in May 1992.

Biography
Ter-Tadevosyan was born in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR. After graduating from a high school in Tbilisi, he decided to become an officer. He attended the Baku Combined Arms Command School and later Leningrad Military Academy of Rear Services and Transportation. He served in Afghanistan where he earned the nickname, Mountain Fox. He continued his military service in East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Belarus, and also served as a lecturer at the Armenian State Agrarian University. With the breakup of the Soviet Union and the brewing conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, Ter-Tadevosyan took part in organizing in 1990 the defense of Armenian villages straddling the borders of Soviet Azerbaijan. He joined the Sasuntsi Davit Detachment to defend villages from constant attacks launched by Azerbaijani militants.

Karabakh War
Thereafter, he went to Nagorno-Karabakh to train soldiers. Ter-Tadevosyan was appointed Head of Training Corps Defense Committee in 1991. In 1992 he was named commander of the operation (dubbed Wedding in Mountains) to seize the strategic town of Shushi, the capture of which in May 1992 marked the first significant military victory by Armenian forces during the Nagorno-Karabakh War. Ter-Tadevosyan is known in Armenia as the "mastermind of Shushi liberation". He participated in the formation of the Armenian armed forces and assisted it to overcome significant challenges before it could emerge as a well-developed institution. On 25 May 1992, Ter-Tadevosyan was awarded the rank of Major General for his accomplishments during the Nagorno-Karabakh War. He also received the Order of the Combat Cross (1st class).

In May 2000, Ter-Tadevosyan left the Yerkrapah veterans union and founded the Veterans of the War of Liberation organization, although he left it in July of that year, expressing personal grievances about those who had joined it.

The President of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Bako Sahakyan, awarded him with the Order of the Golden Eagle and the title of Hero of Artsakh on the 17th the anniversary of the Capture of Shushi in 2009. The region continues to hold much meaning to Ter-Tadevosyan, who spends at least one week each month there.

Ter-Tadevosyan is currently supervising the training of specialists in the Armenian armed forces.

Awards

 * Order of the Red Banner
 * Order of the Badge of Honour
 * Medal "Veteran of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
 * Jubilee Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
 * Jubilee Medal "50 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
 * Jubilee Medal "60 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
 * Jubilee Medal "70 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
 * Jubilee Medal "50 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
 * Medal "For Impeccable Service", 1st class
 * Medal "For Impeccable Service", 2nd class
 * Medal "For Impeccable Service", 3rd class
 * 🇦🇲 Order of the Combat Cross, 1st class
 * Hero of Artsakh (2009)