"I’m going so that the children in Shusha can finally go to school without fear," he told her. "I’m going so our land can finally breathe again."
Weeks later, the news arrived. Polad had been among the first to scale the steep cliffs toward Shusha. He had been wounded but refused to leave his post until his squad reached the summit. He died as the sun rose over the liberated city.
A year after the victory, Maryam sat in a newly rebuilt park in Agdam. Around her, children were laughing, chasing each other through rows of freshly planted trees. A young couple sat on a nearby bench, planning their wedding. The silence of the "Ghost City" had been replaced by the rhythm of life.
She opened a small notebook Polad had left behind. On the last page, he had scribbled a single sentence: "Don’t cry for the ground I lie in; smile for the sky you walk under."
In the autumn of 2020, Polad had stood in the doorway, his uniform crisp and his kit bag heavy. His mother, Maryam, had tried to hold back tears as she pressed a small piece of bread into his hand—a traditional Azerbaijani send-off for those going to war.
