Ahmadiyya Jabrayilov — "Armand Michel" of the French Resistance
A soldier from a village near Sheki escaped a prison camp and became a hero of the French Resistance. His life reads like a film script.
Ahmadiyya Jabrayilov was born in 1920 in the village of Okhud in the Sheki district. In 1942 he went to the front, was badly wounded and captured.
The escape
After several camps he ended up in southern France. He quickly learned French with the help of a Frenchwoman working at the camp. One account says she helped him escape: he faked his death, was carried outside the camp and then freed. He later called his rescuer his second mother.
In the Resistance
Under the name Armand Michel he fought in the French Resistance, took part in sabotage and combat and became a lieutenant. France decorated him, and his name appears in accounts of the Resistance in the south.
Home again
After the war he returned to his village and ran the local farm for many years. Sheki has a monument in his honour, and streets bear his name.
Heading to Sheki? The monument is easy to add to your route.
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