Ahmadiyya Mikayil oghlu Jabrayilov (, ; ; 22 September 1920 – 11 October 1994) is said to have been a French Resistance member of Azerbaijani ethnicity.
Biography
Jabrayilov was reportedly born in Okhud village, Shaki District, Azerbaijani SSR, on 22 September 1920. In 1941, he began his service in the Soviet Army.
In 1960, the Soviet newspaper Nedelya (1960) published the following version of the biography of Jabrayilov by Soviet journalist Nikolay Paniyev and Azerbaijani historian Garash Madatov:
The same author, Garash Madatov, in the book Azerbaijan in the Great Patriotic War, puts the biography of Jabrayilov in the following way:
In the newspaper Bakinskiy Rabochiy (Baku Worker) of 1966, the biography of Jabrayilov is presented the following way:
According to the article of Azerbaijani historian H. Mehtiyev (published in Ever Living Traditions in 1968), Jabrayilov fought in France within "the first Soviet partisan division". While he was with them, the division liberated Paris. In total, Jabrayilov was awarded 8 highest orders and medals of France.
In the book Against the Common Enemy (1972), Jabrayilov describes his own biography the following way:
According to the captain B. Karpov (Soviet Military Review, 1975), Jabrayilov was placed in a camp near Montauban under the number 4167. A French woman, Jeanne, saved dying Jabrayilov by burying an empty coffin instead of his body. Jabrayilov joined the French partisans, with whom he carried out numerous dangerous combat operations. With the "Poppies squad" he liberated the city of Toulon, making his way through the sewers to the center of the city and striking behind the lines of the enemy. Jabrayilov also took part in the liberation of Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse and Paris. In 1945, Maurice Thorez invited Jabrayilov to his home and awarded him with orders and medals on behalf of the French government.
According to the French newspaper «Sud Ouest» (1975), maqui Jabrayilov was saved from a prison in Montauban while he was the prisoner of the Germans during the war. Later with the maquis of the region, he had to participate in the liberation of Montauban, Toulouse and Rodez.
According to the Azerbaijani Soviet Encyclopedia, Jabrayilov was captured in May 1942 in course of the battle for Donbas, and was kept in Dachau and Alsace-Lorraine concentration camps. In November 1942, he fled to join the partisans in France, took part in battles for the liberation of France, received several French awards (including Médaille militaire for personal bravery) and was retired in 1946.
In the newspaper, Bakinskiy Rabochiy (Baku Worker), Ms. Rugiya Aliyeva, an Azerbaijani journalist and author of the book Azerbaijanis in the European Movement of Resistance, tells the following story of Jabrayilov's life:
According to Rossiyskaya Gazeta, de Gaulle met with Jabrayilov three times. Arriving in Moscow in 1966, de Gaulle included a meeting with Jabrayilov in his agenda. Jabrayilov was awarded the title of the "National Hero of France". He was also awarded the Legion of Honor and a number of other French decorations, including the Cross of Military Valour, which entitled him to march in parades ahead of the French generals.
According to the Translation Centre of the Cabinet of Ministers of Azerbaijan, Jabrayilov was a prisoner of war numbered 4167 and was placed in the camp near Marseille, which he fled to join French guerillas. In course of one of the combat operations, dressed in a German uniform, Jabrayilov was wounded and taken to a German hospital. Upon recovery, he was appointed commandant of the city of Albi, where he remained for eight months, gaining respect and credibility among his superiors and subordinates. Jabrayilov's actions to rescue prisoners of the concentration camps earned the admiration of de Gaulle. After the war, Jabrayilov, "one of the most respected members of the Union of Veterans of the Resistance" and "a legend of the Resistance", married a French woman, with whom he had two children, and worked in the office of Charles de Gaulle. In Dijon, an automobile factory was named after Jabrayilov. However, in 1951, Jabrayilov decided to return to the USSR. The United States offered "the famous reconnaissance man" American citizenship, France offered to gift Jabrayilov the factory named after him, but Jabrayilov rejected the offers. Upon his return to his native village, Okhud, he barely managed to avoid arrest and was forced to work as a shepherd. In France, a two-part film was made dedicated the life of Jabrayilov.