Operation Ring

In the spring of 1991, the Azeri-Turks embarked on a new type of offensive against the Armenians living in the Autonomous Region of Nagomo Karabakh and in the Shaumyan district to the north. It was called 'Operation Ring'.


Military forces of the 23rd Division of the Soviet 4th Army stationed in Azerbaijan joined in combined operations with Azerbaijani Ministry of Interior (OMON, or 'black beret' forces) to undertake systematic deportations of Armenians.

 

 'Operation Ring' started in late April 1991 with the villages of Getashen and Martunashen. These names will be seared onto the memory of Armenians alongside Baku and Sumgait for the brutality of the suffering inflicted on their people. The operations, carried out against vulnerable villagers, were remarkable for their ferocity. The pattern established in Getashen and Martunashen was later repeated against other villages in the Shaumyan district and elsewhere in Nagomo Karabakh.

 

Typically, the deportation exercise would begin with Soviet 4th Army troops surrounding the villages with tanks and armoured personnel carriers; military helicopters would hover low overhead. Once the village was surrounded by Soviet troops, the Azerbaijani OMON would move in and start harassing the villagers. They would round up men, women and children, usually on a pretext such as a 'passport check'. Many acts of brutality were committed: men were assaulted and killed; women were raped, children maltreated; civilians abducted as hostages.

 

Azeri-Turk citizens from nearby villages would come with pick-up trucks and cars, looting, pillaging and stealing everything from household goods to livestock. The Armenian villagers were then driven off their land, being forced to live as displaced people either elsewhere in Nagono Karabakh or in Armenia.
As a result of these actions in Karabagh and Armenian villigeas near the border of Armenia have lost  more than 500 people, over 100 were killed and several hundred more were taken hostages.
 

This pictures war taken only days before azeri attacks on Getashen.
in the pictures : One of the First Fedayis of Armenian Self deface Army Tatul Krpeyan and a reporter from FAX/USA
Tatul Krpeyan Was killed in Getashen