THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF “RING” AROUND NAGORNY KARABAKH
arminfo
Saturday, April 30, 16:35
Today is the 20th anniversary of the notorious Operation Koltso (Ring),
a bright example of state terrorist against the Karabakh people.
This very day 20 years ago a large-scale military and police
operation was launched to deport the part of the Armenian population
in Nagorny Karabakh that refused to subdue to the violence and will
of Azerbaijanis. Operation Koltso was charged by President Mikhail
Gorbachev and welcomed by President of Azerbaijan Ayaz Mutalibov.
Azerbaijani Communist Party Second Secretary Polyanichko contributed
to the crime as well. The actual leader and developer of that coward
plan of fight against unarmed population of Karabakh was Hero of the
Soviet Union, cavalier of numerous orders and medals, Colonel General
Boris Gromov, now governor of the Moscow region.
Azerbaijani Ministry of Interior (OMON, or ‘black beret’ forces)
helped the “hero of Afghan war” Gromov in that operation.
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. The operation was
developed and realized on the Afghan scenario. 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 Nagorno 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 Nagorno Karabakh or in Armenia.
It is noteworthy that a small group of villagers resisted the Azeri
bands in militia and OMON uniforms. Tatul Krpeyan (National Hero of
Armenia posthumously) and Simon Achikghyozyan led the self-defense
of Getashen. Both were killed in an unequal fight bit the Armenian
defense continued a week. Despite the heroic fight, the last Armenian
left Getashen on May 7. Since then Getashen is under occupation of
Azerbaijan. 100 males were captured and taken to Kirovabad.
“During the operation “Koltso” 26 Armenian villages and small towns
in Shahumian, Hadrut and Shushi regions as well as the south and west
of the Nagorno-Karabakh were subjected to severe pressure, rioting
and looting by the Azerbaijani troops. About ten thousand people were
deported, more than a hundred people died. More than six hundred men
were taken to hostage, were tortured and abused. No international
organization or a country has recognized those incidents as a crime
against a nation by present.
From: A. Papazian