Author: Anna Tamamian

ArmInfo. This year marks the 28th anniversary of the ethnic cleansing of the Armenian-populated Shahumyan region by Azerbaijan. Tatevik Hayrapetyan, a deputy from the “My Step” faction, said this from the rostrum of the parliament.

She noted that the occupation of Shaumyan and the squeezing out of  the Armenian population of the area prove that Azerbaijan intended to  implement a similar policy with regard to the entire  Nagorno-Karabakh.  , Hayrapetyan emphasized. The MP also noted that in the  future the issue related to Shumyan should be on the agenda of the  negotiations on the settlement of the Artsakh issue.  It should be  noted that June 13 marks the 28th anniversary of the occupation by  Azerbaijan of the ancient Armenian territory – Shaumyan – the  inextricable part of Artsakh. Historically, the territory of the  Shahumyan region was one of the five large Armenian principalities of  Artsakh, known in archival and other documents as Gulistan. July 5,  1921 by the decision of the plenum of the Bureau of the Central  Committee of the RCP / b, despite the protests of the Armenian  population, which at that time made up 95% of the region’s  inhabitants, Artsakh was transferred to newly-minted Azerbaijan, and  with it Gulistan.  When created in July 1923 The Nagorno-Karabakh  Autonomous Region (NKAO) Gulistan and several other areas of Artsakh  – Khanlar, Dashkesan, Shamkhor – with far-reaching goals were  included not in autonomy, but in the Azerbaijan SSR. All the years of  the existence of the Azerbaijan SSR in relation to these regions –  repeated redrawing of the borders of the regions, blocking of  Armenian villages, artificial inhibition of their economic  development, etc. – a policy of squeezing out the Armenian population  was carried out.  Since the beginning in 1988. The Karabakh movement,  all Armenian regions of Artsakh began to be subjected to massive  attacks by Azerbaijani riot police, state and party bodies. The first  open armed clashes between residents of Artsakh and Azerbaijan  occurred precisely in the northern part of Nagorno-Karabakh.  January  13, 1990, when the armed detachments of the Popular Front of  Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijani police tried to occupy the villages of  Kamo, Azad, Getashen and Martunashen of the Khanlar region and the  villages of Erkech, Manashid, Buzlukh of the Shaumyan region. January  15, 1990 by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR  in the NKAR and adjacent areas, incl. Shahumyansky, a state of  emergency is introduced. In January-March 1990 with the help of  internal vrysk the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR deported  the Armenian population of the villages of Azad and Kamo of the  Khanlar district. In April 1991 Operation OMON of the Azerbaijan SSR,  the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, and units of the Soviet  army launched the operation “Ring” on the deportation of the Armenian  villages of the NKAR and adjacent areas. In April-July, 24 villages  were deported in Khanlar, Shahumyan, Hadrut and Shusha districts.  July 4, 1991 By decree of the President of the USSR M. Gorbachev, the  state of emergency was canceled in the Shahumyan region. After the  withdrawal of the units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the  USSR, the OMON of Azerbaijan attacked the villages of Erkech,  Manashid and Buzlukh, but was rejected by local self-defense units.  During July-August 1991 The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the  Azerbaijan SSR, together with units of the 23rd Division of the 4th  Soviet Army (stationed in Ganja) conducted military operations in the  area with the aim of expelling the Armenian population using military  equipment, including combat aircraft. In July, the residents of the  villages of Erkech, Manashid, Buzlukh, whose population went deep  into the region, were deported. Self-defense units initiated armed  resistance.  On September 2 (after the declaration of the  independence of the Azerbaijan SSR on August 30 by the Supreme  Council  of Azerbaijan), a joint session of the Regional Council of  the NKAR and the district council of the Shahumyan region proclaimed  the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and decided to hold December 10, 1991.  referendum on the independence of the NKR in accordance with Article  3 of the Law of the USSR of  04/03/1990 “On the procedure for  resolving issues related to the exit of the Union Republic from the  USSR>. In September 1991, the Shaumyansky region was the first of the  NKR regions to become an arena of open hostilities between the NKR  self-defense units and the forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs  and the national army of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijanis used heavy  artillery, tanks and armored vehicles , which had already been  transferred to them by the command of the 23rd division of the 4th  army, but the Shaumyan’s self-defense forces managed to storm the  control of the border villages of Erkech, Buzlukh and Manashid.  In  September-December 1991 positional battles continued. December 10 in  the NKR, including a referendum was held in the Shahumyan region,  during which the vast majority of residents supported the  independence of the NKR. On December 30, elections of deputies of the  NKR Armed Forces were held in the region and throughout NKR. And  January 13, 1992 for the first time in the territory of the former  USSR, weapons of mass destruction were used against civilians –  Azerbaijan fired at the Shaumyan district center from the BM-21 Grad  multiple launch rocket system.  In May-June 1992 The equipment and  weapons of the units and units of the former 4th Army of the  Transcaucasian Military District were transferred to Azerbaijan – 4  divisions, a third of the ships and all the bases of the Caspian  flotilla, a helicopter squadron, more than 100 combat aircraft, etc.,  not counting captured ones. Using this weapon and a significant  number of military mercenaries in June 1992.  Azerbaijan launched a  large-scale attack on the NKR. It began with the Shaumyan region,  which is extremely important strategically and is closest to the  largest military bases of the former USSR in Azerbaijan in Kirovabad  (Ganja). June 15, 1992 the entire Shaumyan region was captured by  Azerbaijan.  In the summer of 1992 Azerbaijanis also captured most of  Martakert, part of Martuni, Askeran and Hadrut regions of the NKR.   For several days from Shaumyan 17 thousand Armenians were deported  forcibly, several hundred residents were killed or missing.