Operation Goranboy | |||||||
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Part of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Armenia Artsakh | Azerbaijan | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Manvel Yeghiazaryan | Surat Huseynov Isgandar Hamidov Vladimir Shamanov Rovshan Javadov | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Unknown detachment Arabo Detachment "Aramo" detachment "Artziv 9" detachment "Zeytun" detachment "Nikol Duman" detachment "Zoravar Andranik" detachment "Meghradzor" detachment | Additional battalions 110 tanks 70+ BTRs and BMPs | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
20 civilians captured (later all released) The entire ethnic Armenian population of Goranboy fled the region [1] | Unknown |
Operation Goranboy was a large-scale military offensive by Azerbaijan in the summer of 1992. Its aims were to take complete control of the entire territory of Nagorno-Karabakh and put a decisive end to the secessionist Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR). This offensive is regarded as a successful breakthrough by the Azerbaijani Army and marked the peak of Azerbaijani success throughout the entire six years of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.
After Azerbaijan's initial military successes, re-grouped Armenian forces repelled the attack, re-capturing most of the seized regions.
On 12 June 1992, just five days after Abulfaz Elchibey of the Popular Front of Azerbaijan was elected the President of Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani military first launched a large scale diversionary attack from the east, in the direction of the Askeran region at the center of Nagorno-Karabakh. The Azerbaijani troops attacked positions to the north and south of Askeran. As a result of fierce fighting the Azerbaijanis managed to establish control over several settlements in the Askeran region: Nakhichevanik, Dovşanlı, Pirjamal, Dahraz, and Agbulaq.[ citation needed ]
On 13 June 1992, Azerbaijan launched the main large-scale three-day offensive against the region of Goranboy (the territory of the former Shahumyan rayon of Azerbaijan SSR) located north of Nagorno-Karabakh, which was defended by the Armenian volunteer detachments. This offensive was code-named Operation Goranboy (named after the rayon that lies to the north of former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO)) and headed by Surat Huseynov. As many as 4 tank battalions and 2 mechanized infantry battalions of the 23rd Division of the former Soviet Union Army, as well as 4 additional battalions of the Azerbaijan Army and various brigades from the neighboring regions, were joined in this operation. After 15 hours of fierce fighting against the Azerbaijani forces, the two Armenian detachments withdrew. Azerbaijan managed to capture several dozen villages in the Goranboy region originally held by the Armenian forces, and the entire Armenian civilian population of this region fled. According to a report by the Memorial human rights society, which sent its mission to Goranboy in the aftermath of the operation, there were no civilian casualties, as Armenians had fled the region before the Azerbaijani troops approached them. The population of the neighboring Azerbaijani and Russian villages remained unaffected. [1] [2]
On July 4, 1992, after a long siege, Azerbaijani forces captured the largest town in the region, Martakert, also known as Aghdara. The Armenian forces left being outnumbered but forced serious casualties and loss of weapons and equipment to Azeri forces. [3] The scale of the Azerbaijani offensive prompted the government of Armenia to openly threaten Azerbaijan that it would overtly intervene and assist the separatists fighting in Karabakh. [4]
According to Robert Kocharyan, by this time Azerbaijan had captured more than 48% of the territory of the former NKAO, creating a situation of panic among Armenians.
On June 18, 1992, a state of emergency was announced throughout the NKR. On August 15, the State Defense Committee of the NKR was created, headed by Robert Kocharyan. Partial mobilization was called for, which covered sergeants and privates in the NKR, NKR men available for military service aged 18–40, officers up to the age of 50 and women with previous military training. [5] The newly conscripted men now numbered 15,000. [3]
The thrust made by the Azerbaijanis ground to a halt when their armor was driven off by helicopter gunships. [3] It was claimed that many of the crew members of the armored units in the Azerbaijani-launched assault were Russians from the 104th Guards Airborne Division based out of Ganja and, ironically enough, so were the units who eventually stopped them. According to an Armenian government official, they were able to persuade Russian military units to bombard and effectively halt the advance within a few days. According to Russian General Lev Rokhlin, Russian effectively supplied Armenians with T-72 tanks and fifty BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles from its military base in Mozdok in the summer of 1992. Most of the ammunition was flown to Armenia by Antonov An-124 military cargo planes. [3]
After the reorganization of the NKR Defense Army, the tide of Azerbaijani advances was stopped. By September–December 1992 Azerbaijan's army was exhausted and suffered heavy losses. Faced with an imminent defeat, Surat Huseynov moved what was left of his army out of Martakert and back to Ganja, where it could be recuperated and restocked by the 104th Guards Airborne Division of the Soviet Airborne Troops. [3] However, after recuperating Huseynov did not march on Aghdara, but on Baku, intending to overthrow President Abulfez Elchibey in a military coup. In February 1993, direct evidence of treason by Azerbaijani Minister of Defense Rahim Gaziyev and Surat Huseynov was found in recorded conversation where Gaziyev was telling Huseynov about deliberate abandoning of Azerbaijani soldiers encircled in Hasanriz village by Armenians to their fate. [3]
Abulfaz Gadirgulu oghlu Aliyev, better known as Abulfaz Elchibey, was an Azerbaijani politician, Azerbaijani nationalist and Soviet dissident who was the first and only democratically elected President in post-Soviet Azerbaijan. He was the leader of the Azerbaijani Popular Front and played an important role in achieving Azerbaijan's independence from the Soviet Union.
Rovshan Bakhtiyar oghlu Javadov was an officer in the Azerbaijani Armed Forces and the chief of the Special Purpose Police Detachment of Azerbaijan (OPON).
The First Nagorno-Karabakh War was an ethnic and territorial conflict that took place from February 1988 to May 1994, in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in southwestern Azerbaijan, between the majority ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh backed by Armenia, and the Republic of Azerbaijan with support from Turkey. As the war progressed, Armenia and Azerbaijan, both former Soviet republics, entangled themselves in protracted, undeclared mountain warfare in the mountainous heights of Karabakh as Azerbaijan attempted to curb the secessionist movement in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Shahumyan Province was a province of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh, de jure part of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The capital of the province was Karvachar. Shahumyan Province had 17 communities of which one is considered urban and 16 are rural. Its bordered Martakert Province to the east, Kashatagh Province to the south, Gegharkunik and Vayots Dzor provinces of Armenia to the west and Dashkasan, Goygol and Goranboy districts of Azerbaijan to the north.
The Artsakh Defence Army was the defence force of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh. Established in 1992, it united previously disorganized defence units which were formed in the early 1990s.
The Battle of Kalbajar took place in March and April 1993, during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. It resulted in the capture of the Kalbajar District of Azerbaijan by Armenian military forces.
Surat Davud oghlu Huseynov was an Azerbaijani military officer and politician who served as Prime Minister after ousting Azerbaijan President Abulfaz Elchibey in the 1993 Azerbaijan military coup.
Syrkhavend or Nor Ghazanchi is a village located in the Agdam District of Azerbaijan, in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The village had an Azerbaijani majority prior to their expulsion during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.
Martakert or Aghdara is a town in the Tartar District of Azerbaijan, in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Until 2023 it was controlled by the breakaway Republic of Artsakh, as the centre of its Martakert Province. The village had an ethnic Armenian-majority population until the exodus of the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh following the 2023 Azerbaijani offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh. The town underwent heavy destruction by Azerbaijani forces while under their control during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.
Khachen or Seyidbeyli is a village in the Khojaly District of Azerbaijan, in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Until 2023 it was controlled by the breakaway Republic of Artsakh. The village had an ethnic Armenian-majority population until the exodus of the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh following the 2023 Azerbaijani offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Rahim Hasan oghlu Gaziyev was Azerbaijani Defense Minister in 1992–1993, in the turmoil of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, and later a political prisoner.
The Battle of Aghdam took place on 23 July 1993 during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, during which Armenian forces captured the Azerbaijani city of Aghdam. The city of Aghdam, which had about 50,000 inhabitants prior to its capture, is located about 30 km northeast of Stepanakert and 5 km east of the border of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. Armenian forces considered Aghdam as a main staging area of Azerbaijani forces for attacks and artillery strikes against the Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh region. A significant part of the surrounding Aghdam District was captured by Armenian forces as well.
The Ganja Volunteer Battalion was a battalion of volunteers made up of active and reserve Azerbaijani military personnel sent to the Nagorno-Karabakh region as part of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan force fighting in the first Nagorno-Karabakh War. The battalion is best known for liberation of Askeran province and elimination of Armenian Arabo Unit on June 29, 1992, in Ağdərə.
Mardakert District was an administrative unit within the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic.
The Law on Abolishment of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast was a motion passed by the Supreme Soviet of the Republic of Azerbaijan and signed into law by the President of Azerbaijan Ayaz Mutalibov on November 26, 1991. The law had been prompted by a vote in the National Assembly of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast in favor of uniting itself with the Armenian SSR on 20 February 1988. The vote was followed by an independence referendum in 1991 which was boycotted by the Azerbaijani population of the Oblast; most voted in favor of independence. While these votes and elections had mainly been conducted in a relatively peaceful manner, in the following months, as the Soviet Union disintegrated, it gradually grew into an increasingly violent conflict between ethnic Armenians and ethnic Azerbaijanis. Both sides claimed that ethnic cleansing was being carried out. The declaration of secession from Azerbaijan was the final result of a territorial conflict regarding the land.
The 1993 Azeri coup d'état, also known as the Ganja Uprising, was a military coup led by Azerbaijani military commander Surat Huseynov. On June 4, 1993, Huseynov's forces lead a march from the city of Ganja to the Azerbaijani capital of Baku in order to overthrow President Abulfaz Elchibey who was elected in independent Azerbaijan's first free election in 1992.
Vagif Gurbanov was a USSR Air Force officer during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War (1992) and the first military aviator of the independent Azerbaijani Armed Forces.
This is an account of engagements which occurred during the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, primarily based on announcements from the belligerents. The war has been characterized by the use of armoured warfare; drone warfare, especially the use of Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 and Israeli loitering munition Harop drones; heavy artillery; rocket attacks; and trench warfare. It has also featured the deployment of cluster munitions, which are banned by the majority of the international community but not by Armenia or Azerbaijan: Azerbaijan states that Armenia has deployed cluster munitions against civilians, and international third parties have confirmed evidence of Azerbaijan's use of cluster munitions against civilian areas of Nagorno-Karabakh. A series of ballistic missile attacks have inflicted mass civilian casualties in Ganja, Azerbaijan, while civilian residences and infrastructure in Stepanakert, and elsewhere have been targeted, inflicting casualties and causing extensive damage.
Operation Kalbajar was a military offensive launched by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces in late 1993 against the forces of the Armenian Army and the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic to recapture the district of Kalbajar in the final stage of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.
The Battle of Lachin was a military operation during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, undertaken by the National Army of Azerbaijan in order to regain control over the Lachin corridor, controlled by the army of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) since 18 May 1992. It was one of the fiercest battles in this direction that unfolded in the autumn of that year.