Operation Ring Begins: Soviet-Azerbaijani Forces Attack Armenian Villages
Joint military operation forcibly deports thousands of Armenians as ethnic cleansing campaign starts
GETASHEN, Azerbaijan - Soviet Internal Troops and Azerbaijani OMON forces launched Operation Ring at dawn today, surrounding and attacking Armenian villages in a coordinated campaign of forced deportation that Armenian leaders denounce as ethnic cleansing.
The village of Getashen, home to 5,000 Armenians, came under assault from multiple directions as helicopter gunships circled overhead and armored vehicles blocked all exits. Loudspeakers demanded immediate surrender and evacuation.
“They gave us 15 minutes to gather belongings,” said Anahit Danielyan, fleeing with her three children. “Those who resisted were beaten. They separated the men from families. We don’t know where they’ve taken them.”
Similar scenes unfolded in Martunashen and other villages as the operation expanded. Soviet troops provided heavy weapons and transport while Azerbaijani OMON units conducted house-to-house searches, often with extreme violence.
Systematic Deportation
The operation follows a clear pattern: villages are surrounded at dawn, resistance is crushed with overwhelming force, men are detained separately, and women and children are loaded onto buses for deportation to Armenia.
“This is a professional military operation, not a police action,” observed one Western military attaché who monitored radio communications. “They’re using counter-insurgency tactics against civilians.”
Witnesses report OMON units looting homes before burning them. Ancient churches and cemeteries face destruction. Centuries of Armenian presence is being systematically erased.
“My grandfather built this house with his own hands,” wept Vardan Harutyunyan as OMON forces set it ablaze. “Four generations lived here. Now it’s gone forever.”
Resistance and Reprisals
In some villages, Armenian self-defense units attempted resistance. In Getashen, a firefight lasted two hours before Soviet artillery forced defenders to surrender. Casualty figures remain unclear, but witnesses report seeing bodies loaded onto military trucks.
“We fought as long as we could,” said one wounded defender evacuated to Stepanakert. “But hunting rifles against tanks and helicopters - what could we do?”
The deportations trigger revenge attacks elsewhere. Azerbaijani workers in Armenia face violence. The remaining Azerbaijani villages in Armenia empty as residents flee escalating ethnic warfare.
Moscow’s Complicity
The operation exposes Moscow’s abandonment of neutrality. Soviet troops not only participate but lead the assault, using military assets against Soviet citizens based on ethnicity.
“Gorbachev has chosen genocide over justice,” declared Armenian Supreme Soviet Chairman Levon Ter-Petrosyan. “Soviet forces are now tools of ethnic cleansing. Armenia must reconsider its relationship with such a state.”
Human rights activist Andrei Sakharov, in one of his last public statements before his death, condemned the operation: “Using the army for deportations based on ethnicity is fascism. The Soviet Union has crossed a line from which there is no return.”
International Response
International organizations struggle to respond to the rapidly developing crisis. The International Red Cross requests access to deportees but is refused. UN officials express “grave concern” but take no concrete action.
“The world watches as ethnic cleansing happens in Europe,” charges French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy. “The silence is deafening.”
The U.S. State Department issues a mild statement urging “all parties to show restraint,” drawing criticism from Armenian-American organizations demanding stronger condemnation.
Expanding Operation
Military sources indicate Operation Ring will continue for weeks, targeting dozens of Armenian villages. The goal appears to be creating a cordon sanitaire around Nagorno-Karabakh by removing Armenian populations from strategic areas.
As buses carry deportees toward Armenia, passing convoys head back for more villages. Children wave goodbye to homes they’ll never see again. Old women clutch family photographs, the only possessions they could save.
The operation marks a point of no return in the conflict. By using military force for ethnic cleansing, Moscow has guaranteed that Armenians will never accept Azerbaijani rule over Nagorno-Karabakh. The seeds of future war are being sown with each destroyed village and separated family.
In Stepanakert, the Nagorno-Karabakh capital, Armenian leaders meet in emergency session. “If Moscow and Baku want war, they shall have it,” one deputy declares. “We’ll fight to the last man rather than await deportation.”
As night falls, the operation continues. More villages surround, more families separated, more centuries-old communities destroyed. Operation Ring has begun the transformation of an ethnic dispute into an existential struggle for survival.