Operation Ring (; , ), known in Azerbaijan as Operation Chaykand () was the codename for the May 1991 military operation conducted by the
Soviet Army
The Soviet Ground Forces () was the land warfare service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces from 1946 to 1992. It was preceded by the Red Army.
After the Soviet Union ceased to exist in December 1991, the Ground Forces remained under th ...
,
Internal Troops of the
Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) of the USSR and
OMON
OMON is a system of military special police units within the Armed Forces of Russia. It previously operated within the structures of the Soviet and Russian Ministries of Internal Affairs (MVD). Originating as the special forces unit of the So ...
units of the
Azerbaijan SSR
The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, also referred to as the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic, Azerbaijan SSR, Azerbaijani SSR, AzSSR, Soviet Azerbaijan or simply Azerbaijan, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union be ...
in the
Khanlar and
Shahumyan districts of the Azerbaijani SSR, the
Shusha
Shusha (, ) or Shushi () is a city in Azerbaijan, in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Situated at an altitude of 1,400–1,800 metres (4,600–5,900 ft) in the Karabakh mountains, the city was a mountain resort in the Soviet Union, Soviet ...
,
Martakert
Martakert (, , also , ) or Aghdara ( ) is a town in the Aghdara 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 villa ...
and
Hadrut districts of the
Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast
The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) was an Autonomous oblasts of the Soviet Union, autonomous oblast within the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic that was created on July 7, 1923. Its capital was the city of Stepanakert. The majori ...
, and along the eastern border of the
Armenian SSR
The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (ArSSR), also known as Soviet Armenia, or simply Armenia, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union, located in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Soviet Armenia bordered the Soviet republics ...
in the districts of
Goris
Goris ( ) is a town and the centre of the Goris Municipality in the Syunik Province in southern Armenia. Located in the valley of the Goris (or Vararak) River, it is 254 kilometres from the Armenian capital Yerevan and 67 kilometres from the provi ...
,
Noyemberyan,
Ijevan and
Shamshadin. Officially dubbed a "
passport
A passport is an official travel document issued by a government that certifies a person's identity and nationality for international travel. A passport allows its bearer to enter and temporarily reside in a foreign country, access local aid ...
checking operation," the ostensible goal of the operation was to disarm "illegal armed formations" in and around Nagorno-Karabakh, referring to irregular Armenian military detachments that had been operating in the area. The operation involved the use of ground troops accompanied by a complement of military vehicles, artillery and
helicopter gunship
A gunship is a military aircraft armed with heavy aircraft guns, primarily intended for attacking ground targets either as airstrike or as close air support.
In modern usage the term "gunship" refers to fixed-wing aircraft having laterally-mo ...
s to be used to root out the self-described Armenian ''
fedayeen''.
However, contrary to their stated objectives, Soviet troops and the predominantly
Azerbaijani soldiers in the AzSSR OMON and army forcibly uprooted Armenians living in the 24 villages strewn across Shahumyan to leave their homes and settle elsewhere in Nagorno-Karabakh or in the neighbouring
Armenian SSR
The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (ArSSR), also known as Soviet Armenia, or simply Armenia, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union, located in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Soviet Armenia bordered the Soviet republics ...
. Following this, the Armenian inhabitants of 17 villages across the Shusha and Hadrut regions were forcibly removed. Border villages in the Armenian SSR were also raided. British journalist
Thomas de Waal
Thomas Patrick Lowndes de Waal (born 1966) is a British journalist and writer on the Caucasus. He is a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe. He is best known for his 2003 book '' Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War''.
Li ...
has described Operation Ring as the Soviet Union's first and only civil war and as the "beginning of the open, armed phase of the
Karabakh conflict."
[De Waal. ''Black Garden'', p. 120.] Some authors have also described the actions of the joint Soviet and Azerbaijani force as
ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, or religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making the society ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal such as deportation or population transfer, it ...
. The military operation was accompanied by systematic and gross human rights abuses.
Background
The
Nagorno-Karabakh movement which had originally begun in Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia in the late 1980s called for the Armenian-majority Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast of the Azerbaijan SSR to be united with Armenia. Official petitions were sent by Armenian leaders to the Soviet government in Moscow in order to address the issue but were rejected by
General Secretary
Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, Power (social and political), power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the org ...
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...
. The demands to transfer the region came in the middle of Gorbachev's reform policies,
Glasnost
''Glasnost'' ( ; , ) is a concept relating to openness and transparency. It has several general and specific meanings, including a policy of maximum openness in the activities of state institutions and freedom of information and the inadmissi ...
and
Perestroika
''Perestroika'' ( ; rus, перестройка, r=perestrojka, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg, links=no) was a political reform movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s, widely associ ...
. First implemented in 1985, when Gorbachev came into power, the liberalization of political and economical constraints in the Soviet Union gave birth to numerous nationalist groups in the different Soviet republics who insisted that they be given the right to secede and form their own independent countries.
By late 1989, the Communist Parties of the republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States
Georgia may also refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
,
Estonia
Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...
,
Latvia
Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...
and
Lithuania
Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...
had largely been weakened in power. In Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as in Armenia and the rest of Azerbaijan, intercommunal relations between Armenians and Azerbaijanis had worsened due to violence and
pogrom
A pogrom is a violent riot incited with the aim of Massacre, massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe late 19th- and early 20th-century Anti-Jewis ...
s, which caused a mass flight of Armenians from Azerbaijan and Azerbaijanis from Armenia. Gorbachev's policies hastened the collapse of the Soviet system and many Armenians and Azerbaijanis sought protection by arming themselves with Soviet military weaponry. His preoccupation in dealing with the numerous demands by the other republics saw the disappearance of vast amounts of
assault rifle
An assault rifle is a select fire rifle that uses an intermediate cartridge, intermediate-rifle cartridge and a Magazine (firearms), detachable magazine.C. Taylor, ''The Fighting Rifle: A Complete Study of the Rifle in Combat'', F.A. Moyer '' ...
s,
rocket-propelled grenade
A rocket-propelled grenade (RPG), also known colloquially as a rocket launcher, is a Shoulder-fired missile, shoulder-fired anti-tank weapon that launches rockets equipped with a Shaped charge, shaped-charge explosive warhead. Most RPGs can ...
s, and other small arms munitions stored in caches throughout Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Foreseeing the inevitable conflict that would unfold after the Soviet Union disintegrated, Armenian volunteers from both the republic and the
Armenian diaspora
The Armenian diaspora refers to the communities of Armenians outside Armenia and other locations where Armenians are considered an indigenous population. Since antiquity, Armenians have established communities in many regions throughout the world. ...
flocked to the enclave and formed detachments consisting of several dozen men each. Gorbachev deemed these detachments and others in Karabakh as illegal entities and banned them in a decree in July 1990. Despite this promulgation, these groups continued to exist and actively fought against Azerbaijani special-purpose militia brigades, or OMON (''Otryad Militsii Osobogo Naznacheniya'', also known as the "black berets").
[Croissant. ''The Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict'', p. 41.] The volatility of the attacks led the Soviet government to position military units in the Armenian capital of
Yerevan
Yerevan ( , , ; ; sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia, as well as one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerev ...
and along the five-kilometre (3 mile) gap between the Armenian border and Nagorno-Karabakh.
Shahumyan (also spelled Shaumian, now the southern part of the
Goranboy District of Azerbaijan), which lies directly to the north of Nagorno-Karabakh, had a population of about 20,000, of which 85 percent was ethnic Armenian. The neighboring Khanlar District (since renamed
Goygol) had a sizable Armenian minority. While the Armenian volunteers pledged to defend and protect civilians living in Shahumyan from Azerbaijani incursions, many of them were told to stay away by the inhabitants themselves to save the villages and the entire district from violence.
Origins and planning
It is widely believed that Operation Ring was conceived by Soviet authorities in order to intimidate the Armenian populace. The
Armenian SSR
The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (ArSSR), also known as Soviet Armenia, or simply Armenia, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union, located in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Soviet Armenia bordered the Soviet republics ...
had boycotted the All-Union referendum, though Armenian sources alleged that Baku had planned measures against the Armenians long before the referendum.
[ Grigoryan, Marina.]
Муталибов против «мощного армянского лобби»
." ''Golos Armenii''. 4 May 2013. Although the execution of Operation Ring was not proposed to Soviet officials until mid-April 1991, Mutalibov insisted in an interview that such plans had originally been formulated as early as 1989.
Viktor Krivopuskov, who visited Karabakh in 1990, writes:
The Russian human rights organization
Memorial
A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects such as home ...
reports the expulsion of civilians in this region as early as 1989–90, when the inhabitants of the villages
Kushi-Armavir,
Azat
Azat (; plural ազատք ''azatkʿ'', collective ազատանի ''azatani'') was a class of Armenian nobility; the term came to designate the middle and lower nobility originally, in contrast to the '' naxarark'' who were the great lords. From ...
, and
Kamo were forced to abandon their homes.
The Azerbaijani OMON had similarly been engaged in various "acts of harassment against Armenian villages in the enclave, including raids on
collective farms and the destruction of... communal facilities."
[Murphy, David E. "'Operation Ring': The Black Berets in Azerbaijan," ''The Journal of Soviet Military Studies'', Vol. 5, No. 1, March 1992. p. 82.]
In 1991, Gorbachev set 17 March as the date of the All-Union referendum that the republics would take part in to decide the fate of the Soviet Union. Although the new union proposed in the referendum would grant greater autonomy to the individual republics, Armenia, Georgia and several other republics vowed not to take part in the referendum and instead seek independence from Moscow.
[Croissant. ''The Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict'', p. 40] Meanwhile, Azerbaijan's Communist Party head,
Ayaz Mutalibov, continued to support Gorbachev's attempts to keep the Union together. Azerbaijan took part in the referendum; with 92 percent of voters agreeing to remain a part of the Soviet Union.
Mutalibov's staunch loyalty to Gorbachev allowed him to garner backing from Moscow and, in effect, he now had the support to discourage the aspirations of Armenians desiring to unite with Armenia or to force them to leave the region altogether.
Viktor Polyanichko, Mutalibov's deputy and the Second Secretary of the Azerbaijan Communist Party, planned the operation.
The operation's codename, Ring, referred to the encirclement of the villages of
Getashen (now Chaykand) and
Martunashen (now Garabulag) by the Soviet MVD and armed forces.
A date in late April was chosen for the commencement of the operation, which called for Soviet troops to surround the villages and search for illegally procured weapons and Armenian guerrilla fighters. Reacting to the growing violence, Gorbachev had also assigned units of the Soviet
4th Army's predominantly Azerbaijani
23rd Motorized Rifle Division, stationed along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, to serve as a buffer force. The 23rd Division and other elements of the Fourth Army were selected along with the Azerbaijani OMON to take part in Ring.
Implementation
First operation

On 30 April, the Soviet troops and OMON converged toward
Getashen and
Martunashen, which were located approximately twenty-five kilometres (15 miles) north of Nagorno-Karabakh in the Khanlar District of the Azerbaijan SSR, meeting little, if any, resistance on the way. Accompanying the normal ground troops were an assortment of tanks, armoured personnel carriers, artillery and attack helicopters.
While approaching the villages in Shahumyan, the military would announce their intended actions with a loudspeaker and called for the inhabitants to display proof of their citizenship (known as a "passport-regime" check) in an effort to root out the ''fedayeen'' groups led by
Tatul Krpeyan, a local schoolteacher from Armenia proper. The following ultimatum was issued to residents in a village in Shahumyan:
However, this served only as a pretext as civilians were subjected to gruelling interrogations and many were taken out of their homes and beaten.
[Croissant. ''The Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict'', pp. 41–42] The troops also arrested several adult males, often without any conclusive evidence, who they accused of being members of the militia. Additionally, if there was no response by the villagers to the ultimatum issued by the troops, an artillery barrage was launched above and over the village itself to further intimidate the civilians.
[De Waal. ''Black Garden'', p. 117.] Tatul Krpeyan was killed during the fighting in Getashen and his men took several Soviet soldiers hostage, who were exchanged for 25 villagers taken hostage by the OMON (25 more were taken to a prison in
Ganja
''Ganja'' (, ; ) is one of the oldest and most commonly used synonyms for cannabis flower, specifically marijuana or hashish. Its usage in English dates to before 1689.
Etymology
''Ganja'' is borrowed from Hindi (, IPA: �aːɲd͡ʒa� ...
).
After Soviet units completed the operation in the villages, they ordered full-scale deportation of all Armenian residents of the two villages, helicoptering them to Nagorno-Karabakh's capital,
Stepanakert
Stepanakert officially Khankendi is a city in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. It was the capital city of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh prior to the 2023 Azerbaijani offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh, 2023 Azerbaijani offensive in ...
, and later to Armenia proper. The emptied-out villages were repopulated with Azerbaijani refugees who had fled from Armenia to Azerbaijan during the previous three years of ethnic tensions and violence. Initial public outcry denounced the launching of the operation as the Soviet and Azerbaijani governments went on to defend it, stating that the villagers of Shahumyan were providing aid and harbouring the militias in their homes.
The Armenian government, along with the Soviet media, including ''
Pravda
''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, 'Truth') is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most in ...
'' and ''
Moskovskiye Novosti'', condemned the operation and described the acts of violence carried out by the army and OMON as excessive and unnecessary; the operation continued until the first week of May. In total, five thousand Armenians were deported from Getashen and Martunashen and neighboring villages, with an estimated 20 or 30 of them killed.
Second operation
On 7 May, a second operation was conducted by the same units, this time in the northeastern Armenian village of
Voskepar of the Noyemberyan District. Under the same pretext as the previous operation, the joint forces entered Armenia with tanks and other armoured vehicles, claiming that militia units were staging attacks from that area into Azerbaijan.
[Croissant. ''The Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict'', p. 42.] The operation was conducted in a similar manner but with deadlier results. In addition to the arbitrary arrests of twenty men in villages surrounding Voskepar, a bus carrying thirty Armenian policemen was attacked by elements of the 23rd Division, killing eleven of the officers and arresting the rest.
The OMON units also took part in razing and looting the outlying villages around Voskepar. Residents were similarly forced to leave their homes and thus ceded them after signing a form which stated that they were leaving their homes at their own volition. Several villages in the southern Goris District of Armenia were also seized with several people arrested, mostly policemen.
The second operation provoked further anger from the Armenian government, which saw the operation as an encroachment against its sovereignty. Armenia's president,
Levon Ter-Petrosyan
Levon Hakobi Ter-Petrosyan (; born 9 January 1946), also known by his initials LTP, is an Armenian politician and historian who served as the first president of Armenia from 1991 until his resignation in 1998.
A senior researcher at the Matena ...
claimed that the Soviet government was exacting retribution against his country for not taking part in the All-Union referendum by depopulating the villages.
Reacting to media reports of unprovoked atrocities by the OMON, four members of the Russian parliament intervened on behalf of the Armenians, arriving in Voskepar on 15 May.
[Dahlburg, John-Thor.]
Pro-Moscow Troops Seize 3 Armenian Villages
" ''Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
''. 8 May 1991. Archived fro
original
on 1 September 2021. Retrieved 3 November 2006. Anatoly Shabad, the leading parliamentary member, secured the return of the captured Armenian policemen as the Soviet forces desisted from continuing out the rest of the operation.
A week after the events in Voskepar, the Armenian inhabitants of 17 settlements of the
Hadrut and
Shusha
Shusha (, ) or Shushi () is a city in Azerbaijan, in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Situated at an altitude of 1,400–1,800 metres (4,600–5,900 ft) in the Karabakh mountains, the city was a mountain resort in the Soviet Union, Soviet ...
districts of Nagorno-Karabakh were deported.
The human rights organization Memorial gives the following description of the events:
Human rights abuses and legality
Human rights organizations documented a wide number of human rights violations and abuses committed by Soviet and Azerbaijani forces. These included forced deportations of civilians, unlawful killings, torture, kidnapping, harassment, rape and the wanton seizure or destruction of property.
[Cox and Eibner. Ethnic Cleansing in Progress: Operation Ring]
/ref>[Human Rights Watch. Bloodshed in the Caucucasus. Escalation of the armed conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. 1992 p. 9] Approximately 17,000 Armenians living in twenty-three of Shahumyan's villages were deported out of the region.
Professor Richard Wilson of Harvard University, who presented a report to the First International Andrei Sakharov Conference, noted that his fact-finding group did not find any "evidence, in spite of diligent enquiry, that anyone recently deported from the village of Getashen left it voluntarily."
"On the Visit to the Armenian-Azerbaijani Border, May 25–29, 1991" Presented to the First International Sakharov Conference on Physics, Lebedev Institute, Moscow on 31 May 1991. The delegation of the International Andrei Sakharov Conference concluded that:
The final report of the Committee on Human Rights of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...
also concluded that the documents signed under the use of force cannot serve as evidence of voluntary departure of residents.[Заключение Комитета ВС РСФСР по правам человека]
. Supreme Council of the RSFSR, Moscow.
The United States Congress (17 May 1991) and the European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...
(14 March 1991) likewise passed resolutions condemning the Operation Ring. According to the US Department of State report,
Aftermath
On 4 July, Gorbachev declared that the region was stabilizing, and announced an end to the operation. However, following the withdrawal of the MVD Internal Troops, the 23rd Division and Azerbaijani OMON attacked and expelled the inhabitants of three more Armenian-populated villages in Shahumyan: Erkech, Buzlug, and Manashid. In both military and strategic terms, Operation Ring was a failure. The aim of disarming the Armenian volunteer groups was never achieved. Despite the presence of helicopter gunships and armoured vehicles, the militiamen managed to elude and evade capture. In fact, the Armenian fighters continued to carry out bold operations. For example, in August 1991 they took 41 Soviet soldiers in the NKAO hostage to exchange with Armenian detainees.
Operation Ring, however, managed to reinforce the ethnic divide between Armenians and Azerbaijanis, "virtually precluding," according to Michael Croissant "the possibility of further coexistence between the peoples within" Azerbaijan's borders. Gorbachev and other Soviet officials maintained that ''Ring'' was necessary to prevent the region from further deteriorating into chaos and as the militias' presence contravened the July 1990 presidential decree. According to Shabad, however, the operation's objectives were impractical and Gorbachev had been misled on the general situation in Karabakh:
Armenia fiercely contested the legality of the operation and within two months declared its independence and seceded from the Soviet Union. Within several months, the fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia would worsen and precipitate the open-phased segment of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War
The First Nagorno-Karabakh War was an ethnic conflict, 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 Nag ...
.
In the fall of 1991, Armenian volunteer groups recaptured most of the villages of Shahumyan that had been depopulated during Operation Ring, which allowed some of the displaced Armenian villagers to return home. When the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
Artsakh ( ), officially the Republic of Artsakh or the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh ( ), was a list of states with limited recognition, breakaway state in the South Caucasus whose territory was internationally recognised as part of Azerbai ...
declared its independence in December 1991, the Shahumyan District and part of the Khanlar District (the area around Getashen and Martunashen) were included within its claimed borders as the Shahumyan Province. These territories were captured by Azerbaijani forces in June 1992 during Operation Goranboy.
In popular culture
A series of documentary films titled "Wounds of Karabakh" (1994) were shot by Bulgarian journalist Tsvetana Paskaleva. The series was shot during different phases of the operation, giving a detailed account of the events.
In June 2006, the film ''Destiny'' (; ''Chakatagir'') premiered in Yerevan and Stepanakert. The film stars and is written by Gor Vardanyan and is a fictional account of the events revolving around Operation Ring. It cost $3.8 million to make, making the most expensive Armenian film ever making, and is the first such film made about the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.[First Armenian Action Film Released About Karabakh War]
." Armenia Information. 29 June 2006. Retrieved 20 January 2007.
See also
* Sumgait pogrom (1988)
* Kirovabad pogrom (1988)
* Pogrom of Armenians in Baku (1990)
*Shelling of Stepanakert
The siege of Stepanakert started in late 1991, during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, in Stepanakert, the largest city in Nagorno-Karabakh, when the Azerbaijani forces circled the city. Until May 1992, the city and its Armenian population were t ...
(1991–1992)
* Maraga Massacre (1992)
* Anti-Armenianism
* Anti-Armenianism in Azerbaijan
Notes
External links
Video documentary of the operations
by Bulgarian journalist Svetana Paskaleva
Operation Ring
"Ordinary Genocide. Operation Ring, spring-summer 1991." documentary film
Russian Soldiers Shot People and Climbed Tree To Eat Cherries
Lagir.am, June 14, 2014. (From Internet Archive, July 14, 2014.)
Military operations of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War
Ring
(The) Ring(s) may refer to:
* Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry
* To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell
Arts, entertainment, and media Film and TV
* ''The Ring'' (franchise), a ...
Political repression in the Soviet Union
Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic
Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic
1991 in the Soviet Union
1991 in Azerbaijan
Ethnic cleansing in Asia
April 1991 in the Soviet Union
May 1991 in the Soviet Union
Azerbaijani war crimes
Soviet war crimes
War crimes in the First Nagorno-Karabakh War
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