Battle of Kalbajar

In March 1993, military incursions by Azerbaijani forces and artillery barrages were reported to have been coming from the region, prompting military leaders to announce an offensive against the district.[17] In an interview given in April 1993, General Gurgen Dalibaltyan, who planned the operation, explained that its strategic purpose was to "create a reliable connection between Karabakh and Armenia, since Lachin was in a difficult position, surrounded by enemy forces", while also referring to Kalbajar as "our historical homeland".[18] Speaking in 2020, Serzh Sargsyan, who was a member of the State Defence Committee of the NKR at the time of the battle, stated that the operation to capture Kalbajar was conceived in January 1993 and was aimed at securing the rear of Nagorno-Karabakh and especially Martakert Province, which in Sargsyan's words "was impossible to defend from multiple sides".[19]

One of the most successful Armenian commanders of the conflict and participant in the Battle of Kalbajar, Monte Melkonian, stated that Armenian forces had to take the district in order to suppress Azerbaijani artillery strikes against nearby Armenian villages.[20] However, Melkonian also justified the operation on historical grounds, citing historical Armenian presence in the area. He stated, "This is a historical issue... of course this is historical Armenia... And we'll vindicate that reality [to the Azerbaijanis] with our guns. Unfortunately! It would be nice if the Azerbaijanis would understand that reality is reality, agree and say OK, it's yours, and that's that".[17] Questioned on the possibility of a large expulsion of civilians if the region was captured, Melkonian responded, "A lot of blood has been spilled on both sides... The emotions are high and that isn't conducive to living together in near or medium future".[21]

Defeats in late March already had the Azerbaijani military evacuating civilians out of the region to the northern town of Yevlakh and Azerbaijan's second-largest city, Ganja. The Armenians had assembled a force of several hundred men to enter Kalbajar from four different directions: Melkonian's detachment of tanks and troops from Karabakh would attack from the southeast, one fifty-man unit from the town of Vardenis, Armenia would enter from the west; the third force would attack from the village of Aghdaban in the north, and the primary attacking force would come from the village of Nareshtar.[22] Kalbajar was protected only by a small group of defenders that received no reinforcements; a unit of 200 men attempting to reinforce the district was intercepted and defeated by Samvel Karapetyan's unit.[23][16] A few days before the commencement of the operation, Armenian forces warned the Azerbaijanis in the district of the coming attack.[16]

The battered village of Charektar in Kalbajar had already seen extensive fighting in earlier weeks and was reinforced by both Azerbaijani and foreign Chechen, Afghan and other fighters as the Armenian offensive commenced on March 27. However, instead of launching a simultaneous attack, only the units in Aghdaban and Nareshtar moved out. Melkonian's armoured column did not move out until later on and his units faced tenacious resistance on an embankment of entrenched defences where his forces were forced to retreat.[24] The troops in Vardenis began their assault shortly thereafter but their advance was slowed since they had to trek through the snowy passes of the Murov Mountains.

On March 28, Melkonian's forces resumed their attack on Charektar and an eight-hour battle ensued until his forces were able to break through the defences. They advanced twenty-nine kilometres, reaching the Tartar River on March 31.[17] The stretched out Azerbaijani forces deployed throughout the region were unable to stop their advance. Within another twenty kilometres of his forces' positions was the Kalbajar District's namesake capital, a crucial road intersection that led to Lachin and the village of Zulfugarli. By March 29, Armenian forces encircled the town of Kalbajar. A journalist reported seeing intensive bombardment of Kalbajar, including Grad artillery, originating from Armenia proper.[25]

The following two days saw a massive refugee column of cars and trucks "laden with bundles... bumper to bumper" trudging through the intersection. Melkonian ordered his forces to halt their advance until the remnants of the column dried up in the early afternoon of April 1. Assessing that most refugees had left, he ordered his units to advance and sent a detachment to guard a vital tunnel leading south towards Zulfugarli. While his troops had assumed that most civilians had left Kalbajar, they encountered a GAZ-52 transport truck in the tunnel and, thinking it was a military vehicle, fired and destroyed it with rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles. As they observed the wreck of the vehicle, the troops realized they had taken out a vehicle filled entirely with civilians: twenty-five Kurd and Azerbaijani kolkhoz workers. Four of them, including the driver of the truck and his daughter, were killed. The rest were ordered by Melkonian to be taken to a hospital in Karabakh's capital of Stepanakert; however, as many as eleven of them died.[26]

After the Zulufgarli incident, his forces pushed forward and reached another vital intersection leading to Ganja, fifteen kilometres away from the capital. Civilians in Kalbajar continued to be evacuated by both air and the through the intersection and Melkonian halted his advance by a further forty hours to allow the traffic column to move through. On April 1, his forces issued a radio message to the governor of the region, instructing his forces to leave the capital. An ultimatum was placed until 2 pm of the following day. Identified by his radio codename, "Khan", the governor responded and stated, "We're never going to leave... we'll fight to the end."[27]

Azerbaijani displaced people from Kalbajar

As the deadline passed on April 2, Melkonian's armor entered the intersection and encountered a line of Azerbaijani tanks and infantry. A firefight ensued but lasted for only several minutes as the defence line was soon battered and destroyed. Many of the Azerbaijani forces were ill-prepared for the attack as Melkonian noted when pointing out to their lack of equipment.[28]

By April 3, the Armenian forces had encircled the capital and resistance had weakened. Azerbaijani commander Surat Huseynov and his 709th brigade, which had been tasked to defending the Murov Mountains, had retreated to Ganja after political and military problems began to unravel upon in the battlefield.[23] An account of the war-weariness afflicting the inhabitants of the town was described by Melkonian's elder brother, Markar:

A downcast enemy soldier with a bandaged hand and a burned leg rides up on a donkey and surrenders. An old man in a faded jacket studded with medals from the Great Patriotic War weeps before leaving his home forever. An elderly woman in a black yazma, waving a torn sheet on a stick, greets Monte and Abo [his radio operator] in Azeri Turkish, then suddenly kneels to the ground to kiss Monte's feet. Surprised and awkward, Monte tries to pull back. Yok! he shouts, "No!" He reflexively bends over and brings the woman up by her arm. "What are you doing?" he asks in Anatolian Turkish, "Don't ever do that!"... [Melkonian] found [in the capital] a row of neat but bleak storefronts and a few chickens. The townsfolk... had not bothered to grab the chickens as provisions for the road. The only other sign of life was a BMP idling in the middle of the road through the center of town.[29]

Although his contingent did not reach in time for the fighting, the city's capital was taken. Aside from some farm life, the town had been largely abandoned. With the taking of the region, Armenian forces now held a continuous swath of territory stretching from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia proper, a total of 3,000 square kilometres.[30] In the retreat through the Omar Pass of the Murov mountain range, many Azerbaijani refugees froze to death. With the last helicopters leaving on April 1, they were forced to walk through the heavy snow at freezing temperatures. Nearly 39,000 civilians were processed into the camps at Yevlakh and Dashkasan with as many as 15,000 unaccounted for. Four Azerbaijani Mi-8 helicopters ferrying refugees and wounded out of the conflict zone crashed, the last of which was hit by Armenian forces.[31]