Operation Ring

Operation Ring
Part of the Nagorno-Karabakh War
Date 30 April–15 May 1991 Location Shahumyan, Shusha, Martakert and Hadrut regions of Nagorno-Karabakh; Noyemberyan, Goris and Tavush regions of the Armenian SSR. Result Deportation of thousands of Armenians from the region
Belligerents
Armenian militiamen & volunteers Dashnaktsutyun	Azerbaijan SSR OMON  Soviet Union 23rd Motorized Rifle Division of the Soviet 4th Army
Commanders and leaders
Tatul Krpeyan Simon Achikgyozyan	Viktor Polyanichko Vladislav Safonov
Strength
Unknown	Unknown
Casualties and losses
Unknown; civilian deaths, including ethnic Armenian police force, estimated to be 30–50- 5,000 deported from Shahumyan region	Unknown

Armenian militiamen & volunteers

Azerbaijan SSR

 Soviet Union

Operation Ring (Russian: Операция «Кольцо», Operatsia Koltso; Armenian: «Օղակ» գործողություն, Oghak gortsoğut'yun), known in Azerbaijan as the Chaykend Operation (Azerbaijani: Çaykənd əməliyyatı) was the codename for the May 1991 military operation conducted by Soviet Internal Security Forces and OMON units in the Armenian populated regions of Western Azerbaijan in the Lesser Caucasus mountains, the Shusha, Martakert and Hadrut regions of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, and along the northwestern border of the Armenian SSR in Noyemberyan, Goris and Tavush. Officially dubbed a "passport checking operation," the ostensible goal launched by the Soviet Union's internal and defense ministries was to disarm Armenian militia detachments that had been organized in "[illegally] armed formations." The operation involved the use of ground troops who accompanied a complement of military vehicles, artillery and helicopter gunships to be used to root out the self-described Armenian fedayeen.

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Wikipedia