From the beginning of 1991 Azerbaijan embarked on attacking the Armenian population of both the Nagorno Karabakh region and also the Shahoumian district. The Azerbaijani television broadcast President of Azerbaijan Ajaz Mutalibov’s edict on the introduction of presidential ruling in NÊÀÎ and the Azerbaijani districts adjacent to it. In the district there appeared leaflets containing an ultimatum demand that the Armenian people should leave the bounds of Nagorno- Karabagh at the earliest possible date.
On January 14, the Azerbaijani Supreme Soviet Presidium took a decision to unite two neighboring districts, the Armenian Shahoumian and Azerbaijani Kasum-Ismailov, into one under the name Geranboy. The aim of the Azerbaijani leadership was obvious- to liquidate another Armenian district, deporting its indigenous inhabitants and repopulating the Armenian villages with Azeris. By that time the Shahumian district had twenty thousand inhabitants, of whom 82% were Armenians.
On January 22nd, at Stepanakert Airport OMON, the Special Forces of Azerbaijan, refused entry to a group of deputies from the R.S.F.S.R. Supreme Soviet who had arrived to study the situation. The deputies had arrived under the instructions of the Russian Supreme Soviet and were sent back to Baku.
The situation in Nagorno Karabagh and adjacent Armenian districts became heated. One such action that gave rise to deterioration in the region was Operation Ring. This punitive act taken against the Armenians in late April and early May of 91 involved the forces of the USSR Ministry of the Interior together with Azerbaijani special militia detachments. On the pretext of a passport "check" an unprecedented action of State terror was carried out with the aim of destroying the brain-center of the Movement and annihilating the national unity. The first victims became the villagers of Getashen and Martunashen of the Khanlar district of Azerbaijan. The male population was taken out in an unknown direction where a "passport check" took place accompanied with brutality, looting, and robbery. During three days the population of 24 Karabakh villages were subjected to similar treatment and deportation. Two of the villages were in the Khanlar district, three in the Shahumian district, fifteen in the Gadrut district and four in the Shushi district. As a result of these actions in Karabagh and in near- border of Armenia more than 100 people were killed and several hundred more were taken hostages.
On April 24, the Armenian Supreme Soviet Chairman directed a letter to the USSR leadership with the request to take urgent measures for protecting and ensuring security guarantees of the Armenian population of the district. On May 3, the Armenian Party organization’s active members addressed President of the USSR M. Gorbachev with the same request. On May 4, the meetings of President of Armenia L.Ter-Petrossian with M.Gorbachev and President of Russia B.Yeltsin took place, but they did not produce a statement following the meeting. The USSR MVD (Interior Ministry) troops with the Azerbajani OMON continued to conduct their punitive operations. It was evident that the trend of developments was leading to a wide-scale war.
On May 6, the USSR Supreme Soviet discussed the demands of Armenia to convene the congress of the USSR people’s deputies in connection with the rapidly deteriorating situation within NKAO and the downturn in Armenian-Azerbaijani relations. The decision was taken to continue discussions of the problem at the Commission of the Soviet of Nationalities of the USSR Supreme Soviet. Meanwhile, on the same day 700 Armenian refugees were taken from Getashen to Stepanakert by the military helicopters.
The rally, planned by public organizations in Stepanakert on May 7, was prohibited by the military commandant’s office. The day before armoured troop carriers were traveling about the town with loud- speakers, notifying the people that weapons would be used should there be insubordination.
As a result of the critical situation in Nagorno Karabakh the executive committee of the district Soviet announced both locally and to the world in general that they had declared state of emergency in the district.
On the same day the executive committee addressed the UN and the leadership of a number of countries with the request to save the Armenian people of NKAO from physical extermination and grant them political asylum.
On July 19, 1991 the enlarged session of the district Soviet executive committee was held at which measures on the stabilization of the political and economic situation in the district were discussed. The leadership took the decision to restore the authorities of the NKAO People’s Deputies Soviet, conduct new elections of the district Soviet, formulate a survival program for Artsakh and thoroughly prepare for armed resistance against Azerbaijan. A representative delegation for conducting negotiations with the Azerbaijani leadership was created. As a result of these negotiations in Baku a temporary peace was established.
On June 24th, the NKAO delegation left for Moscow to meet with the Soviet leadership to consider the problem of restoring the functions of the district bodies’ power and a possible dialogue with the Azerbaijani side on the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh situation. On June 29th, the USSR vice-president G.Yanaev approved the initiative and promised to promote the dialogue and peaceful resolution of the Karabakh problem. The efforts of the NKAO delegation to meet the USSR President M. Gorbachev failed. On the same day the NKAO representatives were received by the Supreme Soviet Chairman A. Lukyanov, who expressed the opinion about the necessity of restoring the district Soviet of People’s Deputies and promised to send the Supreme Soviet delegation to Nagorno- Karabakh to study the situation. Meetings were also held with the USSR Defense Ministry D. Yazov, Internal Affairs Minister B. Pugou, Deputy Prosecutor General Trubin, and the former USSR Foreign Minister E. Shevardnadze. But all yielded little in terms of practical results.
The Azerbaijani leadership continued its policy of deportation of the Armenian population, justifying this deportation as voluntary departures. These actions were accompanied with atrocities, including torture, murder, looting, banditry, brutality and violence. On July 19th a session of the Nagorno Karabakh district Soviet of People’s Deputies discussed the beginning of a dialogue with the Azerbaijani side on a peaceful settlement of the conflict. On July 20th the NKAO delegation held a meeting with President of Azerbaijan A. Mutalibov, but no concrete results were achieved.
The turning - point of the national-liberation movement of the Karabakh people became the creation of their statehood. It was the only way of ensuring the security of the population and their territory.
On September 2, in Stepanakert a joint session of the Nagorno Karabakh Regional Council and the Governing Council of the Shahumian district took place where it was agreed that in line with the wishes of all peoples within the boundaries of Nagorno Karabakh and the Shahoumian Region the Nagorno Karabakh Republic would be proclaimed. Leonard Petrossian was elected chairman of the NKR Executive Committee. Almost immediately followed the Azerbaijani response when for the first time Stepanakert was subjected to bombardment and shelling with ‘Alazan’ rockets. This was to become a regular event. On September 22, Presidents of Russia and Kazakhstan, B.Yeltsin and N. Nazarbaev accompanied by A.Mutalibov arrived in Stepanakert on a peacemaking mission. On September 23, in Zheleznovodsk (Russia) at the request of B. Yeltsin and N. Nazarbaev negotiations were held between the Armenian, Azerbaijani and Nagorno Karabakh delegations on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement and as a result of these negotiations a joint communique was adopted. The delegation of Nagorno Karabakh was headed by one of the leaders of the national-liberation movement Robert Kocharian.
B.Yeltsin and Nazarbaev’s mediation initiative did not lead to the improvement of the situation in Nagorno Karabakh. On the contrary, Azeris rapidly escalated bombardment by shelling and attacks on the Armenian populated areas.
On October 15th, the representatives of Presidents of Russia and Kazakhstan arrived in Baku to get acquainted with the implementation of the Zheleznovodsk agreement. President of Azerbadjain A. Mutalibov was to receive them and it was he who had stated that it was only Azerbaijan who was competent to resolvee the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict and that no outside agency or country must, intervene in its internal affairs.
Meanwhile, in Baku anti-Armenian riots were organized with the Azerbaijani Popular Front, making calls to create a regular army to capture Karabagh.
In the same year, on November 26, the Azerbaijani Supreme Soviet adopted a bill on dissolution of Nagorno-Karabakh as national-territorial entity, and the Nagorno-Karabakh districts were renamed and subordinated to the newly created administrative centers. On the 28th of November a resolution of the USSR Committee of Constitutional Supervision condemned the Azerbaijani legislative body act as violating the status of the NKAO, sealed by the USSR Constitution.
The most important stage in the national liberation struggle of the Karabakh people became the all-republican referendum, held on December 10, 1991, 98% of the participants of which voted in favour of independence of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. On December 28,despite constant bombardment by the Azerbaijani Army, elections for the Supreme Soviet of the republic were carried out in the NKR. On January 6, 1992 the NKR newly elected legislative body, proceeding from the essential right of peoples for self-determination and basing on the Nagorno-Karabagh people’s will, expressed through a referendum, adopted the Declaration of the NKR Independence. On the same day the deputies appealed to the UN and to all the countries of the world with the request to recognize the NKR and help to prevent the genocide of the Artsakh Armenians. On January 8, the session elected the leader of the legislative body of the republic. Thirty-year Arthur Mkrtchian became the first chairman of the NKR Supreme Soviet. Oleg Yesaian was confirmed Chairman of the Council of Ministers.
Taking advantage of the collapse of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan proceeded to escalate wide-scaled military offensives against Nagorno-Karabagh. The Azeri-populated villages, surrounding Stepanakert, were turned into large military bases from which by means of artillery guns the capital of the republic was being methodically destroyed. There began an unprecedented in the whole history of the Karabagh conflict shelling by 40-barrelled missile rocket launchers "Grad" - a weapon of mass elimination the use of which against civilian population is forbidden by numerous international conventions. For the first time the Azerbaijani side used "Grad" rocket, bombarding the Shaumian district center, as a result of which many people including children died
Late in 1991 the units of the former 4th Soviet army were ordered to withdraw the territory of Karabagh they had hardly intervened in the conflict. The republic then remained alone, face to face with the Azerbaijani regular-armed units. They were equipped with modern military equipment and weapons including aircraft many of which were flown by foreign mercenaries. Early in 1992 the arsenal of the Azeri armed forces were considerably increased at the expense of the captured warehouses of the Transcaucasian military district of the former Soviet Army, located in the territory of Azerbaijan. There were kept thousands of carriages with ammunition that, as military experts asserted, would be enough for carrying on intensive military offensives for at least a year.
1992
On the first day of the 1992, from the territory of Agdam Azerbaijani troops accompanied by 10 tanks and ATC (armored troop carriers) attacked the Armenian village of Khramort and burned it. The NKR capital and the Armenian villages were subjected to further and constant intensive shelling. On January 25-26 an Azerbaijani army battalion embarked on an offensive against the village of Karintak of the Shushi district.
The attack was beaten off after two days’ of stubborn fighting. On January 31, Azerbaijan began an offensive along the whole front line.
The escalation of military offensives compelled the NKR to organize and improve its defense. With that end in view detachments on a voluntary basis were being created throughout Artsakh. A headquarters of the self-defense forces was created to centralize and coordinate these operations. At the beginning of the year in the territory of Artsakh more than 10 companies and platoons existed comprising more than 1000 people. This became one of the important steps on the way to creating a regular army. On the night of January 21-22,1992 located in the Kerkjan quarter (former Karkarashen) of the town of Stepanakert, the headquarters of the Azerbaijani OMON was eliminated. Then from February 10 the firing points of villages Malibeyli and Ghushchilar, adjacent to the NKR capital, were destroyed. Nevertheless, the situation continued to remain extremely tense. From the enemy firing points, practically located along the full length of the Azerbaijani-Armenian border, long-range weapons operated, causing mass destruction and high casualty rates amongst the people.
On February 24, the NKR Supreme Soviet Presidium took a decision concerning the law status of the republic armed formations, which were subordinated to the united command. Serge Sargssian was appointed the chairman of the Self-Defense Committee. One of the primary tasks of the Artsakh self-defense forces was the removal and destruction of the enemy’s bridgehead at Khodjaly. Here there was a considerable contingent of manpower, a great quantity of military equipment. It was essential to reopen the corridor that linked the settlement of Askeran with the capital Stepanakert and also to regain control of the republic’s airport, which was in Azeri hands.
On February 25, the Artsakh self-defense detachments, taking up a position in the west of Khodjaly, demanded that the enemies leave the military base and allow the civilians through the established humanitarian corridor.
The then president of Azerbaijan A. Mutalibov confessed, that "the corridor was established by the Armenians to let the civilian inhabitants through" (the Nezavisimaya Gazette, April 2, 1992). Meanwhile the Azeri servicemen acted in another way, using the inhabitants in the village as a shield, they resumed a bombardment of the NKR populated points, and when they were compelled to leave the village, they themselves shot the civilian inhabitants columns on the approaches to the Agdam district borders. The same A. Mutalibov connected this unprecedented criminal action with the Azerbaijani Opposition Popular Front efforts to remove him from office, putting the whole responsibility for what had happened on him.
Early in March the Azeri army undertook a wide-scaled offensive on the entire front line. The main blow was aimed in the direction of Mardakert, Askeran and Martuni districts. As a result of fierce battles the offensive was halted. With the liquidation of the Khodjaly military base bombardment by shelling did not substantially decreased. From the town of Shushi, towering above Stepanakert, the sustained rocket-artillery bombardment of the NKR capital and other populated points were carried throughout the day and nights that followed. On May 7, the Azeri infantry and armour backed with military helicopters ME-24, embarked on an assault against the Karabakh defense positions in the southeast of Stepanakert.
Simultaneously on the same day from the Shushi hills and adjacent Azerbaijani points about 200 Grad rockets and other types of weapons were launched down onto the capital, causing many casualties. A fire broke out at the railway station and in a number of houses throughout the town.
The self-defense force command made a decision to neutralize the strong points of the enemy in these inhabited localities. On May 8, in the evening the Artsakh self-defense sub-units assumed an offensive, which was led by Arkady Ter-Tadevossian, taking the Shushi-Lachin main road under their control. By noon the defense of Shushi from the north and south had been broken. As a result of street battles the Armenian formations had taken the central quarters of the town by the evening. On May 9, Shushi was entirely liberated.
After destroying the firing points in Shushi and other adjacent territories of the NKR the self-defense forces were tasked to open the road of vital importance-Shushi-Lachin-Zabukh which would remove the blockade and restore a normal vital activity of the republic. On May 18, the Karabaghian army sub-units entered Lachin (Kashatag), thus breaking the 3-year blockade ring. On May 20, along the road Goris-Stepankert through the Lachin Corridor hundreds of tons of humanitarian cargo was delivered to the NKR capital: food, medicine and other goods being the first priority. After the Shushi -Lachin operation there followed a lessening of tension in the conflict area.
Meanwhile, the enemy was preparing for the wide-scaled military operation. On June 12, the Azerbaijani troops embarked on an offensive in the northen-eatern, eastern and southeastern sectors of the front. Practically, the whole weight of the Azerbaijan military was thrown at the 20 kilometers theatre of operations. In addition the forces of former Soviet 4-th Army stationed in the NKR were engaged. With the help of armor equipment, Grad multiple-missile rocket launchers and aircraft the enemy was able to capture the whole of the Shahumian district, the part of the Mardakert and Askeran districts and came close to the district center of Askeran. As a result of an offensive of unprecedented scale the Azerbaijani national army destroyed and burned scores of villages, forty thousand inhabitants of the republic became refugees. Taking into account this situation, on June 18 the NKR Supreme Soviet announced a state of emergency in the republic. Partial mobilization covering sergeants, the reserve, conscripts from the age from 18 to 40, officers up to 50 years old, women, were all given special training.
In the first days of June the Azerbaijani army, expanding its offensive in several directions captured the district center Mardakert and a number of villages of the district. The threat hung over Artsakh with 40% of the territory occupied by the Azerbaijani troops.
On August 11, the President of Azerbaijan issued an edict on conscription for military service of all those demobilized from the army in 1991-1992, as well as a prolongation for those who serving in the armed forces. With expansion of aggression and prevention further capturing the territories the necessity of improving the defense, as well as the necessity of reorganizing state governing system was organised. With this aim on August 12 the NKR Supreme Soviet Presidium, headed by the SC Acting Chairman Georgy Petrossian adopted an edict placing the Republic on a war footing. The mobilization of men at the age of 18-45 began. On August 15, the State Committee of Defense was established, absolute executive and legislative power having been passed to it. The State Committee of Defense, which was headed by Robert Kocharian, was designed to mobilize all the manpower and material resources of the republic, convert the enterprises, establishments and organizations to a war status.
The unification of the various autonomous self-defense forces and the creation of a united army under single command became a major priority.
Meanwhile, heavy battles were continuing in the different sectors of the front. Simultaneously, the Azerbaijani airforce continued to attack civilian inhabited localities. On August 18, pellet bombs were dropped onto Stepanakert the use of which is forbidden by international law. On following days the villages of the Martuni, Mardakert and Askeran districts were subjected to aerial bombardment.
By late summer the Mardakert sector continued to remain an extremely tense part of the front. On August 26, at the expense of great losses the enemy succeeded in taking the Mardakert-Kelbajar main road which was of great strategic significance. Scanty Karabaghian forces, operating in the Mardakert sector did so under trying conditions. To strengthen troops in this sector of the front the regrouping of the forces was made as a result of which early in September the Karabakh formations succeeded in stopping the advance of the enemy; and undertaking a counter-offensive in the Askeran direction and liberating this district’s villages. In the same period in the totally occupied Shahumian district a guerilla movement was deployed.
In the last decade of October the Azerbaijani troops twice made an attempt to cut off the Lachin humanitarian corridor, however they were stopped 12 kilometers from it and then thrown back. On October 19, the Karabakh forces started a counter- offensive in the south of the corridor and came out to the borders of the Kubatly district.
On November 1992, the NKR Army in the course of the counter- offensive operations in the southeast of the Mardakert district practically took the Tartar-Mardakert-Kelbajar main road under its control. Fierce fighting was carried on for a month on the full length of the Mardakert front. Late 1992 observed the abatement of the activity hostilities on the full length of front.
1993
Early in January 1993 military offensives along the full length of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh front entered a new stage. Azerbaijan engaged almost the whole of its arsenal – attacking with aircraft, heavy tanks, various weapons and infantry.
On January 14, the Azeri troops embarked on a wide-scaled offensive in the direction of the village of Kichan and Srkhavand of the Mardakert district, and the village of Chartar of the Martuni district. However, the enemy was not able to advance in those sectors.
In early February heavy fighting took place at the northern front. To free the occupied territory of the Mardakert district the NKR Self-defense Army command gave an order for taking a counter offensive. Having broken the resistance of the enemy in a few days, the Karabaghian forces came out on to the strategic sector of the Mardakert-Kelbajar road. By late February as a result of heavy fighting the Karabaghian forces succeeded in re-establishing full control under the Sarsang storage lake where was located the electric power station that was of vital importance to the republic.
In the period from March 27 till April 5 there started the operations to remove the military bases of the Kelbajar district, they presented a serious threat to the western borders of NKR. On April 3, the firing points in the district center Kelbajar were neutralized. Having taken the crossroad, linking Kelbajar with Kirovabad, the Karabaghian forces came out to the Omar Pass. From the second half of April the situation at the front became relatively quiet.
However, late in the spring the situation changed abruptly. After a short interval the enemy resumed military operations on the full length of the front, choosing the eastern, Martuni sector for the main attack. All attempts to break through the defense of the Karabaghian troops failed.
At the beginning of the summer the Defense Army Command started on the plan for the liberation of the town of Mardakert, undertaking an offensive in several directions simultaneously. The battles reached a climax on June 27 when thanks to the decisive and coordinated actions; Mardakert was liberated after having been under the occupation of Azerbaijan for a year.
On June 14, the Supreme Council Presidium elected the SC Presidium Member Karen Babourian as the Acting Chairman of the NKR Parliament.
On July 4, the Azerbaijani army began a large scale offensive in the Askeran, Gadrut and Mardakert sectors of the front supported by air power and armor engineering. In all the sectors the enemy was repulsed and fled to the initial positions. The height of strategic importance near the village of Shelly in the Agdam district, from where the populated places of the Asceran district and the town of Stepanakert were subjected to the sustained intensive artillery bombardment by shelling, passed under the Karabakh forces control.
Nevertheless, the capital of the NKR continued to be under constant bombardment from Agdam where there were a great number of long-range weapons and launchers "Grad". To ensure the safety of Stepanakert the task to liquidate the military base of Agdam was put before the armed forces of Artsakh. On July 23, the Karabaghian forces, having broken down the resistance of the enemy, who had thrown the main part of his armed forces into this sector, entered Agdam. This removed not only the threat of systematic shelling of the NKR capital, but also the threat of further offensives on Askeran and contiguous districts.
With the removal of this large military base the Azerbaijani leadership was compelled to come out with the proposal to cease the fire. On July 25, practically for the first time during the conflict the arrangement for a three days armistice was achieved.
However, at the beginning of August the situation rapidly changed. The sustained attacks on the Karabakhi positions resumed. They mainly were carried on in the Jebrail direction. Thanks to the skillful actions of the self-defense forces in the course of the counter-offensive operations in that period a number of military bases of the enemy were destroyed. On August 16 from the Azerbaijani town of Fizuly an offensive was undertaken in the direction of the southern borders of the Martuni district and the eastern border of the Gadrut district. The military units of the NKR Defense Army succeeded in not only defending their positions, but also liberating a number of the earlier occupied villages in the south of the Gadrut district.
In the second half of August the fighting took place along the Fisuly-Jebrail- Kubatly line. On the 22nd of August, the Azeri troops were forced to leave the town of Fisuly and the district of the same name. In two days the Karabaghian troops entered the district center Djebrail and two days later took the territory of the same named district under their control. On August 26, the Gadrut district territory of the NKR was entirely liberated. On August 29, the Azeri side made an attempt to break through the Karabakhi defensive positions to the south of the Lachin Humanitarian Corridor, but the subdivisions of the NKR Army, throwing back the enemy, embarked on a counter-offensive and on August 31 entered the district center Kubatly. On the same day an agreement on a cease-fire for 10 days’ time was signed between Azebaijan and the NKR as well as an arrangement for a meeting of the leaders of Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabagh on the 10th of September.
However, the agreement did not give a real result in the sense of transferring the resolution of the problem from a military into a political channel. The relative tranquillity at the front lasted merely a month and a half. On the night of the 10th of October Azerbaijan resumed military hostilities in the Gadrut sector of the front. On October 21, the units of the Azerbaijani Army began an offensive in the Gadrut-Jebrail direction as a result of which they were able to capture a number of strategic hills, again exposing the safety of the population of the settlement of Gadrut and adjacent villages to threat. On October 24, the NKR Self-defense Army troops undertook a counter-offensive in the southern direction of the front, neutralizing a number of firing points of the enemy, in particular the inhabited locality of Choradis. Having taken this military base, the Karabaghian forces isolated the Zangelan district, a part of the Jebrail and the Kubatly districts from the rest of Azerbaijan. On November 1 in the morning the fighting men of the Self-defense Army took the district center Zangelan together with the adjacent populated points. From December 10 the Azerbaijani side three times embarked on an offensive in the southeastern sector of the front, but on each occasion the Karabakh army was able to repulse the enemy’s attacks.
On December 15, from the bases of the Agdjabedy district in Azebaijan there began massed rocket-artillery shelling of the populated points of the Martuni district, including the town of Martuni. On December 19, backed by tanks and airpower the Azerbaijani troops again attacked the Karabaghian army positions in the east of the Martuni district. The NKR armed forces were able to stop the offensive and on the night of December 20 threw the enemy back to the initial positions. On December 22, the positions of the Karabaghian troops were subjected to artillery shelling and in the southern- eastern sector of the front as the Azeri forces assumed a counter offensive. For the whole of the next day the enemy unsuccessfully tried to break the defensive borders of the Karabaghians along the front line extending some 30 kilometers. On December 26-27, the Azerbaijani troops waged offensives in the Mardakert, Martuni and Gadrut directions, but they did not succeeded in advancing. By the end of 1993, the whole territory from the railway junction of Khoradis to the state border of Armenia had passed under the control of the Karabaghian side, which enable the creation of an area of safety at the southern borders of the NKR.
In this period the leadership of Azerbaijan declared the mobilization of all men from the age of 18-40 year old. In addition to complement the Azerbaijani Army at the Karabakh front there were engaged mercenaries, including about 1.5 thousand mudjahiddins from Afghanistan - the international observers not once evidenced about it. The participation of the mercenaries in the war was confirmed by personal papers, military maps, letters and photos, dictionaries, national currency, received by Karabaghian military men as a trophy.
1994
Early 1994 Azerbaijan made one more attempt to take hold of the situation, intensifying the offensives on the full front. Hard fighting was waged from the highland Omar Pass as far as Araks. In spite of serious losses the enemy did not give up his plans. Withstanding the defense and carrying on a number of successful counter-offensives, the NKR troops in early February started liquidating the enemy’s bases in Omar Pass area. On February 18, the northern sector, including Omar Pass, was entirely under the Karabaghian forces control. Thus, the Kelbajar district was entirely occupied by the NKR Defense Army troops. At the end of February and at the beginning of March the main fighting was deployed in the southeastern sector of the front in the direction of Ghoradis. The enemy’s troops backed by armored forces, artillery and aviation tried to break the defense of the Karabaghians by a frontal blow and advance to Fisuly. But the latter was able not only to defend its positions but also to assume an offensive in a number of sectors.
On April 10, in the course of the counter offensives in the northern-eastern front the armed forces of the NKR took a number of strategic heights in the sector Gulistan- Talish. In the middle of April the NKR Defense Army freed the Armenian villages Talish, Chily, Madagis and Levonarkh. The success attended the Karabakh troops also in the southern direction of the front. By this time they were able to take the main road Agdam-Barda under their control. The military defeats compelled Azerbaijan to accept the Russian Federation’s proposal on armistice. On May 5, under the mediation of Russia, Kirgizia, and the CIS Inter-Parliament Assembly in the capital of Kirgizia Bishkek Azerbaijan, Nagorno Karabakh, and Armenia signed the protocol, which entered the history of the Karabakh conflict settlement as the Bishkek Protocol on base of which the agreement on cease-fire was achieved. On May 12, in Moscow to shape the Bishkek agreements legally there was a meeting of Defense Minister of Armenia Serzh Sarkissian, Defense Minister of Azebaijan Mamedraffi Mamedov and the NKR Defense Army Commander Samvel Babayan, where an agreement on cease-fire from 00 hours on May 17, 1994 was signed.
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The document was also prepared, providing the disengagement of the Karabakhi and Azerbaijani troops, the establishing of the buffer zone between the parties and bringing peacemaking forces into it. Defense Ministers of the Russian Federation and Armenia Pavel Grachev and Serge Sarkissian, and the NKR Defense Army Commander Samvel Babayan signed the document. But Defense Minister of Azerbaijan Mamedraffi Mamedov did not sign the document. He was urgently summoned to Baku. In spite of Azerbaijan’s not signing the final protocol of the Moscow agreement, in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict area there came the durable armistice.
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