ArmInfo. This year marks the 28th anniversary of the ethnic cleansing of the Armenian-populated Shahumyan region by Azerbaijan. Tatevik Hayrapetyan, a deputy from the "My Step" faction, said this from the rostrum of the parliament.
She noted that the occupation of Shaumyan and the squeezing out of the Armenian population of the area prove that Azerbaijan intended to implement a similar policy with regard to the entire Nagorno-Karabakh. <Only thanks to our victories in the 90s we managed to avoid a repetition of a similar situation in Artsakh. I would like to note that recently the Foreign Ministries of Armenia and Artsakh made relevant statements. It is also very important that on this day the residents of the Shahumyan region also announced what happened>, Hayrapetyan emphasized. The MP also noted that in the future the issue related to Shumyan should be on the agenda of the negotiations on the settlement of the Artsakh issue. It should be noted that June 13 marks the 28th anniversary of the occupation by Azerbaijan of the ancient Armenian territory – Shaumyan – the inextricable part of Artsakh. Historically, the territory of the Shahumyan region was one of the five large Armenian principalities of Artsakh, known in archival and other documents as Gulistan. July 5, 1921 by the decision of the plenum of the Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP / b, despite the protests of the Armenian population, which at that time made up 95% of the region's inhabitants, Artsakh was transferred to newly-minted Azerbaijan, and with it Gulistan. When created in July 1923 The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region (NKAO) Gulistan and several other areas of Artsakh – Khanlar, Dashkesan, Shamkhor – with far-reaching goals were included not in autonomy, but in the Azerbaijan SSR. All the years of the existence of the Azerbaijan SSR in relation to these regions - repeated redrawing of the borders of the regions, blocking of Armenian villages, artificial inhibition of their economic development, etc. – a policy of squeezing out the Armenian population was carried out. Since the beginning in 1988. The Karabakh movement, all Armenian regions of Artsakh began to be subjected to massive attacks by Azerbaijani riot police, state and party bodies. The first open armed clashes between residents of Artsakh and Azerbaijan occurred precisely in the northern part of Nagorno-Karabakh. January 13, 1990, when the armed detachments of the Popular Front of Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijani police tried to occupy the villages of Kamo, Azad, Getashen and Martunashen of the Khanlar region and the villages of Erkech, Manashid, Buzlukh of the Shaumyan region. January 15, 1990 by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in the NKAR and adjacent areas, incl. Shahumyansky, a state of emergency is introduced. In January-March 1990 with the help of internal vrysk the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR deported the Armenian population of the villages of Azad and Kamo of the Khanlar district. In April 1991 Operation OMON of the Azerbaijan SSR, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, and units of the Soviet army launched the operation "Ring" on the deportation of the Armenian villages of the NKAR and adjacent areas. In April-July, 24 villages were deported in Khanlar, Shahumyan, Hadrut and Shusha districts. July 4, 1991 By decree of the President of the USSR M. Gorbachev, the state of emergency was canceled in the Shahumyan region. After the withdrawal of the units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, the OMON of Azerbaijan attacked the villages of Erkech, Manashid and Buzlukh, but was rejected by local self-defense units. During July-August 1991 The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Azerbaijan SSR, together with units of the 23rd Division of the 4th Soviet Army (stationed in Ganja) conducted military operations in the area with the aim of expelling the Armenian population using military equipment, including combat aircraft. In July, the residents of the villages of Erkech, Manashid, Buzlukh, whose population went deep into the region, were deported. Self-defense units initiated armed resistance. On September 2 (after the declaration of the independence of the Azerbaijan SSR on August 30 by the Supreme Council of Azerbaijan), a joint session of the Regional Council of the NKAR and the district council of the Shahumyan region proclaimed the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and decided to hold December 10, 1991. referendum on the independence of the NKR in accordance with Article 3 of the Law of the USSR of 04/03/1990 "On the procedure for resolving issues related to the exit of the Union Republic from the USSR>. In September 1991, the Shaumyansky region was the first of the NKR regions to become an arena of open hostilities between the NKR self-defense units and the forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the national army of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijanis used heavy artillery, tanks and armored vehicles , which had already been transferred to them by the command of the 23rd division of the 4th army, but the Shaumyan's self-defense forces managed to storm the control of the border villages of Erkech, Buzlukh and Manashid. In September-December 1991 positional battles continued. December 10 in the NKR, including a referendum was held in the Shahumyan region, during which the vast majority of residents supported the independence of the NKR. On December 30, elections of deputies of the NKR Armed Forces were held in the region and throughout NKR. And January 13, 1992 for the first time in the territory of the former USSR, weapons of mass destruction were used against civilians - Azerbaijan fired at the Shaumyan district center from the BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket system. In May-June 1992 The equipment and weapons of the units and units of the former 4th Army of the Transcaucasian Military District were transferred to Azerbaijan – 4 divisions, a third of the ships and all the bases of the Caspian flotilla, a helicopter squadron, more than 100 combat aircraft, etc., not counting captured ones. Using this weapon and a significant number of military mercenaries in June 1992. Azerbaijan launched a large-scale attack on the NKR. It began with the Shaumyan region, which is extremely important strategically and is closest to the largest military bases of the former USSR in Azerbaijan in Kirovabad (Ganja). June 15, 1992 the entire Shaumyan region was captured by Azerbaijan. In the summer of 1992 Azerbaijanis also captured most of Martakert, part of Martuni, Askeran and Hadrut regions of the NKR. For several days from Shaumyan 17 thousand Armenians were deported forcibly, several hundred residents were killed or missing.
