Operation Ring, 1991

In the spring of 1991, when the Soviet Union was already falling apart, a joint military operation began against the Armenian villages of Artsakh; it entered history as Operation Ring. Officially it was called a “passport check” and a “fight against illegal armed groups”, but in reality it was ethnic cleansing.

Soviet troops, together with units of the Azerbaijani OMON, surrounded Armenian villages, beat and humiliated the inhabitants, arrested and took away the men, and forcibly deported the families. Getashen, Martunashen and dozens of other villages were emptied, houses were looted and burned, and thousands of Armenians became refugees.

In the photograph elderly women sit in the open among bundles and belongings; behind them are many other people with their possessions.