page_title: Battle of Kalbajar
section_title: Final push
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Kalbajar / The battle / Final push
caption_attribution_description: English: Azerbaijani refugees from Kalbajar. Kalbajar Rayon, Murovdag.
context_page_description: The Battle of Kelbajar took place in March and April 1993, during the Nagorno-Karabakh War. It resulted in the capture by Armenian military forces of the Kelbajar region of Azerbaijan.
  Kelbajar lays outside the contested enclave of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, but within Nagorno-Karabakh geographic region of Azerbaijan, that Armenian and Azerbaijani forces had been fighting over for five years. The offensive was the first time Armenian forces from Nagorno-Karabakh had advanced beyond the boundaries of the enclave. Kelbajar rayon, located between Armenia and the western border of former NKAO, was composed of several dozen villages and its provincial capital, also named Kelbajar. After initial heavy resistance, the Azerbaijani defenses quickly collapsed and the provincial capital fell on April 3, 1993. Kelbajar is currently under the control of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.
context_section_description: As the deadline passed on April 2, Melkonian's armor entered the intersection and encountered a line of Azeri tanks and infantry. A firefight ensued but lasted for only several minutes as the defense line was soon battered and destroyed. Many of the Azeri forces were ill-prepared for the attack as Melkonian noted when pointing out to their lack of equipment. Despite having his force reduced down to a total of sixty-eight men, a force too weak to take the capital, he ordered them to continue forward.
  By April 3, the Armenian forces had encircled the capital and resistance had weakened. Azeri commander Suret 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. 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.
  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. The taking of the region marked a continuous swath of territory held by Armenians stretching from Karabakh to Armenia proper, a total of 3,000 square kilometers. In the retreat through the Omar Pass of the Murov mountain range, many Azeri 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 Dashkesen 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. Human Rights Watch findings concluded that during the Kalbajar offensive Armenian forces committed numerous violations of the rules of war, including forcible exodus of civilian population, indiscriminate fire and hostage-taking.
caption: Azerbaijani refugees from Kalbajar
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