30 years ago, in 1993, according to a carefully and competently developed plan of military operations, Armenian forces launched a three-pronged attack in the direction of Karvachar, which had become an Azerbaijani stronghold. In 1993, at the end of March, the situation on the North-Western Front sharply worsened. The Azerbaijani Berdzor-Karvachar group began conducting offensive operations from the rear from the northwest and southeast against the Armenian forces stationed in the Martakert and Berdzor regions. The command of the self-defense forces was tasked with neutralizing the firing points in Karvachar and Berdzor and defeating the Berdzor-Karvachar group. The Karvachar military operation was dictated in order to secure the rear of the Artsakh self-defense forces, which are waging liberation battles in the Martakert region.
The Self-Defense Forces Command was aware of the complexity of the military operation being conducted. Everything was put on the altar here. It was necessary to be ready for extreme strain of strength, high discipline, strategic skill and self-sacrifice. After organizing a small but effective defense in Martakert, on March 27, 1993, after preemptive strikes and artillery preparations, the Armenian forces undertook a military operation to neutralize positions in the Karvachar region and liberate the territory of the Berdzor region from the enemy’s control from various directions; battalions of the Martakert defense zone, operating under the command of Norayr Danielyan, carried out the attacks in the northern direction of Omar.
On April 5, the entire Armenian nation rejoiced: Armenian armed forces had emerged from the Omar Pass and completed the liberation of Karvachar, the inner stronghold of Artsakh. The liberation of Karvachar was a vital necessity to ensure the security of northern Artsakh. The operation to expel the enemy from Karvachar and silence Azerbaijani firing points took place between March 27 and April 1. On April 1, thanks to freedom fighters Armenak Abrahamyan, Hovsep Hovsepyan, Volodya Avetisyan, Sargis Karapetyan, Misha Tadevosyan, Yozef Nersisyan, Vigen Abrahamyan and others, Karvachar was liberated.
There is a fascinating little story from those days of liberation, which we will present below.
Azerbaijanis entered a house in Karvachar and told the family, “Armenians are coming, go away”. The owner of the house, whose parents were elderly, said, “We can’t, because my parents are old and will not be able to cross the mountain pass, they will die.” In protest, first the elderly husband and wife were shot, then the owner of the house. When the daughter tried to call for help, she was shot too. One breast was completely severed, the other was wounded. Gagik Kochinyan, the doctor of the Armenian detachment, dressed her and brought her by helicopter to Vardenis. After living with her mother for a long time in Armenia, she went to Russia. The girl’s life was saved.