In 1991 during the months of April to August, OMON squads of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Azerbaijan SSR, together with internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR and units of the 4th Army (23rd Division located in the city of Kirovabad), launched a large-scale military operation to deport the Armenian population of Artsakh.
As a result of the “Oghak” operation, more than two dozen villages in northern Artsakh, as well as Shahumyan, Hadrut and Shushi regions were completely destroyed, nearly 10,000 people were displaced.
One of the cruel and horrifying episodes of the “Oghak” operation was the shooting of policemen in the village of Voskepar of the Armenian SSR, which many call the “Voskepar massacre”. In 1991, on the night of May 5-6, units of the 4th army of Soviet troops stationed on the territory of Azerbaijan SSR and Azerbaijani OMON, using helicopters, tanks and heavy artillery, closed the entrances to the village of Voskepar in the Noyemberyan region and entered the village. The units of the Soviet army and the Azerbaijani OMON, which entered the village, blew up 1 car, killing 2 people and seriously wounding 7 civilians.
After learning what happened in Voskepar, 20 militiamen of the department of internal affairs of Noyemberyan region and 3 civilians tried to enter the village through the forest to protect the inhabitants.
11 of them were brutally shot, and the rest were captured and transferred to the prison in the city of Kirovabad in the Azerbaijan SSR, where three others died. The units of the Soviet troops captured and handed over to the Azerbaijani OMON the 45 policemen who were in the village and protecting the settlement, who were also tortured in the Azerbaijani prison.
It is known that an investigation was organized in order to avoid responsibility for these brutal actions and to soften international assessments, hearings were held in the Supreme Council of the USSR, but the organizers and those responsible were not punished.
On May 17, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution. Resolution 128 was introduced in the U.S. Senate by Carl Levin, Bob Dowley, Larry Pressler and others. The resolution condemned the violence in Armenia, noting that the Soviet Union and the Azerbaijani government had greatly intensified attacks on the Armenian civilian population. The resolution states that Soviet and Azerbaijani forces have destroyed Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding Armenian villages, depopulated them, violating internationally recognized human rights.
https://www.aravot.am/2023/05/05/1339219/