Terter operation
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| Terter operation | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of First Nagorno-Karabakh War | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Nagorno-Karabakh[a] |
 Azerbaijan[b] | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Samvel Babayan[1] Manvel Grigoryan Nelson Soghomonyan[2] Sergei Chalyan |
Najmeddin Sadikov[3] Elbrus Orudzhev † Rovshan Akbarov Maharram Seyidov | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
|
Stepanakert Regiment[4] 5th motorized rifle brigade[4] 83rd motorized rifle brigade[5] separate motorized rifle battalion "Tigran Mets"[4] |
776th Separate Reconnaissance | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | 600 killed[8] | ||||||
| 50,000 Azerbaijanis displaced[9][10][11][12][13] | |||||||
Terter operation[14] (April-May 1994) - was a large-scale offensive by Armenian forces at the final stage of the First Karabakh war, accompanied by battles in the Terter, Agdam and Goranboy regions of Azerbaijan, as a result of which several villages in the Agdam and Terter regions came under the control of the NKR.
In late 1993 - early 1994, after a series of major defeats, Azerbaijan attempted a counteroffensive along the entire length of the front. Despite local successes, the Azerbaijanis failed to significantly change the situation on the battlefield and achieve a major victory.[15] By February 1994, their offensive was stopped and actually repelled,[16] there were no significant changes in the front line compared to the autumn of 1993. By the beginning of spring, the offensive potential of Azerbaijan depleted and the armed forces got exhausted.[17]
In April of 1994, the Armenian command planned a large-scale military operation which involved breaking through the defenses of the Azerbaijani army in the area of the city Terter (formerly Mir-Bashir) which occupies an important operational-strategic purpose,[citation needed] capturing it and further advancing to the regional centers of Barda and Yevlakh.[17] Had it been successful, the North-west of Azerbaijan would be cut off from the rest of the territory of the republic,[18] which would cause new flows of refugees.[19] “The capture of the city by the Armenians could discredit the government of Heydar Aliyev with the subsequent end of the war on the terms of the Armenian side”.[19]