Country Azerbaijan Rayon Goygol District | Time zone AZT (UTC+4) | |
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Weather 12°C, Wind NW at 10 km/h, 29% Humidity | ||
Qarabulaq (known as Martunashen until 29th Dec 1992) is a village and municipality in the Goygol District of Azerbaijan on the recently asphalted lane between Chaykand and Sarisu. It has a population of 252.
Before the Nagorno-Karabakh War, Martunashen was populated by Armenians. Its Armenian population was forcefully evicted and deported by Soviet special forces during Operation Ring in 1991 in one of the most brutal operations of the war. The fact that the population of Martunashen was able to successfully flee is often attributed to the actions of Simon Achikgyozyan of the Arabo Detachment. Achikgyozyan died on 30 April 1991, defending the town by concentrating the fire from oncoming tanks against himself while the townspeople fled through the forests to safety.
Some Armenian nationalists claim that Qarabulaq belongs to the "Getashen district of Artsakh", but the village has since been repopulated by Azerbaijanis who carefully maintain the disused old stone church as a local monument.