Azerbaijani military commander Surat Huseynov marched from Ganja to Baku in the summer of 1993, to depose the then president of Azerbaijan, Abulfaz Elchibey.

The Azerbaijani forces, made up of over three thousand soldiers of the 701st Kalbajar Motorised Infantry Division, launched the offensive on 15 December, in high altitudes and harsh winter conditions, which led to some commanders opposing the operation.

The offensive is the single deadliest military engagement of the war, in which both Armenian and Azerbaijani forces suffered heavy casualties.

Azerbaijan rejected the request several times,[10] and ethnic violence began shortly after with a series of pogroms between 1988 and 1990 against Armenians in Sumgait, Ganja and Baku,[11][12][13][14] and against Azerbaijanis in Gugark[15][16][17] and Stepanakert.

[10] Armenian forces launched an offensive on 18 May 1992 to take the city of Lachin,[19] thus seizing control of the narrow, mountainous Lachin corridor,[20] a key road connecting Goris in Syunik Province, southern Armenia, to Stepanakert, the regional capital for the Armenian in Nagorno-Karabakh;[21] the only other major road connecting Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh passes through the Murov range.

The Armenian forces launched an offensive for Kalbajar in March,[25] and fully occupied the region in April, gaining control of the highest peak in the whole of Karabakh, Mount Murovdagh.

[26] The Armenian advancement in Kalbajar was conducted with numerous violations of the rules of war, including the forcible exodus of its civilian population, indiscriminate shootings and hostage-taking.

[27] On 30 April, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) passed Resolution 822, demanding the immediate cessation of all hostilities and the withdrawal of all occupying forces from Kalbajar.

As acting president, Aliyev disbanded 33 voluntary battalions of Elchibey's Azerbaijani Popular Front, which he deemed politically unreliable.

[28] Aliyev appealed to the ethnic Azerbaijani military experts in the former Soviet republics, with many officers, most of whom were veterans of the Soviet–Afghan War, coming to the aid of the country.

The brigade consisted of six battalions:[35] In early-February 1994, the Central Self-Defence Group of the NKR were led by the chief of staff of the Armenian Armed Forces, lieutenant general Hrach Andresyan.

[8] The military operation began with an Azerbaijani offensive in December 1993 along the entire northern front, advancing from the Murov mountain range.

[39] The 5th Battalion, led by Garay Asadov,[40] launched Operation Meydanchay on 28 December, moving towards the Meydan Plain in the Murovdagh range.

[39][40] The 3rd Azerbaijani Battalion attacked the Omar Pass, taking control of the area[39] and inflicting casualties on the untrained Armenian conscripts of the Vanadzor Regiment.

A few days later, the Azerbaijani Minister of Defence, Mammadrafi Mammadov, issued a decree, dismissing the commander of the 701st Motorised Rifle Brigade, Valeh Rafiyev and replacing him with Saleh Ilyasov.

According to the British journalist Thomas de Waal, 240[41] Armenian soldiers were killed in the village; Mikhail Zhirohov believes the number to be 200.

The following day, the 1st, 3rd and 4th Azerbaijani battalions, which continued their push deeper into the Kalbajar District, captured Ganlykend, Bozlu, Babashlar, Tekagaya, Ilyaslar, and Chopurlu.

Nevertheless, on 6 February, the Armenian forces captured Chichakli, but lost it two days later, while the 1st and 3rd Azerbaijani battalions were ordered to continue their attack and take the heights around Sotk.

Some Azerbaijani soldiers went crazy, with some singing and running into the cold river to swim, while those sitting on the ground froze in place.

The Azerbaijani troops launched several unsuccessful attacks from the Khanlar District (modern-day Goranboy) on the Armenian positions to reopen the supply lines.

[37] De Waal noted the Armenian forces heavily bombarded the besieged Azerbaijani battalions with BM-21 Grad missiles.

[41] The offensive is one of the deadliest military engagements of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, in which both Armenian and Azerbaijani forces suffered heavy casualties.

In later years, the Armenians collected hundreds of military identity documents belonging to the Azerbaijani soldiers who had died at Omar Pass.

[31] The Armenian forces were able to secure their positions in Kalbajar and seize control of the Omar and Guzgu passes in the Murov range.

Their forces in Murovdag were very small, and an attack from there would aggravate their situation leading the Armenian leadership to order a withdrawal from Aghdam and Fuzuli.

According to her, the Azerbaijani chief of general staff, Najmeddin Sadikov, launched the offensive instead of suspending it because of the worsening weather, calling it the "stupidest decision a military officer could ever take".

Azad Isazadeh, who worked at the press office for the ministry of defence during the war, disagreed with this verdict, saying the operation could have been carried out only on the orders of Aliyev himself.

Isazadeh compared the offensive to the Soviet technique of cotton harvesting, recruiting many completely unprepared young Azerbaijanis from the streets of Baku and throwing them into battle.

From 29 June to 18 August 1995, the military board of the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan, chaired by Shahin Rustamov, supervised the trial on the failure of the offensive.

[54] Azerbaijani forces recaptured Mount Murovdagh, a strategic position in the Murov range, during the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War,[55][56] which allowed them to cut off the Vardenis–Martakert road.