By Vugar Khalilov
Azerbaijan’s Military Prosecutor’s Office has put former Armenian presidents Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan on an international wanted list, Trend has reported.
Both men are prosecuted under the relevant articles of the Azerbaijani Criminal CodeKocharyan and Sargsyan are being prosecuted under relevant articles of the Azerbaijani Criminal Code, the Military Prosecutor’s Office stated.
“These persons were put on the wanted list under the relevant articles of the Criminal Code for making illegal decisions to proclaim the so-called ‘Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’ and other crimes,” the prosecutor’s office said.
It was recalled that both Kocharyan and Sargsyan were active members of the anti-Azerbaijan separatist movement beginning in 1988 when the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan entered its open phase.
“Since February 1988, in order to incite national enmity, hatred between the Azerbaijani and Armenian peoples, these persons arranged and held meetings in organizations and institutions of Khankandi city [in Azerbaijan’s Karabakh] with the participation of workers who were Armenians by nationality,” the prosecutor’s office noted.
“They [ex-presidents] declared that Karabakh belongs to Armenians and only Armenians should live there, called for the dismissal of Azerbaijanis from their jobs, forcible eviction from Karabakh, and burning of their houses,” he added.
It should be noted that in an interview with Thomas de Waal in the 2000s, Serzh Sargsyan said: “Before Khojaly, the Azerbaijanis thought that they were joking with us, they thought that the Armenians were people who could not raise their hand against the civilian population. We needed to put a stop to all that. And that’s what happened.”
Armenia committed genocide against the 7,000-person population of Azerbaijan’s Khojaly town on February 26, 1992.
As a result of the Khojaly genocide, 613 peaceful Azerbaijanis were killed, including 63 children, 106 women, and 70 elderly people. Simultaneously, 487 civilians were seriously injured, and 1,275 people were kidnapped. The fate of 150 hostages remains unknown, including 68 women and 26 children.
During the genocide, 56 people were killed with extreme cruelty, with their heads peeled off, various limbs severed, eyes removed, and pregnant women’s bellies pierced with bayonets. As a result, eight families were utterly destroyed, 25 children lost both parents, and 130 children were orphaned.
Relevant documents adopted by the parliaments of Mexico, Pakistan, the Czech Republic, Peru, Colombia, Panama, Honduras, Sudan, Guatemala and Djibouti recognized the Khojaly massacre as an act of genocide. The parliaments of Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Jordan, Slovenia, Scotland, and Paraguay, as well as the executive and legislative bodies of 22 U.S. states have strongly condemned the Khojaly tragedy as a massacre. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation recognized Armenia as an aggressor and the Khojaly tragedy as genocide.
Every year on February 26, the victims of the Khojaly genocide are remembered at the initiative of national leader Heydar Aliyev.
This heinous act was preceded by a slew of others. Armenians set fire to around 20 buildings in the Baghanis-Ayrim village of Gazakh region, killing eight Azerbaijanis. A family of five, including a 39-day-old newborn, were all burnt alive.
Between June and December 1991, Armenian troops murdered 12 and wounded 15 Azerbaijanis in Khojavand region’s Garadaghli and Asgaran region’s Meshali villages.
Armenian military detachments bombed buses on the Shusha-Jamilli, Aghdam-Khojavand, and Aghdam-Garadaghli routes in August and September of the same year, killing 17 Azerbaijanis and injuring over 90 others.
In October and November 1991, Armenians burned, destroyed, and plundered over 30 settlements in the mountainous area of Karabakh, including Tugh, Imarat-Garvand, Sirkhavand, Meshali, Jamilli, Umudlu, Garadaghli, Karkijahan, and other significant villages.