EVENTS IN KHOJALY (NKR) AND NEAR AGDAM ON FEBRUARY 25-27, 1992
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Feb 15, 2010
Khojaly is also often spelled as Xocali, Khojaly, Khodzhaly, Khojalu,
Khocalu, Khocali, Khocaly
Azerbaijan turned Khojaly into a launch pad for indiscriminate
bombardment of Karabakh In 1991 and early 1992, Azerbaijan used an
Azeri inhabited village of Khojaly in Nagorno Karabakh as a launching
pad for indiscriminate artillery and rocket fire on Stepanakert,
the capital of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR), located only
a short 15-minute drive from Khojaly. By the end of February 1992,
intensive fire from Khojaly and other Azeri military strongholds in
Karabakh had killed 243 people, including 14 children and 37 women,
and wounded 491, including 53 children and 70 women. In addition,
systematic and intense artillery and rocket fire against civilian
targets in Stepanakert paralyzed the city, destroying hospitals,
administrative buildings, schools, and homes. By controlling Khojaly,
Azerbaijan also prohibited access to Karabakh’s airport, the only
link with the outside world, which was used to bring food and medical
aid. Furthermore, Khojaly was also used as a staging area for military
offensives on Stepanakert and nearby Armenian-populated villages. Thus,
Khojaly became a legitimate military target for Self-Defense Forces
of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic.
Legitimate target for NKR Self-Defense Units In early January 1992,
Nagorno Karabakh authorities decided to neutralize this military
target and informed the Azeris. The NKR authorities also transmitted
this information by radio, TV, loudspeakers, leaflets and other
methods to warn the Khojaly civilian population of the upcoming
operation, giving the civilian population an opportunity to exit
the area through a safe corridor. Azerbaijan’s leadership in Baku,
as well as local authorities, and military commanders in Khojaly
knew about the corridor, its width and direction. Both Azerbaijani
President Ayaz Mutalibov and Khojaly Mayor Elman Mamedov in their
1992 interviews confirmed this fact. During two weeks leading to the
Khojaly operation, NKR Self-Defense Forces observed a mass exodus of
the civilian population from Khojaly through the provided corridor
(see on the map).
The operation to neutralize Khojaly base of the Azeri armed forces
began at 11:00 PM on February 25 and was successfully completed within
five hours. Nagorno Karabakh forces took full control of the area,
killing dozens of military personnel during the operation.
Unfortunately, 11 civilians became unintended victims. About 700
civilians and military surrendered to NKR Self-Defense Forces. The
captured civilians were returned to Azerbaijan in the following days,
while the military personnel was later exchange for the Armenian
military prisoners and civilian hostages held by Azerbaijan.
Events on the territory controlled by Azerbaijan, 7 miles from Khojaly,
after the Khojaly operation was over
Map of the Events in Khojaly (NKR) and near Agdam (Azerbaijan) on
February 25-27, 1992 [ view large map ]
When the military operation began in Khojaly, a large group of
civilians and armed military personnel from Khojaly used the provided
humanitarian corridor to exit the battlefield and began moving in the
direction of the Azeri- controlled Agdam. Near Nakhichevanik village
of Karabakh (outside of the provided corridor), the group provoked
a gun battle with the defenders of Nakhichevanik, which resulted in
numerous death on both sides. On February 28 and early March 1992,
in the area then fully controlled by Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani and
Turkish journalists videotaped images of the hundreds of killed and,
during the second video shooting session, also mutilated bodies.
Since then, official Baku has falsified the events and used the
human tragedy to persistently fan anti-Armenian hysteria to demonize
the Armenian people in the eyes of the Azeris and the international
community. It used the images to incite anti-Armenian sentiment and
intolerance, which resulted in murders and calls from Azeris to wipe
out Armenians as an ethnic group.
Conclusion
Responsibility for the tragic loss of civilian life on February 26-27,
1992 on the outskirts of Agdam, territory fully controlled by Azeri
forces, lies with the political and military leadership of Azerbaijan.
First, the Azeri leadership used the territory of Khojaly for
indiscriminate artillery attacks on civilian targets, thus turning
the town into a legitimate military target for NKR Self-Defense Forces.
Second, the Azeri leadership intentionally prevented the civilian
population from leaving the militarized village.
Third, the Azeri leadership failed to safely relocate civilians
from Khojaly after public warnings of upcoming military operation,
although it had many opportunities to do so.
Fourth, retreating Azeri forces provoked an exchange of fire with NKR
Self-Defense Forces some five miles from Khojaly, which resulted in
losses on both sides.
Fifth, those who had continued, full access to the site of reported
close-range, mass killing are responsible for it. The reported killing
of hundreds of civilians with incidences of barbaric mutilation of
bodies took place near Agdam (some seven miles from Khojaly), on
the territory controlled by Azeri forces. Free access to the site by
Azeri and Turkish journalists is clear evidence to that end.
In addition, Azerbaijan continues to create ground for a prolonged
human tragedy by inciting anti-Armenian sentiments and intolerance in
Azeri society. Such a policy stalls efforts to build bridges between
Armenian and Azeri people and achieve eventual, long-lasting peace
between Azerbaijan and Nagorno Karabakh.
* * *
Background data, journalistic investigation and academic research
materials to support the above information are available at the NKR
Office and can be provided on-demand.
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In the course of discussing the issue "On Violation of Human Rights and
Main Freedoms throughout the World" at the fifty-seventh session of
the UN Commission on Human Rights, the Armenian delegation submitted
to the Chairman of the UN Commission on Human Rights information on
the real events of February 1992, which was spread as an official
document of the fifty-seventh session of the aforementioned Commission.
The text of the document is given below.
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE EVENTS IN KHOJALY
Evidence from Azerbaijani sources For nine years after the events
in Khojaly official Baku has been obstinately fanning anti-Armenian
hysteria with the aim of falsifying real events and discrediting the
Armenian people in the eyes of the international community.
The events in Khojaly, which led to the death of civilians, were
the results solely of political intrigues and a struggle for power
in Azerbaijan.
The real reasons are most convincingly reflected in the accounts
of Azerbaijanis themselves – as participants in and eyewitnesses of
what happened – as well as of those who know the whole inside story
of the events in Baku.
According to Azerbaijani journalist M. Safarogly, "Khojaly occupied
an important strategic position. The loss of Khojaly was a political
fiasco for Mutalibov". 1
Khojaly, along with Shushi and Agdam, was one of the main strongholds
from which Stepanakert, the capital of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic,
was shelled continuously and mercilessly for three winter months
using artillery and missiles and launchers for targeting cities.
Knocking out the weapon emplacements in Khojaly and freeing the
airport were the only way for the inhabitants of the Nagorno Karabakh
Republic to ensure the physical survival of a population condemned by
Azerbaijan to complete annihilation. The daily shelling of Stepanakert
from nearby Khojaly took the lives of peaceful inhabitants – women,
children and old people.
Former President of Azerbaijan, Ayaz Mutalibov, has emphasized that
"…
the assault on Khojaly was not a surprise attack"2. In a "Nezavisimaya
gazeta" newspaper interview he stated that "a corridor was kept open
by the Armenians for people to leave"3. However, a column of civilians
was fired on by armed units of the Popular Front of Azerbaijan on the
approaches to the Agdam district border, a fact later confirmed by Ayaz
Mutalibov, who linked this criminal act to attempts by the opposition
to remove him from power, and blamed it entirely for what happened.
In his recent interview with the "Novoye vremya" magazine, Mutalibov
confirms his statement of nine year ago: "The shooting of the Khojaly
residents was obviously organized by someone to take control in
Azerbaijan"4.
Similar comments and views concerning the events in Khojaly are known
to have been made by several other highly-placed Azerbaijani officials
and journalists.
There is, moreover, the conclusion of Azerbaijani journalist Arif
Yunusov, which differs somewhat from the previous statements: "The
town and its inhabitants were deliberately sacrificed for a political
purpose – to prevent the Popular Front of Azerbaijan from coming to
power"5. In this case, though, the Azerbaijanis themselves are named
as the perpetrators of the tragedy.
What resulted from the betrayal of the inhabitants of Khojaly by their
own highly placed compatriots is well known. Azerbaijani propaganda
has railed to the whole world about the "atrocities of the Armenians",
supplying television stations with horrendous pictures of a field
strewn with mutilated bodies. Khojaly is claimed to have been the
"Armenians’ revenge for Sumgait".
Tamerlan Karayev, at one time Chairman of the Supreme Council of the
Azerbaijan Republic, bears witness: "The tragedy was committed by
the authorities of Azerbaijan", and specifically by "someone highly
placed"6.
The Czech journalist Jana Mazalova, who by an oversight of
the Azerbaijanis was included in both of the groups of press
representatives to be shown the "bodies mutilated by the Armenians",
noted a substantial difference in the two cases. When she went to
the scene immediately after the events, Mazalova did not see any
traces of barbarous treatment of the bodies. Yet a couple of days
later the journalists were shown disfigured bodies already "prepared"
for pictures.
Who killed the peaceful inhabitants of Khojaly and then mutilated their
bodies, if the tragedy occurred not in a village taken by Armenians
or on the route of the humanitarian corridor, but on the approaches
to the town of Agdam – on territory fully controlled by the Popular
Front of Azerbaijan?
The independent Azerbaijani cameraman Chingiz Mustafayev, who took
pictures on 28 February and 2 March 1992, had doubts about the official
Azerbaijani version and began his own inquiry. The journalist’s very
first report to the Moscow news agency "D-press" on the possible
complicity of the Azerbaijani side in the crimes cost Mustafayev his
life: he was killed nor far from Agdam, under circumstances that are
still unexplained.
The current President of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, himself recognized
that Azetbaijan’s "former leadership was also guilty" of events in
Khojaly. Already in April 1992, according to the agency Bilik-Dunyasy,
he had commented as follows: "The bloodshed will be to our advantage.
We should not interfere in the course of events". To whose "advantage"
was the bloodshed is clear to everyone. "Megapolis-Express" wrote:
"It cannot be denied that if the Popular Front of Azerbaijan actually
set far-reaching objectives, they have been achieved. Mutalibov has
been compromised and overthrown, public opinion worldwide has been
shaken, and the Azerbaijanis and their Turkish brethren have believed
in the so-called "genocide of the Azerbaijani people in Khojaly"7.
One other tragic detail. It has become clear since the events that 47
Armenian hostages were already being held on 26 February in "peaceful"
Khojaly, a fact that the Azerbaijani mass media "covering" the tragedy
have failed to mention. After the liberation of Khojaly only 13
hostages (including 6 woman and 1 child) were found there, the other
34 having been taken away by the Azerbaijanis to an unknown location.
The only thing known about them is that they were led from the village
on the night of the operation, but never reached Agdam. There is
still no information concerning what eventually happened to them or
confirming that they continued to be held captive by the Azerbaijanis.
Obviously, those who wanted to create the impression that bodies had
been mutilated by the Armenians first of all disfigured the bodies
of those same Armenian hostages, in order to make it impossible to
identify them. Precisely for that purpose the outer clothing was
removed from many of the bodies and precisely for that reason the
bodies of the unfortunate victims were damaged so badly that they
became unrecognizable.
In the light of the above facts it may confidently be said that the
killing of peaceful inhabitants of the village of Khojaly and of the
Armenian hostages being held there was the work of the Azerbaijani
side, which committed this crime against its own people in the name
of political intrigues and the struggle for power.
__________________________________________ _______
1. "Nezavisimaya gazeta" newspaper, February 1993 2. "Ogonek" magazine,
Nos. 14-15, 1992 3. "Nezavisimaya gazeta" newspaper, 2 April 1992
4. "Novoye vremya" magazine, 6 March 2001 5. "Zerkalo" newspaper, July
1992 6. "Mukhalifat" newspaper, 28 April 1992 7. "Megapolis-Express",
No. 17, 1992