By Anar Huseynov *
Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Hellenic Republic and to the Republic of Albania.
This year marks 31st anniversary since the Khojaly genocide, one of the most painful and horrific crimes of recent decades. The Khojaly genocide is not only one of the darkest pages of Azerbaijani history but also “one of the most terrifying tragedies” of humankind perpetrated by the Armenian nationalists and their supporters against the Azerbaijani people.
On the night of Feb. 25-26, 1992, Armenian forces committed a massacre – known as the Khojaly Genocide – of ethnic Azerbaijanis in Khojaly, a small town in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.
The bloodshed in Khojaly cannot be evaluated separately from Armenia’s aggressive actions towards Azerbaijan, which commenced in 1988. The Khojaly massacre occurred during the armed conflict in former Nagorno-Karabakh, a region inside Azerbaijan with a substantial ethnic Armenian population. After capturing most of the region and expelling ethnic Azerbaijanis, Armenian forces, with the assistance of the Soviet Army’s 366th motorised regiment, which was stationed in the regional capital of Khankendi, carried out a veritable bloodbath among the Azerbaijani population in the town of Khojaly. The town had been besieged by the Armenian units for four months before the actual assault.
Apart from the strategic objectives, Armenian aggressors wanted to destroy Khojaly as a settlement that reflects the historical and cultural heritage of Azerbaijani population. Armenian armed forces and mercenary units gave no qualms about the people of Khojaly, who had not managed to leave the city. As a result, 613 civilians perished, including 106 women, 63 children and 70 elderly. 1275 Khojaly residents were taken hostages, while the fate of 150 still unknown to this day. 8 families were completely wiped out. 130 children lost one of the parents, and 25 children lost both. 487 people, including 76 children were heavily wounded.
Representatives of international media outlets visiting the site were horrified by what they saw. One of the most terrible tragedies of the 20th century took place in Azerbaijan. What happened in Khojaly was no different from the genocides seen in Khatyn, the Holocaust, Rwanda, and Srebrenica, which all left a deep scar on world history.
The Armenian leadership not only confessed but also boasted with their actions. It is no coincidence that during his interview with the British journalist Thomas de Waal in 2000, the former Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan stated: “Before Khojaly, Azerbaijanis thought they were joking with us, they thought that Armenians were people who could not raise their hands against the civilian population. We had to put an end to all of this, so we did. We broke this stereotype of Azerbaijanis” (The note is taken from Thomas de Waal’s book ‘Black Garden’). The “most devastating fact” about the Khojaly Genocide is that the perpetrators of the carnage “represented in the previous political and military leadership of Armenia” confessed their actions and are left unpunished.
This confession confirms that the crime against humanity in Khojaly was deliberate and well planned. Later, the Armenians admitted that the first major task of the Armenian armed forces was to destroy the Khojaly bridgehead, to evacuate the Askeran-Khankendi road passing through, and to seize the only airport in the region controlled by the Azerbaijanis.
Coverage of Khojaly massacre by the renowned international media like The Washington Times, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Guardian, The Independent newspapers, Time and Newsweek magazines constitute testimony to those bloody days.
The Khojaly massacre and other war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed by Armenia in the course of the aggression against Azerbaijan constitute a serious violation of international humanitarian law.
Over the years, regular work has been done to ensure that crimes against humanity receive objective and fair legal treatment worldwide. Relevant documents of the Parliamentary Union of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the Parliaments of Mexico, Pakistan, the Czech Republic, Peru, Colombia, Panama, Honduras, Sudan, Guatemala, and Djibouti confirmed that the Khojaly massacre was an act of genocide. The parliaments of Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Jordan, Slovenia, Scotland, as well as the executive and legislative bodies of more than 20 states of the United States have strongly condemned the Khojaly tragedy, labelling it as a massacre.
On the initiative of Vice-President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Ms. Leyla Aliyeva, the ‘Justice for Khojaly!’ campaign annually commemorates the victims of the Khojaly Genocide in many countries. Efforts will continue to be made to get a legal assessment for the Khojaly crimes. It is a genocide not only against Azerbaijanis, but also against humanity as a whole.
There are memorials around the globe dedicated to the victims of the Khojaly massacre — apart from different cities of Azerbaijan and Turkey there are memorials in the Hage, Berlin, Sarajevo, Mexico, Israel.
The 30th anniversary of the Khojaly tragedy is accompanied by a completely different situation in the Karabakh region. In 2020, during the 44-day war that lasted from September 27 to November 10, 2020, Azerbaijan ended the occupation of its legal and historical lands and restored its territorial integrity. Favourable conditions have already been created to ensure lasting peace in the region.
By telling the world the truth about Khojaly we do not intend to inculcate hostile sentiments against the Armenian people. We want the world community to know those criminals, who were representatives of the Armenian people and stayed in power for a long time. The Azerbaijani people want to convey the essence of the acts committed by them, so that such bloody tragedies will not recur. We demand “Justice for Khojaly”.
By establishing constructive cooperation with all countries, Azerbaijan is also eager to cooperate and establish peace with neighboring Armenia. Armenia should properly assess the situation and draw logical conclusions from its 30-year occupation, which has left a deep mark on our nations and our region. The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has gone down in history. This development is not only a crucial milestone in the history of independent Azerbaijan but also a vital condition for lasting peace, cooperation and good neighborly relations in the region.
/Argumentum.al
