ARMENIANS DID NOT COMMIT "GENOCIDE" IN KHOJALY
Jean Eckian
KarabakhOpen
10-06-2008 16:14:20
"There is no evidence that the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabagh committed
"genocide against Meskhetian Turks of Khojaly," said Canadian military
historian Patrick Wilson Gore, during the launch of his latest book
"Tis Some Poor Fellow’s Skull-Post- Soviet Warfare in the Southern
Caucasus" at the embassy of the Republic of Armenia in Ottawa.
Gore stated that Saline’s annexation of Nagorno-Karabagh to Azerbaijan
was due to his "paranoia" of Armenians and a secret deal between him
and Ataturk, the Turkish dictator. The Canadian expert stated that for
70 years Armenians of Nagorno-Karabagh were treated as second-class
citizens under Azeri rule. The treatment of Armenians by Azeris was a
classic case of ethnic cleansing. After the Sumgait and Baku massacres
of Armenians in the early 1990s, the Armenians were forced to fight
to defend their families and their lives.
In regard to the Khojaly incident, Gore said "Azeri troops ran
faster than the Meskhetian Turk civilians they had been using as
human shields". Upon their retreat to Agdam, civilians of Khojaly
were fired upon by the Azeri OMON garrison of Agdam, mistaking them
for Armenian forces. He said that a day before the start of Khojaly
battle, the Azeri forces executed 32 Armenian prisoners of war.
Regarding the ongoing Azeri government threats of resumption of war
to take Nagorno-Karabagh, Gore said that "peace is for the benefit
of both sides". It is true that the Azeri government is getting
emboldened with its new-found oil wealth, but the Aliev government
has to "consider that their oil and gas pipelines run 30 km north
of Nagorno-Karabagh, and Azeris have invested heavily in their Baku
facilities." Gore questioned whether Azeris want to jeopardize their
vital pipelines and "risk their money sources."
The author of the 139-page book is a Canadian specialist in military
history and theory. He studied at Oxford, and subsequently graduated
from the National Defence College at Kingston, one of NATO’s senior
command colleges. Much of his career has focused on strategic
intelligence. This is his eleventh book. He used to be paratrooper
and marine commando.