AZERBAIJAN KEEPS ON GAMBLING THE "KHODJALU" TOPIC
Azat Artsakh Daily
16 Feb 09
Republic of Nagorno Karabakh [NKR]
The traditional anti-Armenian campaign connected with the events
of 1992 in Khodjalu settlement begins in Azerbaijan. At that, the
official Azerbaijani propaganda does not disdain to use any methods
and means to display the Armenian side as a party responsible for the
tragedy and to inject another portion of poison of Armenian phobia
into the world public consciousness and the consciousness of its
own people. Moreover, Baku goes on circulating the already unmasked
frauds. Thus, next year the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Nagorno
Karabakh Republic drew the public’s attention to a forged photograph
exposed in a number of Azerbaijani websites, including the website of
"Heydar Aliyev Foundation", which is very respectable in Azerbaijan
(). It has been mentioned, that the propaganda
machine of the neighboring republic tries to use the fact that
besides a great number of corpses of civilians in the foreground of
the photograph, outskirts of a settlement are seen in the background,
which, in principle, should add verisimilitude to Baku’s version on
mass killings of Azerbaijanis in Khodjalu. Meanwhile, color version
of the above-mentioned photograph absolutely refutes it, namely the
faces of the deceased, their garments, etc. In fact, this photograph
is directly con nected with the events in Kosovo. Namely as that the
photograph along with a great number of the others was exhibited in
one Serbian, one Albanian, and in one specialized German forum, in
internet-page of reputable edition "New York Times" etc. However, the
mentioned undisguised fraud still remains in a number of Azerbaijani
sites, thus deluding those uninformed. Booklets with similar fraud
are circulating all over the world.
The NKR MFA Information Department reminds that on February 25-26,
1992, the Karabakhi side launched a military operation to release
the only airport of the republic, situated near Khodjalu settlement
and to neutralize the weapon emplacements of the enemy in Khodjalu,
from where since summer of 1991 the populated areas of Nagorno
Karabakh have been regularly exposed to attacks of the Azerbaijani
special police squads (OMON), artillery bombardments from "Alazan",
"Crystal" and rocket facility of volley fire "Grad". The release of
the airport and neutralization of weapon emplacements of enemy in
Khodjalu was of vital importance for the NKR people. The subunits of
the NKR Defense Army granted a corridor to the peaceful population for
safe and timely leaving the battle zone and the Azerbaijani side was
informed of it beforehand. It is well-known that the NKR authorities
informed the Azerbaijani side of preparation for the neutralization of
the Khojalu=2 0weapon emplacements two months prior to the operation
and that was repeatedly confirmed by the officials of Azerbaijan,
in particular, by the then president Ayaz Mutalibov. However, the
leadership of Azerbaijan did not undertake anything to help the
peaceful population to leave the battle zone. Moreover, a column of
peaceful population was shot near the border of Aghdam region, which
was later on confirmed by Mutalibov, who connected the crime with
the opposition’s efforts to remove him from the office by making
him responsible for everything. The territory where subsequently
many corpses were filmed is 3 km far from Aghdam and 11 km from
Khojalu. Up to the fall of Aghdam (summer 1993) this area was under
permanent control of the Azerbaijani units, which excluded the access
of the Karabakhi self -defense units there. Some details of this
military operation are so far shrouded in mystery and namely using
this circumstance official Baku tries to profit from it to gain its
political goals. It is noteworthy, that all the propaganda is being
carried out with pronounced anti-Armenian insinuations and is used
for forcing ethnic intolerance and hatred towards Armenians among
Azerbaijanis. Unfortunately, the topic of "khodjalu" remains to
be one of the cornerstones of the Azerbaijani domestic and foreign
information or rather misinformation policy within the context of
the Karabakh problem in general.