Events in Khojaly (NKR) and near Agdam
on February 25-27, 1992
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223-4330
e-mail: [email protected]
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 S
elf-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
milit
ary 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, te
rritory 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 K
arabakh.
* * *
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=2
0Baku.
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 0D
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 A
rmenians",
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
cann
ot 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.0D
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
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1140 19th Street, NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20036, phone: (202)
223-4330
e-mail: [email protected]