AZERBAIJAN IS GUILTY OF DEATH OF INHABITANTS OF KHOJALY AND ARMENIAN HOSTAGES KEPT IN KHOJALY, NKR MFA DECLARES

Noyan Tapan
Feb 26, 2010

STEPANAKERT, FEBRUARY 26, NOYAN TAPAN. The anti-Armenian campaign in
connection with the regular anniversary of the tragic events in the
settlement of Khojaly, which has set everybody’s teeth on edge for
a long time, has gained an unprecedented scope this year in Azerbaijan.

It is mentioned in the February 25 statement of the Press Service of
the NKR Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which further read:

"In connection with the insinuations of official Baku, the Press
Service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Nagorno Karabakh
Republic considers it necessary to remind that a military operation
was organized on February 25-26, 1992 with the aim of unblocking
the only airport in the Republic situated near the settlement of
Khojaly and neutralizing the fire-points of the enemy just in Khojaly,
from where, beginning from spring 1991, the settlements of Nagorno
Karabakh were regularly attacked by the Azerbaijani OMON-members
and exposed to artillery bombardment, including from "Grad" rocket
launchers weapon of mass destruction (WMD) prohibited by numerous
international conventions.

Fulfilling a vital goal for the Karabakh people, the units of the
NKR self-defense forces, attacking Khojaly, provided a corridor
for the civilians’ safe leaving the military activities zone, about
which the Azerbaijani party was informed beforehand. This fact was
repeatedly confirmed by the Azerbaijani officials, in particular, the
then President Ayaz Mutalibov. But, the Azerbaijani authorities made
nothing for the peaceful population’s withdrawal from the military
activities area. Moreover, a column of civilians was shot down at the
approaches to the Aghdam region’s border, which was later confirmed by
Mutalibov, connecting this criminal act with the opposition’s attempts
to remove him from his position, making him responsible for the events.

The territory, where pictures of numerous corpses were made, is in a
three-kilometer distance from the town of Aghdam and in 11 kilometers
from Khojaly. Up to the summer of 1993, this territory was under
permanent control of the Azerbaijani armed forces, which excluded
any access for the units of the Karabakh self-defense forces.

"The Azerbaijani official propaganda tries to blame Armenians for
the killing of the civil population of Khojaly, but even Azerbaijani
President Mutalibov admitted that "Armenians still provided a corridor
for the civilians’ leaving the place", the Russian Nezavisimaya Gazeta
from April 2, 1992 wrote. Also, Ogonyok journal (#14-15, 1992) noted
that "the attack of Khojaly wasn’t sudden".

Some details of that military operation are still shrouded in mystery,
which is actively speculated by the Azerbaijani state propagandistic
machine, using various falsifications, forgeries, and obvious lie.

Last year, the NKR MFA drew the public attention to the false photo
placed at some Azerbaijani websites, including the one of a generator
of false ideas "The Heydar Aliyev Fund" (). In fact,
the photo related immediately to the events in Kosovo and just as
such, along with numerous others, was introduced at the Serbian,
Albanian, and one of the specialized German forums, at the site of
The New York Times authoritative journal, and others. This year,
new forgeries have been added to the noted one. Thus, about 20 false
photos used by the Azerbaijani party, in particular, those of the
victims of the Kurdish pogroms in Turkey, the victims of the massacre
in Srebrennitsa, and others, were introduced during the February
24 presentation of the project in Yerevan. Besides,
outrageous falsifications were discovered in the lists of the Aghdam
tragedy victims introduced by the Azerbaijani official structures
embassies, the presidential library, etc. Also, the site provides
video-films about the interrogations of the Turks-Meskhetians,
which testify that despite the Armenian party’s warning of the
Khojaly attack, the Azerbaijani servicemen banned the escape of the
Turks-Meskhetians’ families, which were artificially settled there
by the Azerbaijani authorities.

The Azerbaijani propaganda tries to introduce the betrayal of the
Khojaly civilians by their high-rank compatriots as the Armenians’
revenge for the bloody orgy in Sumgait.

But, the remarks and assessments of the Khojaly events by some
Azerbaijani top officials, human rights activists, and journalists
refute flatly the false thesis of official Baku. Thus, Azerbaijani
human rights activist Arif Yunusov wrote: "The town and its citizens
were deliberately made victims of the political goal to prevent the
Azerbaijani Popular Front’s coming to power" (Azerbaijani Zerkalo
newspaper, July 1992).

Tamerlan Karayev, in due time Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the
Azerbaijani Republic (now AR Ambassador to India), testified: "The
tragedy was implemented by the Azerbaijani authorities", specifically
"some of the top officials" (Mukhalifat Azerbaijani newspaper, April
28, 1992).

Heydar Aliyev admitted himself that "the former leadership of
Azerbaijan is also guilty" of the Khojaly events. According to
Bilik-Dunyasi Agency, still in April 1992 he expressed a cynically
monstrous idea: "The bloodshed will do good to us. We shouldn’t
interfere in the course of the events". Did the "father" of Azerbaijan
bear the responsibility for these words?

Czech journalist Yana Mazalova who, by the Azerbaijanis’ oversight,
found herself in both groups of the mass media representatives, which
were shown the "corpses defiled by Armenians", noted a sufficient
difference in the latters’ condition. Visiting the field immediately
after the events, Mazalova didn’t see any traces of barbarity on the
corpses. And two days later, the journalists were shown the disfigured
bodies already "prepared" for filming.

The Russian Megalopolis-Express newspaper wrote: "We cannot but admit
that if the Azerbaijani Popular Front had really far-reaching goals,
so it has achieved them. Mutalibov is compromised and dismissed,
the international community is shocked, the Azerbaijanis and the
friendly Turks believed in the so-called "genocide of the Azerbaijani
population in Khojaly".

As it is known, still on February 26, 47 Armenian hostages were kept
in Khojaly, which is deliberately concealed by the Azerbaijani mass
media. After liberating Khojaly, there were only 13 of them (among
them 6 women and a child), while the rest 34 were taken away in an
unknown direction by the Azerbaijanis. So far, there is no information
about there further fate. We only know that they were taken away from
the village in the operation night, but they didn’t enter Aghdam.

It is evident that those who wanted to make a semblance of the corpses’
defilement by Armenians disfigured, first of all, the bodies of the
Armenian hostages in order that they couldn’t be identified.

Just for this purpose, the majority of the corpses were undressed, and
just for this purpose, the victims’ bodies were exposed to outrages,
which changed them out of all recognition.

Proceeding from the abovementioned facts, we can confidently state
that the Azerbaijani party is guilty of the death of the civilians of
Khojaly and the Armenian hostages kept there, and that the Azerbaijani
party committed a monstrous crime against its own people for the sake
of its political intrigues and struggle for power.

It is already obvious for everybody that the "genocide" of Azerbaijanis
in Khojaly is a myth created still by Heydar Aliyev and taken up by his
throne-successor Aliyev-the-junior in order to draw the international
community’s attention away from the massacre of Armenians in Sumgait,
Baku, Kirovabad, and many other populated-by-Armenians settlements,
as well as to conceal the political, humanitarian, military, economic,
and other penal offences of the Azerbaijani leadership against Armenian
civilians and against its own people".