KHOJALY: The chronicle of unseen forgery and falsification

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Ayaz Mutalibov’s interview

The first president of Azerbaijan recently gave an extremely
interesting interview to one of the Russian TV channels in which it is
narrated that the first president of Azerbaijan, who proclaimed the
independence of the country, at present is living in the outskirts of
Moscow in a state apartment, without a passport and livelihood.

An ordinary refugee with triumphal past and rather obscure future.
This is how the Azerbaijani treat their leaders when the power passes
to other hands.

According to the reportage: `The ruling class of the Alievs did
everything so that the citizens should consider Heydar Aliev to be the
founder of their country and should forget that they had ever had a
first president. It is already 15 years that Ayaz Mutalibov has been
wanted by the police in his country. Heydar Aliev accused him of
plotting coup d’etat. Mutalibov denies the accusation but does not
return to his homeland no to be taken to prison. He is considered as
an enemy in his motherland and Ayaz Mutalibov is not admitted even by
the Azerbaijani community in Moscow’.

`He ran to Moscow two months after his resignation and two days after
the feeble attempt to return to the President’s palace. When the armed
supporters of the opposition went out to the streets to demand the
president’s resignation, Mutalibov went to the Russian military
airport and, leaving his family in Baku, escaped from the country. Now
he avoids speaking about this fact, but it is certain that Mutalibov
preferred to save himself and only after several days his friends
took his family in cars first to Daghestan and then to Moscow. He has
been an exile since then: a guest to Russia, an enemy to Azerbaijan,
an enemy to Armenia’.

`The whole negative after the Khojaly tragedy was focused on me. I had
to take the whole responsibility upon myself though I was not guilty
of anything’, – claimed Ayaz Mutalibov in the interview. Let us remind
you that on the 2nd of April in 1992, in `Nezavisimaya gazeta’ Ayaz
Mutalibov gave an interview to an independent Czech journalist, Dana
Mazalova, who afterwards became persecuted in her own country. The
cause of all these trials was the excessive frankness of the first
president which cost him his impeachment. During the interview it
became quite clear that the Azerbaijani version of the Khojaly events
is none other than a well-planned provocation of the Azerbaijani.

The clan of the Alievs did not forgive Mutalibov for such frankness.

>From the interview of the former president of Azerbaijan Ayaz
Mutalibov to the Czech journalist Dana Mazalova, `Njvaya Gazeta’,
2.04.92

Question:What is your opinion about the KHOJALY events after which you
resigned? Dead bodies of the Khojaly inhabitants were found not far
from Aghdam. Someone first shot at legs so that people could not go
farther. Then he added the axe, on the 29th of February my colleagues
took photos of all this. Then during new sequences these very corpses
were scalped. A very strange game…

Answer: As the Khojali inhabitants, who narrowly escaped, say, it was
all organized in order to have ground for my resignation. Some forces
functioned for the effort to discredit the president. I don’t think
that Armenians, who always have a distinct and competent attitude
towards such situations, could have let the Azerbaijani get the
documents unmasking them in fascist actions. It could be supposed
that somebody is interested to show these sequences afterwards, at the
BC session and to focus everything on my person.

If I claim the Azerbaijani opposition to be guilty in it, they might
say that I am telling lies about them. However, the general background
of arguments is, that a corridor by which the people could leave, was,
nevertheless, left by Armenians. Why then would they begin to shoot?
Especially in the territory nearby Aghdam, where by that time there
had been enough forces to help the people. Or, just come to an
agreement that the civil population will leave. Such practice has
always been usual.

I have always been told that people in Khojaly hold themselves up and
it is necessary to support them with armaments, people and food. I
gave a commission to use helicopters for this purpose. However, the
pilots refused to fly there as they do not have special devices to
avoid stingers. Nearly a week passed. An Aghdam alignment was sttked
nearby to watch the developments there. As soon as the military forces
encircled Khojaly, it was necessary to evacuate the population.
Earlier such a commission was given by me concerning Shushi: to leave
men there and to take women and children off. These are also laws of
the war: you must save their lives. My behavior was unbiased and
fefinite: I gave such commissions but I have no idea why they were not
fulfilled. By the way, I spoke to Lazarian, the head of Military
Forces in Nagorno-Karabakh, several times: `You laid several people on
the ground. Give us an opportunity to take their bodies off here’. But
he replied that there must be no bodies, that our people are with them
and that they are fed there, though they are short of provisions, and
they are ready to exchange them with their hostages.

Question: When were you informed about those lost lives?

Answer: The next day after I was informed that there are just a few
killed people in Khojaly. The information came from the minister of
Home Affairs.

Question: Who was responsible for that information?

Answer: The minister himself. By that time a press-centre had been
established in the Ministry of Defense. After the story about the
helicopters we had an agreement that nobody would spread doubtful
information.

Question: Do you consider the Prime Minister Hasan Hasanov responsible, too?

Answer: The head of the government, of course, is responsible for
everything, though he refuses to have anything to do with such
questions. Well, the government is government.