ARMINE ADIBEKYAN: AZERBAIJAN DOES NOT LOOK FOR JUSTICE IN AGHDAM EVENTS BUT INDULGENCY FOR FURTHER ATROCITIES AGAINST ARMENIANS
19:06 25/02/2015 >> SOCIETY
Panorama.am held an interview with the head of the “Xenophobia
Prevention Initiative” NGO, sociologist Armine Adibekyan.
– Each year at the end of February Azerbaijan with a widespread
propaganda marks the Aghdam events that took place in 1992, which
are called “Khojalu events”. How would you comment on this campaign?
– I will not relate again and again what happened that time, I’d like
to talk about what’s going on today. The arguments of the Armenian
side can be found in the film titled “Between hunger and fire”. And
if somebody needs it is possible to organize objective and rational
discussion with facts and not emotions, whims and wishes. But
this is not possible as it never has been before. The active and
uncontrollable replenishment of the emotional sphere is the the only
and primary challenge facing the Azerbaijani side, and they do it as
they can. The Armenian side has repeatedly called the for discussion.
– What is the grounded disposition of the Armenian side based on?
– We use only the Azerbaijani sources and the chronicle of those
years. We compare them with each other, and not with the “Armenian
version”. Our arguments are based also on the contradictions of
Azerbaijani propaganda. After all, the one who tells the truth
does not need to lie, to change the story and the testimonies. The
falsification of photographs is the tip of the iceberg. Everything
that is connected with the concept of “Khojalu” is being falsified –
starting with illustrations and lists ending with the testimony of
witnesses. At present they have are on a new type of retrospective
interpretation and presentation of facts. For example, Gyulali Binalu
who had been “in captivity” in an interview tells about “the horrors”
of captivity, where he was tortured by Robert Kocharyan. However,
he or maybe the journalists have forgotten that in February 1992,
he had given an interview and on the newsreel he did not leave the
impression of a man who had been tortured. By the way, the next
day, after the interview, this group of people was transferred
to the Azerbaijani side. And Robert Kocharyan not only did not
participate in the interrogations, but he was not present in the
newsreel either. Another “witness” in the film “When the sun went out”
gives evidence, but cannot exactly remember the name of her husband,
calling him Elmar Akhmedov Naib oglu, who, according to the official
list of the victims, at that time, February 26, 1992 was only 6 years
old. The third one, Panah Magerramov, says that he had his ear cut off,
while on the photograph accompanying the journalistic investigation,
we see that both of his ears are on their placec. And the photograph
clearly shows that these are his “native” ears, not prosthesis. What
can be expected from ordinary mortals, if “competent” people, such as
Ramiz Fataliyev (the chairman of the commission of on investigation of
the Khojaly tragedy at Milli Mejlis of Azerbaijan), after 23 years,
instead of talking about what they know and about the results of the
investigation, build their evidence based on “confessions of Zori
Balayan” or authoritatively’ claim via facebook that “there were
710 dead (instead of 613 yet unproven), and more than a hundred of
children”? I tried to contact Ramiz Fataliyev through Facebook in order
to get clarifications on topic, but received no response. By the way,
any attempt to get a response from “competent” people on specific
question remain in dead silence on certain allegations or facts.
– We would like to address the issue of falsifications in the lists
of those dead …
– The falsified lists of the dead in Khojalu have been studied back
in 2012 in details. It is important to note several vital points –
there are three official lists differing from one another; none of
them contains 613 names (available options are: 630 names, 601 names,
508 names); over 70% of the victims are men aged 18 to 60 years,
some of them have no relation to Khojalu at all – they have been
killed in another time and another place.
– And, nevertheless, the Azerbaijani side periodically threatens
to appeal to the International Court of Justice on wording “Khojalu
genocide.”
– As I said earlier, with such an approach and a collection of
“factual” materials they have nothing to go to court with, thus the
talks about the international court – the talks in favor of the poor,
as well as the threats are designed for the ignorant ones. Anyway,
if they are going to court with the facts that they have in their
hands then I will attend that court with pleasure.
As for the considering the events that took place as a genocide, which
supposes “total or partial physical destruction of an ethnic group”,
here there are a lot of white spots too. Azerbaijan’s population in
1992 was 7,324,100 people. They will have to try very hard to prove
that the death of three, even six hundred people, as the report of
the international organization “Human rights watch” reads, served a
threat to existence of an ethnic group that consisted of seven million
people. It is, I think, needless to say that basically members of
other ethnic groups like Meskhetian Turks, who were settled in the
epicenter of the battle deliberately, were killed.
They are not looking for justice, but a “victory”, as they understand
it, which over the time will give them a moral justification in the
eyes of the outside world for the atrocities and massacres planned
against the Armenians. Perhaps it is already giving, judging by the
statements of the first party of Azerbaijan, which are rather plain:
“We will avenge”, “Armenia must cease to exist,” “we’ll be back, we’ll
destroy and we’ll build our own one”. In particular, the main product
of propaganda in 2015 “Khojaly: A trial over Armenia” testifies this
fact. People, who want to reveal the truth and justice, would call
the book “The trial of the guilty.” But Armenia and the Armenians are
already considered as a culprit without trial or investigation. They
need not the true, but the indulgency.