23 YEARS LATER FORMER PRESIDENT OF AZERBAIJAN AGAIN BLAMES POLITICAL OPPONENTS FOR AGHDAM EVENTS IN 1992
13:00 04/03/2015 >> SOCIETY
The site goes on revealing the falsifications of Azerbaijani
propaganda over the events in Aghdam in 1992. The site made public
the former Azerbaijani president Ayaz Mutallibov’s interview
given to the Turkish
service of TV channel Al Jazeera. There he speaks about the reasons
of Khojalu tragedy, political processes of those times and noteworthy
aspects.
Mutallibov’s comments on the events around Khojalu are of particular
interest. Remarkably, Azerbaijani ex-president’s thoughts are in tune
with those he expressed in his 1992 interview to Nezavisimaya Gazeta
(Independent Newspaper) where he blamed those events on his political
opponents. See Mutallibov’s words without changes below:
Al Jazeera: The massacre in Khojalu took place during your presidency.
Would it be possible to prevent the events in Khojalu?
Ayaz Mutallibov: The events in Khojalu had a really grave influence on
the Azerbaijani people. The Azerbaijani people fell under psychological
pressure at that time, and those people, wounded, scared, forcefully
turned against me incited by the People’s Front. As I was the
president, and they told me: why didn’t you protect them?
Al Jazeera: Why didn’t you protect them?
Ayaz Mutallibov: How was I to protect them? Were we fighting in
Karabakh? And Khojalu was situated in Karabakh. Could we enter
Karabakh? No.
Al Jazeera: Why couldn’t you enter Karabakh? Wasn’t there enough
support, armed forces?
Ayaz Mutallibov: There was, there was everything. Put in other words,
the aim was to cross the border of Aghdam district, neighboring
Askeran. To protect the refugees it was just necessary to get in
front of them there, we had everything.
Al Jazeera: Why didn’t you succeed?
Ayaz Mutallibov: Because there was race for power (cannot conceal
anger – note). The worse for Mutallibov, the better for the political
structures opposing Mutallibov. Yes, yes… that is what our national
concept is. Yes…
It is noteworthy that Mutallibov tricks in an attempt to convince the
reader that there was no access to Karabakh. Shushi was in Karabakh as
well; still Azerbaijani troops were deployed there and from there daily
shelled Stepanakert full of women and children, including refugees who
had lost their homes as a result of another ‘non-military’ operation –
Ring. The Azerbaijani militarized formations not only ‘could’, but
they also repeatedly entered Karabakh intending to exterminate the
Armenian population.
On February 26, 1992, during the war in Karabakh, around 200 to 300
people (according to Human Rights Watch, and 600 according to the
version propagated by Azerbaijan) were killed in unknown circumstances
near the city of Aghdam. They have been deliberately withheld by the
Azerbaijani authorities in the midst of the military actions.
Population of the village of Khojalu, which was one of the firing
points shooting at the blockaded Stepanakert (among five others)
was kept in the village for months by force and was not evacuated by
the authorities of Azerbaijan deliberately, in order to use them as
human shields later.
Residents of Khojalu coming out through the humanitarian corridor,
that the self-defense forces of NKR had left open, freely passed more
than 10 km and reached the Aghdam city controlled by the Azerbaijani
troops. Later, not far from the positions of Azerbaijani troops dead
bodies of the villagers were found. The exact death toll remains
unknown as the official Baku publishes data contradicting each other.
Parliamentary Commission investigating the tragic death of the
civilians at Aghdam city was dissolved by the order of Heydar Aliyev,
the investigative materials are kept secret.