Baku, Azerbaijan, March 2

By Samir Ali – Trend:

Murderers of children, women, elderly people are among Armenia’s current leadership headed by Serzh Sargsyan, Elman Mammadov, an MP from Azerbaijan’s Khojaly town, told Trend March 2.

The MP said the confession by one of the leaders of the Armenian lobby on the Khojaly genocide during hearings on the 30th anniversary of the Sumgait events at the California State Senate, organized by the Armenian lobby in the US, was quite expected.

He said both officials and ordinary people in Armenia state that the Armenian government is leading the people into an abyss.

“There are also impartial people among them, and that is not bad,” the MP said. “In fact, the Armenians admitted on Feb. 27, 1992 that they were involved in the tragedy."

At that time, the Armenian criminal Zori Balayan confessed that he and his friend Khachatur tortured a little Turkic child in Khojaly by nailing him to a wall, said Mammadov.

“Another Armenian journalist from Lebanon confessed that the Khojaly genocide was committed by the Armenians,” Mammadov said. “Today, one of the leaders of the Armenian lobby confirms that the Armenian government, the Armenian Armed Forces committed the Khojaly genocide and the current Armenian leaders and their entourage took part in the genocide.”

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

On Feb. 25-26, 1992, the Armenian armed forces, together with the 366th infantry regiment of Soviet troops, stationed in Khankendi, committed an act of genocide against the population of the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly. As many as 613 people, including 63 children, 106 women and 70 old people were killed in the massacre. Eight families were totally exterminated, 130 children lost one parent and 25 children lost both. Some 1,275 innocent residents were taken hostage, while the fate of 150 people still remains unknown.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.