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  • Events In Khojaly (Nkr) And Near Agdam

    EVENTS IN KHOJALY (NKR) AND NEAR AGDAM

    http://www.nkrusa.org/nk_conflict/khojaly.shtml
    on February 25-27, 1992
    Download Khojaly Fact Sheet

    Khojaly is also often spelled as Xocali, Khojaly, Khodzhaly, Khojalu,
    Khocalu, Khocali, Khocaly

    Azerbaijan turned Khojaly into a launch pad for indiscriminate
    bombardment of Karabakh

    In 1991 and early 1992, Azerbaijan used an Azeri inhabited village
    of Khojaly in Nagorno Karabakh as a launching pad for indiscriminate
    artillery and rocket fire on Stepanakert, the capital of the Nagorno
    Karabakh Republic (NKR), located only a short 15-minute drive from
    Khojaly. By the end of February 1992, intensive fire from Khojaly and
    other Azeri military strongholds in Karabakh had killed 243 people,
    including 14 children and 37 women, and wounded 491, including 53
    children and 70 women. In addition, systematic and intense artillery
    and rocket fire against civilian targets in Stepanakert paralyzed
    the city, destroying hospitals, administrative buildings, schools,
    and homes. By controlling Khojaly, Azerbaijan also prohibited access
    to Karabakh's airport, the only link with the outside world, which was
    used to bring food and medical aid. Furthermore, Khojaly was also used
    as a staging area for military offensives on Stepanakert and nearby
    Armenian-populated villages. Thus, Khojaly became a legitimate military
    target for Self-Defense Forces of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic.

    Legitimate target for NKR Self-Defense Units

    In early January 1992, Nagorno Karabakh authorities decided to
    neutralize this military target and informed the Azeris. The
    NKR authorities also transmitted this information by radio, TV,
    loudspeakers, leaflets and other methods to warn the Khojaly civilian
    population of the upcoming operation, giving the civilian population
    an opportunity to exit the area through a safe corridor. Azerbaijan's
    leadership in Baku, as well as local authorities, and military
    commanders in Khojaly knew about the corridor, its width and
    direction. Both Azerbaijani President Ayaz Mutalibov and Khojaly Mayor
    Elman Mamedov in their 1992 interviews confirmed this fact. During
    two weeks leading to the Khojaly operation, NKR Self-Defense Forces
    observed a mass exodus of the civilian population from Khojaly through
    the provided corridor (see on the map).

    The operation to neutralize Khojaly base of the Azeri armed forces
    began at 11:00 PM on February 25 and was successfully completed within
    five hours. Nagorno Karabakh forces took full control of the area,
    killing dozens of military personnel during the operation.

    Unfortunately, 11 civilians became unintended victims. About 700
    civilians and military surrendered to NKR Self-Defense Forces. The
    captured civilians were returned to Azerbaijan in the following days,
    while the military personnel was later exchange for the Armenian
    military prisoners and civilian hostages held by Azerbaijan.

    Events on the territory controlled by Azerbaijan, 7 miles from Khojaly,
    after the Khojaly operation was over

    Map of the Events in Khojaly (NKR) and near Agdam (Azerbaijan) on
    February 25-27, 1992 [ view large map ]

    When the military operation began in Khojaly, a large group of
    civilians and armed military personnel from Khojaly used the provided
    humanitarian corridor to exit the battlefield and began moving in the
    direction of the Azeri- controlled Agdam. Near Nakhichevanik village
    of Karabakh (outside of the provided corridor), the group provoked
    a gun battle with the defenders of Nakhichevanik, which resulted in
    numerous death on both sides. On February 28 and early March 1992,
    in the area then fully controlled by Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani and
    Turkish journalists videotaped images of the hundreds of killed and,
    during the second video shooting session, also mutilated bodies.

    Since then, official Baku has falsified the events and used the
    human tragedy to persistently fan anti-Armenian hysteria to demonize
    the Armenian people in the eyes of the Azeris and the international
    community. It used the images to incite anti-Armenian sentiment and
    intolerance, which resulted in murders and calls from Azeris to wipe
    out Armenians as an ethnic group.

    Conclusion

    Responsibility for the tragic loss of civilian life on February 26-27,
    1992 on the outskirts of Agdam, territory fully controlled by Azeri
    forces, lies with the political and military leadership of Azerbaijan.

    First, the Azeri leadership used the territory of Khojaly for
    indiscriminate artillery attacks on civilian targets, thus turning
    the town into a legitimate military target for NKR Self-Defense Forces.

    Second, the Azeri leadership intentionally prevented the civilian
    population from leaving the militarized village.

    Third, the Azeri leadership failed to safely relocate civilians
    from Khojaly after public warnings of upcoming military operation,
    although it had many opportunities to do so.

    Fourth, retreating Azeri forces provoked an exchange of fire with NKR
    Self-Defense Forces some five miles from Khojaly, which resulted in
    losses on both sides.

    Fifth, those who had continued, full access to the site of reported
    close-range, mass killing are responsible for it. The reported killing
    of hundreds of civilians with incidences of barbaric mutilation of
    bodies took place near Agdam (some seven miles from Khojaly), on
    the territory controlled by Azeri forces. Free access to the site by
    Azeri and Turkish journalists is clear evidence to that end.

    In addition, Azerbaijan continues to create ground for a prolonged
    human tragedy by inciting anti-Armenian sentiments and intolerance in
    Azeri society. Such a policy stalls efforts to build bridges between
    Armenian and Azeri people and achieve eventual, long-lasting peace
    between Azerbaijan and Nagorno Karabakh.

    * * *

    Background data, journalistic investigation and academic research
    materials to support the above information are available at the NKR
    Office and can be provided on-demand.

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    In the course of discussing the issue "On Violation of Human Rights and
    Main Freedoms throughout the World" at the fifty-seventh session of
    the UN Commission on Human Rights, the Armenian delegation submitted
    to the Chairman of the UN Commission on Human Rights information on
    the real events of February 1992, which was spread as an official
    document of the fifty-seventh session of the aforementioned Commission.

    The text of the document is given below.

    THE TRUTH ABOUT THE EVENTS IN KHOJALY Evidence from Azerbaijani
    sources For nine years after the events in Khojaly official Baku
    has been obstinately fanning anti-Armenian hysteria with the aim of
    falsifying real events and discrediting the Armenian people in the
    eyes of the international community.

    The events in Khojaly, which led to the death of civilians, were
    the results solely of political intrigues and a struggle for power
    in Azerbaijan.

    The real reasons are most convincingly reflected in the accounts
    of Azerbaijanis themselves - as participants in and eyewitnesses of
    what happened - as well as of those who know the whole inside story
    of the events in Baku.

    According to Azerbaijani journalist M. Safarogly, "Khojaly occupied
    an important strategic position. The loss of Khojaly was a political
    fiasco for Mutalibov". 1

    Khojaly, along with Shushi and Agdam, was one of the main strongholds
    from which Stepanakert, the capital of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic,
    was shelled continuously and mercilessly for three winter months
    using artillery and missiles and launchers for targeting cities.

    Knocking out the weapon emplacements in Khojaly and freeing the
    airport were the only way for the inhabitants of the Nagorno Karabakh
    Republic to ensure the physical survival of a population condemned by
    Azerbaijan to complete annihilation. The daily shelling of Stepanakert
    from nearby Khojaly took the lives of peaceful inhabitants - women,
    children and old people.

    Former President of Azerbaijan, Ayaz Mutalibov, has emphasized that
    "...

    the assault on Khojaly was not a surprise attack"2. In a "Nezavisimaya
    gazeta" newspaper interview he stated that "a corridor was kept open
    by the Armenians for people to leave"3. However, a column of civilians
    was fired on by armed units of the Popular Front of Azerbaijan on the
    approaches to the Agdam district border, a fact later confirmed by Ayaz
    Mutalibov, who linked this criminal act to attempts by the opposition
    to remove him from power, and blamed it entirely for what happened.

    In his recent interview with the "Novoye vremya" magazine, Mutalibov
    confirms his statement of nine year ago: "The shooting of the Khojaly
    residents was obviously organized by someone to take control in
    Azerbaijan"4.

    Similar comments and views concerning the events in Khojaly are known
    to have been made by several other highly-placed Azerbaijani officials
    and journalists.

    There is, moreover, the conclusion of Azerbaijani journalist Arif
    Yunusov, which differs somewhat from the previous statements: "The
    town and its inhabitants were deliberately sacrificed for a political
    purpose - to prevent the Popular Front of Azerbaijan from coming to
    power"5. In this case, though, the Azerbaijanis themselves are named
    as the perpetrators of the tragedy.

    What resulted from the betrayal of the inhabitants of Khojaly by their
    own highly placed compatriots is well known. Azerbaijani propaganda
    has railed to the whole world about the "atrocities of the Armenians",
    supplying television stations with horrendous pictures of a field
    strewn with mutilated bodies. Khojaly is claimed to have been the
    "Armenians' revenge for Sumgait".

    Tamerlan Karayev, at one time Chairman of the Supreme Council of the
    Azerbaijan Republic, bears witness: "The tragedy was committed by
    the authorities of Azerbaijan", and specifically by "someone highly
    placed"6.

    The Czech journalist Jana Mazalova, who by an oversight of
    the Azerbaijanis was included in both of the groups of press
    representatives to be shown the "bodies mutilated by the Armenians",
    noted a substantial difference in the two cases. When she went to
    the scene immediately after the events, Mazalova did not see any
    traces of barbarous treatment of the bodies. Yet a couple of days
    later the journalists were shown disfigured bodies already "prepared"
    for pictures.

    Who killed the peaceful inhabitants of Khojaly and then mutilated their
    bodies, if the tragedy occurred not in a village taken by Armenians
    or on the route of the humanitarian corridor, but on the approaches
    to the town of Agdam - on territory fully controlled by the Popular
    Front of Azerbaijan?

    The independent Azerbaijani cameraman Chingiz Mustafayev, who took
    pictures on 28 February and 2 March 1992, had doubts about the official
    Azerbaijani version and began his own inquiry. The journalist's very
    first report to the Moscow news agency "D-press" on the possible
    complicity of the Azerbaijani side in the crimes cost Mustafayev his
    life: he was killed nor far from Agdam, under circumstances that are
    still unexplained.

    The current President of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, himself recognized
    that Azetbaijan's "former leadership was also guilty" of events in
    Khojaly. Already in April 1992, according to the agency Bilik-Dunyasy,
    he had commented as follows: "The bloodshed will be to our advantage.

    We should not interfere in the course of events". To whose "advantage"
    was the bloodshed is clear to everyone. "Megapolis-Express" wrote:
    "It cannot be denied that if the Popular Front of Azerbaijan actually
    set far-reaching objectives, they have been achieved. Mutalibov has
    been compromised and overthrown, public opinion worldwide has been
    shaken, and the Azerbaijanis and their Turkish brethren have believed
    in the so-called "genocide of the Azerbaijani people in Khojaly"7.

    One other tragic detail. It has become clear since the events that 47
    Armenian hostages were already being held on 26 February in "peaceful"
    Khojaly, a fact that the Azerbaijani mass media "covering" the tragedy
    have failed to mention. After the liberation of Khojaly only 13
    hostages (including 6 woman and 1 child) were found there, the other
    34 having been taken away by the Azerbaijanis to an unknown location.

    The only thing known about them is that they were led from the village
    on the night of the operation, but never reached Agdam. There is
    still no information concerning what eventually happened to them or
    confirming that they continued to be held captive by the Azerbaijanis.

    Obviously, those who wanted to create the impression that bodies had
    been mutilated by the Armenians first of all disfigured the bodies
    of those same Armenian hostages, in order to make it impossible to
    identify them. Precisely for that purpose the outer clothing was
    removed from many of the bodies and precisely for that reason the
    bodies of the unfortunate victims were damaged so badly that they
    became unrecognizable.

    In the light of the above facts it may confidently be said that the
    killing of peaceful inhabitants of the village of Khojaly and of the
    Armenian hostages being held there was the work of the Azerbaijani
    side, which committed this crime against its own people in the name
    of political intrigues and the struggle for power.

    _________________________________________________

    1. "Nezavisimaya gazeta" newspaper, February 1993 2. "Ogonek" magazine,
    Nos. 14-15, 1992 3. "Nezavisimaya gazeta" newspaper, 2 April 1992
    4. "Novoye vremya" magazine, 6 March 2001 5. "Zerkalo" newspaper, July
    1992 6. "Mukhalifat" newspaper, 28 April 1992 7. "Megapolis-Express",
    No. 17, 1992

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