Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar. 14
By Anakhanum Hidayatova – Trend:
Armenians must first be released from the ‘concentration camps’ they have been living in for 25 years so that they can freely express their opinion, the Armenian human rights activist Vage Avetyan, who lives in Sweden, said.
He made the remarks in Baku Mar. 14 at a conference titled “The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict: Origins, Peacemaking and the Role of Civil Society.”
Avetyan said that when he was in Baku in 2016, he honored the memory of the victims of the genocide committed by the Armenian Armed Forces against the peaceful population of the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly on Feb. 25-26, 1992.
On February 25-26, 1992, the Armenian armed forces, together with the 366th infantry regiment of the former 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 as a result of the massacre. A total of 1,000 civilians became disabled as a result of the onslaught. Some 1,275 innocent residents were taken hostage, while the fate of 150 people still remains unknown.
The human rights activist noted that many Armenian public figures and ordinary people support his visiting the monument erected in Baku in the memory of the Khojaly victims, though one can become disabled or even be killed in Armenia for having a different opinion regarding this tragedy.
Avetyan added that many people in Armenia understand that the power in the country is in the hands of a criminal group, and not everyone supports Yerevan’s policy regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
He said that mass propaganda and all its technologies were used to manipulate the opinion of the Armenian people.
Everyone in Armenia wants peace, Avetyan said, adding that the relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia must be restored step by step.
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.
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.
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