Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb.26 / Trend /
Armenian military forces committed genocide acts in the town of Khojaly, Azerbaijan, with the population of 7,000 people on Feb.26, 1992. There were 3,000 people in the town at the time of Armenian military forces' attack.
Most part of the population had to leave town during four months blockade. 613 people were killed, 1,000 peaceful people of different age became invalid during Khojaly genocide.
106 women, 63 children, 70 old men were killed. 8 families were completely annihilated, 130 children lost one parent, while 25 both lost both parents. 1,275 peace residents were taken hostages, while the fate of 150 of them is still unknown.
These acts were committed by Armenian military with special mercilessness and inconceivable barbarism. Second battalion of 366th regiment under the command of Major Seyran Ohanian, third battalion under the command of Yevgeniy Nabokhin, staff chief of 1st battalion Chitchyan Valeriy and more than 50 officers and ensigns, serving in regiment took part in the attack. ("From the investigation materials concerning Khojaly occupation").
A part of town residents, who attempted to flee, were ambushed and killed by Armenians. According to the Russian remedial centre Memorial, 200 corpses have been brought from Khojali to Agdam within 4 days. Facts of humiliation were discovered on the bodies.
Forensic examination in Aghdam was performed on 181 corpses (130 men and 51 women). The outcome of the examination revealed that 151 people were killed as a result of fatal bullet wounds, 20 people died from missile wounds, 10 more were killed with blunt instruments. Facts of scalping people alive were also discovered.
The Khojaly genocide has become of the most terrible and tragic pages of Azerbaijan history.
Azerbaijani people have endured ethnic cleansing and genocide by Armenian nationalist-chauvinists for 200 years. The people of Azerbaijan were deported from their historical lands and became refugees and internally displaced persons because of Armenian occupation.
Azerbaijanis were also forced from their historical lands during the Soviet period. 150,000 Azerbaijanis were deported from Armenia and placed in the Kur-Araz plain from 1948-1953.
250,000 Azerbaijanis were forced from their historical territories in 1988 and Armenia became a mono-ethnical state. The Nagorno-Karabakh events, which began in 1988 along with continuous efforts to implement the Armenian desire of building a state from sea to sea, led to the destruction of towns and villages, murder of thousands of innocent people, as well as the exile of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis from their native lands.
The Armenian government wanted to annex Nagorno-Karabakh despite international legal norms and demonstrates their readiness to resort to any kind of crime and barbarism for the sake of its ideology.
The Khojaly genocide - the tragedy of the 20th century - was a result of this aggressive and criminal policy. This tragedy, which took place in the 20th century was one of the most serious crimes not only against the people of Azerbaijan, but humanity as a whole. The Khojaly genocide is comparable to the genocides in Khatin, Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Songmi.
Why did Armenians pick Khojaly? On one hand that was the liquidation of the strategic hindrance in the form of Azerbaijani residents of the mountainous part of Nagorno-Karabakh. On the other hand that was the razing of Khojaly to the ground, because Khojaly was an inhabited place, which reflected the history and traditions of Azerbaijan since the ancient times.
This distinct culture is classified as Khojaly-Gadabay in the Azerbaijani history. Cromlechs, dolmens, cyclops, tumuluses of Khojaly, as well as different housing wares are the patterns of material culture that reflect the dynamics of social development. The destruction of all these material culture monuments and Khojaly graveyard - one of the most ancient cemeteries in history - after the Armenian occupation are obvious examples of Armenian barbarism and aggression against the world culture.
The city was rubbed off the face of the earth. Fifty-six people were brutally killed. They had been burned alive and beheaded. Their faces were skinned. Even the eyes of infants were gouged out, while the bellies of pregnant women had been sliced upon with bayonets.
Armenians desecrated the corpses. The events that took place during the Khojali tragedy can be called nothing less than inhuman and horrific.
Antiga, a Khojali resident, was burned alive because she refused to say the area "was part of Great Armenia."
Sariyya Talibova witnessed these horrific events: "They took us to an Armenian cemetery ... They sacrificed four Mehseti Turks and three Azerbaijanis over the grave of an Armenian... Later they brought two Azerbaijanis to the cemetery wearing an army uniform. They gouged out their eyes."
Forbidden bullets of 5.45 calibre and chemical weapons were used in Khojaly during the attack. All these facts prove that Armenia committed genocide against civil people, violating Geneva Convention protocol concerning war rules.
Khojaly genocide terrified journalists and publicists of Russia, Georgia, Great Britain, France, Germany, and the U.S.
International conventions, laws, passed in the world, criticize genocides like Khojaly tragedy and call them inadmissible. Azerbaijani nation has all legal base to bring suit against the Armenian Republic in the International court of the UN, guiding by convention "Warning and punishment of genocide crime".
The world must know that this crime was directed not only against Azerbaijani nation, but also against the whole civilized world.
People like Seyran Ohanian, Serj Sarkisyan, as well as Robert Kocharyan, holding high state posts in Armenia today, and others must answer before international court.
The crime should not remain without punishment. Armenian military-political aggression must be condemned by world community.
International organizations, parliaments of the world states must give political-legal appraisal of Khojaly genocide - military crime, committed by the Armenian Republic on the Azerbaijan territories.
The parliaments of several world countries made decisions recognizing the Khojaly genocide.
The required 100,000 people signed the petition on recognition of Khojaly tragedy posted on White House's official website.