Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 26
Trend:
On Feb. 26, 2018, 26 years passed since the Khojaly genocide, one of the most terrifying tragedies of the 20th century, the crime carried out by the Armenian armed forces against Azerbaijani people. Russian media remembers the tragic events that happened on Feb. 25—26, 1992, and calls the international community for precautions to never allow such acts of terror to happen again.
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.
It should be noted that many Russian media sources published articles regarding the tragedy that struck Azerbaijan back in 1992.
The Argumenty Nedeli agency wrote in its “Remember Khojaly” article about the civilians being shot to death that cold and dark night, with many people drying from frost.
The social-political newspaper Tribune in its “All against all” article wrote that the world community must carry out certain lessons from this tragedy to prevent such atrocities from happening again, such as Armenia’s authorities being occupiers, a danger of flirting with them for the international community and a possibility of historical karma towards aggressors.
The author noted that the Khojaly genocide could never happen if the world community “played fair”.
The online agency FederalPress underlined in its “Anniversary of Khojaly massacre: terrifying page of history which shouldn’t be forgotten” article that the Khojaly genocide, which is considered to be one of the most cruel acts of violence in the 20th century, was aimed not only against Azerbaijan, but the whole humanity.
An author of the article noted that the tragedy terrified Russian, Georgian, English, French, German, American and other journalists and publicists and was noted by use of the prohibited 5.45 caliber bullets and chemical weapons.
The social-political newspaper Trud in its “Unlearnt lessons of Khojaly” article wrote that the world community hasn’t had enough diplomatic will and coherence in its attempts to resolve the conflict.
The Infox.ru informational agency asked “What Khojaly civilians died for?” in its same-named article.
The article underlined that there are many trying to silence down this crime, because the organizers of the mass-murder are still holding high positions in the Armenian government.
An author of the article described the violence with which the population of the city was slaughtered and quoted the incumbent Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan saying that “…before Khojaly, the Azerbaijanis thought that they were joking with us, they thought that the Armenians were people who could not raise their hand against the civilian population; we were able to break that stereotype”.
The internet newspaper Dni.ru in its “Khojaly Tragedy: Remember Forever” article wrote that armed people of one nationality shooting the civilians of other nationality is called genocide.
An author of the article cited Human Rights Watch calling the Khojaly events the largest massacre of the Karabakh War.
The author then wrote about the events in Azerbaijan’s cities dedicated to commemoration of the tragedy.