BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 2. Investigations continue into terrorist acts and other grave crimes committed by Armenian illegal armed groups in the territory of Azerbaijan, Trend reports.
The State Security Service of Azerbaijan informed that Madat Babayan Arakeli, who was carrying an AKM machine gun, was caught and disarmed as a consequence of local anti-terrorist activities carried out in September 2023 in the village of Gozlukorpu in Azerbaijan's Kalbajar district. Babayan is suspected of committing terrorist acts with the aim of inciting national hatred as a member of an organized group of illegal armed groups.
During the investigation, the accused, Madat Babayan, noted in his testimony, among other things, that he was a participant in the Khojaly massacre in February 1992. Then, a member of Armenian armed formations consisting of Armenian residents of the Chapar, Gozlu, and Gozlukorpu villages, led by Lieutenant Colonel Arkadi Shirinyan of the Armenian Armed Forces, participated on February 24, 1992, in uniting in Tazabina village of Khojaly district with other Armenian militants - residents of Yaychi, Kheyvali, and Zaylik villages of Kalbajar district—to destroy Azerbaijani civilians in accordance with a pre-determined plan.
Heading from Khankendi towards Khojaly, Armenian militants ambushed and killed more than 150 unarmed civilians (most of them women, children, and elderly) fleeing towards the Askeran district at around 23:00 (GMT+4) on February 25, 1992. All the residents were shot on the spot with automatic weapons.
It should be noted that Madat Babayan, collecting the corpses of Azerbaijanis on February 26, 1992, noticed how Vamik Petrosyan, Shirin Shirinyan, and other members of the gang committed insulting actions over the bodies of the killed, as well as captured more than 100 civilians in
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