Press-release, 20 February 2006

KHOJALY GENOCIDE ONE OF MOST MONSTROUS

CRIMES OF XX CENTURY

 The night from February 25 to 26, 1992, went down the history of Azerbaijani people as a black date. A that night, Armenian armed groups supported by military personnel (predominantly consisting of Armenians) and hard armament of the infantry regiment #366 quartered since the Soviet times in the city of Khankendi, completely ruined the town of Khojaly.

Along with the acts of genocide committed in Khatyn, Lidice and Oradour, the Khojaly tragedy went down to history of civilization as a bloody event. This massacre committed by the Armenian aggressors against the Azerbaijani people led to death of 613 people, including 106 women, 63 children, 70 old men. There were 1275 innocent people who were taken hostages, with the fate of over 150 still remaining unknown.

According to the Russian human rights center “Memorial”, within four days, bodies of 200 Azerbaijanis killed in Khojaly were delivered to the Agdam region, with tens of corpses found abused. Forensic medical examination of 181 corpses (130 men, 51 women and 13 children) in Agdam established that they had died of bullet wounds (151), missile wounds (20) and blows with blunt objects (10). The human rights center also registered the person scalped alive.

As a result of this act of genocide, several families were completely annihilated, the people were exterminated with unprecedented cruelty, and those taken captives were subjected to ruthless torture.

That the actions mentioned above were deliberate and intended to completely or partially annihilate the people on the base of their ethnic belonging proves them, according to the international and domestic laws, to be an act of genocide. The evil deed and vandalism committed by the Armenian butchers must be regarded in the same way as the above-mentioned tragedies recognized by humankind as true genocide.

Peace-loving people all over the planet, the civilized nations, authoritative international organizations, and the global community should be aware of this bitter truth, and that crime against humanity should receive its legal assessment.
According to the international law, genocide is the act against the world and civilization, and regarded as the worst international crime. The UN Convention #260 (III) On the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide December 9, 1948 inured in 1961 defines legal bases of the crime of genocide. The Armenia’s aggression against Azerbaijan manifests all attributes of genocide enshrined in the Convention.

The policy of terrorism pursued by the country - aggressor has been taking place for many years before the very eyes of the global community even though, according to norms of international law, the principles of the United Nations and OSCE, inviolability of borders of the states must be treated with respect, and infringement of their territorial integrity and sovereignty is inadmissible. The UN Security Council accepted Four Resolutions on unconditional liberation of the occupied lands of Azerbaijan, but the aggressor - Armenia has been ignoring these resolutions.

The Khojaly tragedy became a follow-up and bloody page of the policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide pursued by the Armenian nationalists and their patrons against Azerbaijani people over almost two hundred years. This hostile policy has subjected our people to uncountable sufferings and disasters.

By committing the Khojaly genocide, the Armenian nationalists pursued the following purposes - to intimidate the people of Azerbaijan, to create panic among the people, break their determination to struggle, and make them put up with the fact of occupation of the lands. However, the cunning and ruthless enemy failed to reach its purpose. Defenders of Khojaly did not bow their heads in the struggle against the cruel enemy, and heroically battling have shown an example of devotion to the Motherland.

Speaking about the Khojaly tragedy, it is important to particularly note the feebleness and incompetence of that time’s Azerbaijan’s leadership and political forces then having serious impact on the situation within the country, their indifference to people’s fate. Bewaring of people’s anger, the authorities were trying to lessen the scale of the event, and made nothing to provide fast and detailed information about the bloody crime to the international community.

Since 1994, at the initiative of the nationwide leader Heydar Aliyev, the government and parliament of Azerbaijan have been carrying out successive work to bring the truth about the horrible crimes by Armenian nationalists against Azerbaijanis, including those committed in the Khojaly, and for all this to be recognized as act of genocide.

On the one hand, it is our human and civic duty to the memory of defenders and martyrs of Khojaly, and on the other one, it is an important condition for such severe crimes against humanity not to be repeated in the future.

The followings are excerpts from articles about Khojaly genocide published in foreign press:

“Krua I'Eveneman” (Paris), February 1992: “Armenians attacked Khojaly. The whole world witnessed disfigured corpses”.

“Sunday Times” (London), March 1, 1992: “Armenian soldiers kill thousand families”.

The Lebanese cameraman has confirmed that rich dashnak community of his country sends weapon and people to Karabakh.

“Izvestia” (Moscow), March 4, 1992: “The camera showed children with ears cut off. One old woman had half of her face cut off. Men were scalped”.

“The Financial Times” (London), March 14, 1992: “General Polyakov declared that 103 military men - Armenians of 366th regiment stayed in Nagorny Karabakh”.

“Le Mond” (Paris), March 14, 1992: “Foreign journalists saw among women and children killed in Khojaly, three scalped, with their nails pulled out. It is not Azerbaijan’s propaganda, but a reality”.

“Izvestia” (Moscow), March 13, 1992: “Major Leonid Kravets: “I saw about hundred corpses on the hill. One boy was found headless. Dead bodies of women, children and old men everywhere were seen to be killed with special cruelty.

“Valer aktuel” (Paris), March 14, 1992: “In this autonomous region, the Armenian military formations together with natives of the Middle East own modern military equipment, including helicopters. ASALA owns military camps and weapon storage in Syria and Lebanon. The Armenians have extinguished Azerbaijanis of Karabakh having arranged slaughter in over hundred Muslim settlements”.

R. Patrik, journalist with the “Fant men news” (he visited the place of incident): “Nothing can justify the evil deeds in Khojaly”.

The Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan has declared the 26th of February the “Day of Khojaly Genocide”. In this day, the whole Azerbaijan commemorates the victims of the Khojaly genocide.

Ousted from the homelands and scattered at 48 regions of Azerbaijan; today, the residents of Khojaly are living with the hope for fair settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, repulsing the Armenia’s aggression against Azerbaijan and restoration of territorial integrity of the country. They address the world nations, and international organizations urging them to defend truth and justice, and condemn the genocide committed in Khojaly.

The culprits, organizers and executors of the Khojaly genocide must be deservedly punished. That crime must not remain unpunished.

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