XOCALI A CENTURY AGO

Two stories, two different recollections…And, it would seem, distant from one another in time, too. One story was told in 1906 and the other in 2012, but there is much that connects them.

Let us begin with the recollections of the eminent Azerbaijani writer, teacher and philosopher, Ahmad bay Agaoglu, which were published in the Irsad newspaper on 25 September, 1906, issue No 225. He writes about a journey to Karabakh, or more precisely to Susa, a little corner of paradise where he was born and bred. Ahmad bay's impressions are no source of joy: "…Communications between the town (Susa) and Agdam, one could say, had been severed. Only the powers-that-be and the military brass could travel along this road. Nobody else dared to pass through Askaran. Before setting off for the town we informed General Goloshchapov by telegram and, despite the dangers, set off on our journey.

The mountain slopes along this dangerous road were draped in greenery and flowers. Although summer was nearing its end, it was a picture of scenic beauty. It was only the Muslim (Turkic) villages that had been razed to the ground that marred this beauty."

"…The road to Susa lies along the right hand side of the mountains through a narrow gorge, with a long wall stretching out from right to the left of it. This wall had been built by the late Karabakh khan, Panah, to protect Susa from its enemies. Deploying from ten to twenty men from both sides of this gorge was enough to close the road to a whole army.

And it was during the war that the Armenians sent detachments here and blocked the road to the Muslims. But this was not enough for General Goloshchapov and to support the Armenians and isolate the Muslims in Susa…he sent a hundred Cossacks here to Askaran!

And so we arrived at the post office named Xocali. This post office was named after a neighbouring village which existed here only a year ago. Today nothing remains, even the fire places have been ripped out of the earth. The Armenians plundered the village.

Along the way we came across some Muslim villagers who were on their way down from the summer pastures. They all railed against the Armenians and the Cossacks. One had a sheep stolen, another a horse, another a camel. They were tortured at every turn. And everywhere the Armenians and the Cossacks waved their weapons about.  In fear of the Armenian daggers and bombs, not only government officials and statesmen, but the military, too, cooperated with them!

Most of the nomads' complaints were linked with the "Aga kerpusu" (Aga bridge) township. …From the nearby home of Doctor Atabekyan came armed gangs who, brandishing their weapons, robbed the people of their cattle. Dr Atabekyan's house was a real palace. Along with the mill, it was built on a hill above the bridge. What is strange is that this palace was given to the very doctor by the late Xursudbanu, Panah khan's great grand-daughter, but now this house donated by the Muslims had been turned into a lair, bringing thousands of disasters and catastrophes to the Muslims! Such are the grim lessons and bitter results of our past mistakes!!"

And now the story of a resident of Xocali, Ismail Cavadov, which he shared with us 20 years after the genocide committed by the Armenians:

"Conflicts between the Armenians and the Azerbaijanis have occurred at various times. Xocali had been sacked by the Armenians three times before this - in 1905, 1918 and 1950. I remember my childhood. The old folk in our village called their fellow villagers who had been mercilessly killed by the Armenians by their names. But I never once heard from them that the Armenians were our enemies, beware of them. Our people do not forget history but they are magnanimous and compassionate, even to an enemy. Let us own up to this.

In Agderin (in Soviet times this district was called Mardakert) District the Armenians once set up a monument to mark the 150th anniversary of their resettlement in Karabakh. But after 1988, when they openly spoke of their territorial claims, they destroyed their own memorial. In other words, they destroyed proof of an historical truth. But this is not such ancient history that it cannot be remembered only from monuments and the tablets on them.

Xocali's strategic positions and its location on the road to Susa, between Xankandi and Askaran, made this a more attractive town to the Armenians. At the end of the 1980s Xocali provided its first martyr - the Armenians killed one of our police officers by the Askaran wall. Things went from bad to worse, but we never thought that Xocali would be taken. The war went on, but I built myself a new home. The town developed rapidly, which annoyed the Armenians. Before the February 1992 tragedy there were 7,000 people living in Xocali and no-one ever thought of leaving. It is true, things were a bit chaotic. There weren't many weapons or ammunition, and combat training was poor. There was a big difference in strength. The Armenians had the 366th motor-rifle regiment of the former USSR, whereas Xocali was defended by just a self-defence detachment armed with sub-machine guns and hunting rifles, local police and a national army that still hadn't been completely formed.

By February 1992 Xocali was in a complete blockade. All approaches to the town were cut off, and after the Armenians shot down a civilian helicopter near Susa, as a result of which 40 people were killed, air communications with the town were also disrupted. From 2 January electricity supplies to the town were suspended. Food supplies slowed down. Xocali became isolated from the rest of Azerbaijan. In the night of 25 - 26 February Armenian gangs, assisted by the 366th regiment deployed in Xankandi, switched to the offensive against the besieged, unarmed and helpless Xocali. The town found itself under heavy artillery shelling and by five o'clock on the morning of the 26th everything was ablaze. The Armenians were attacking from three directions and people were fleeing towards Askaran to cross to Agdam. But it wasn't to be. At the village of Naxcivanik an Armenian ambush was waiting for us. Having blocked the only way to safety they began mercilessly setting about innocent people. Only a few managed to hide in the mountains and the forests, and those died from the frost later. Aided by helicopters and wearing white camouflage, the Armenians chased people into the forests and when they found them either took them hostage or tortured or killed them.

During the capture of Xocali my younger sister Raya, her 19-year old son Zahid and Elmar's wife were unable to leave the town. Hiding in the basement of the building, they waited for things to quieten down. Then they fought their way out of the town, hiding between the vines. They had hardly reached the highway leading from Askaran to Xanabad by morning when they noticed the Armenians leading their fellow villagers - men, women, the elderly and children - hostage. And all this heart-wrenching activity was accompanied by humiliation and abuse of the hostages, especially the women. Unable to contain himself, Elmar threw himself at the Armenians and they shot him. The Armenians spilt the blood of many innocent people. They were particularly brutal with anyone in military uniform. To this day nothing is known of the fate of our Zahid who was taken prisoner.

Bahram, my elder sister's son, who lived in Camilli (not far from Xocali) was also killed by the Armenians, and my father Klaris, a veteran of World War II, was wounded. The losses were high, but still better to have two martyrs in each family than to lose one's land. That is why I consider my 20 years of life without Xocali to have been lost…"

Today the Armenians shout at the tops of their voices about the so-called "genocide" against them in Ottoman Turkey. We call upon international organizations to draw attention to fresh reports by the foreign media about the atrocities committed by the Armenians in Xocali in 1992!

All over the world people have seen pictures of Armenians refusing to provide helicopters to take the dead bodies of the people of Xocali which are strewn all over the surrounding steppes. Local and foreign journalists who have been there were literally horrified by what they saw: corpses with numerous bullet wounds had been scalped, dismembered, crushed by heavy equipment, set on fire and their eyes gouged out.

As the Russian human-rights centre Memorial reported at the time, the bodies of 200 Azerbaijanis, dozens of whom had been desecrated, had been delivered to Agdam over four days. Forensic examinations of 194 bodies (130 men, 51 women and 13 children) showed that 151 people were shot, 20 died from shrapnel wounds and ten from blows by a blunt instrument. The human-rights centre also recorded cases where the scalp had been removed from living people and other manifestations of a sadistic attitude to the hostages by the Armenians. And this is by no means a complete list of the horrific crimes against the peaceful population of the Azerbaijani town.

It is not by chance that the foreign press compared the Xocali massacre with the genocide in Khatyn, Lidice and Oradour.

AT THE BEGINNING OF THE CENTURY

"And so we arrived at the post office named Xocali. This post office was named after a neighbouring village which existed here only a year ago. Today nothing remains, even the fire places have been ripped out of the earth. The Armenians plundered the village".

Ahmad AGAOGLU 

(Irsad newspaper, 25 September, 1906)

AT THE END OF THE CENTURY

February, 1992. Armenian gangs, assisted by the 366th regiment deployed in Xankandi, switched to the offensive against the besieged, unarmed and helpless Xocali. The town found itself under heavy artillery shelling and by five o'clock on the morning of the 26th everything was ablaze.

THE GENOCIDE IN XOCALI:TERRIBLE STATISTICS

613 people killed. Including 106 women, 83 children and 70 old people

56 people killed with particular brutality

Eight families completely wiped out

130 children deprived of one parent

25 children deprived of both parents

Over 1,000 people disabled, including 76 adolescents

1,275 people taken hostage

150 people missing

THE XOCALI GENOCIDE IN THE WORLD MEDIA

The "Krua I Eveneman" (Paris) magazine, February, 1992: "The Armenians attacked Xocali. The whole world saw disfigured corpses."

Sunday Times (London), 1 March, 1992: "Armenian soldiers destroyed thousands of families."

The Times (London), 4 March, 1992: "Many were maimed, and all that was left of one little girl was her head."

Izvestiya (Moscow), 4 March, 1992: "The video camera showed children with their ears cut off. One old woman had half her face cut off. Men had been scalped."

Financial Times (London), 14 March, 1992: "General Polyakov said that 103 Armenian servicemen of the 366th regiment remained in Nagornyy Karabakh."

Le Monde (Paris), 14 March, 1992: "Foreign journalists in Agdam saw among the dead women and children in Xocali three who had been scalped and their fingernails pulled off. This is not Azerbaijani propaganda, but reality."

Izvestiya (Moscow), 13 March, 1992: "Major Leonid Kravets: I myself saw about 100 corpses on a hill. One boy was headless. Everywhere you could see the bodies of women, children and old people killed with particular brutality."

Valer Aktuel magazine (Paris), 14 March, 1992: "In this autonomous region Armenian military formations, together with immigrants from the Middle East, possess modern military equipment, including helicopters. The ASALA has military camps and weapons dumps in Syria and Lebanon. The Armenians wiped out the Azerbaijanis of Karabakh, organizing a massacre in over 100 Muslim villages."

R.Patrick, a journalist of the British Fant Men News TV company, who visited the site: "The evil deeds in Xocali cannot be justified in any way in the eyes of the world community."