AVENGED BUT NOT FORGOTTEN!

In February 1992, 29 years ago, Armenian invaders committed the most heinous war crime in the history of the 30 years old occupation of Azerbaijani territories. But today historical justice has been restored on our land. As a result of the 44-day war marked by the great victory of Azerbaijan, the return of the residents of Khojaly to their native land will also become inevitable.

No mercy for children, women and elderly people

The Khojaly genocide is one of the most tragic events in the history of Azerbaijan and the world.

On February 25-26, 1992, Armenian military groups with the support of heavy equipment and personnel of the 366th motorized rifle regiment of the former USSR completely destroyed the city of Khojaly in Garabagh. They showed no mercy for children, women and the elderly people… with at least 613 people brutally killed, including 106 women, 63 young children, 70 old people, 8 families completely destroyed, 487 people disabled, over 1275 taken as prisoners, 150 missing.

The Khojaly tragedy has become the most violent crime of the Armenian military in the Garabagh conflict. The only goal of Armenian barbarians were to destroy the city and to exterminate the people on ethnic grounds, followed by mutilation of the corpses. It is the Khojaly tragedy that was the basis of large-scale seizures of Azerbaijani lands in and around Daghlig Garabagh. By taking the lives of hundreds of unfortunate Khojaly residents killed because of their nationality, Armenian aggressors solved an important strategic task for themselves – control of the Khojaly airport and the corridor connecting Askeran and Khankendi.

Destruction of Khojaly was committed during the ongoing peace negotiations with the mediation of Iran. On February 25, Iranian Foreign Minister, Ali Akbar Velayati, met with the leadership of Azerbaijan in Baku. On February 27, he was going to visit Garabagh and then Armenia. The conflicting parties even agreed to a ceasefire from February 27 to March 1 to start a new round of negotiations. However, the Armenian side decided to exploit the vigilance of Baku and timed the treacherous act of extermination of the civilian population coincide with the three-day truce.

Images of the Khojaly residents scattered on the field shocked not only Azerbaijan. “Armenians attacked Khojaly. The whole world has witnessed the dismembered corpses,” wrote the French magazine L'Eveneman. Le Monde also wroteabout the tragedy in Khojaly: “Foreign journalists saw women and three scalped children with nails driven into them. This is not Azerbaijani propaganda; this are facts the reality!" The Sunday Times: "Armenian soldiers destroyed hundreds of families." The Times noted with horror: "Many were mutilated, and only a head was left of one little girl."

Later the Russian human rights centre Memorial stated that during the assault on Khojaly, the attitude of the Armenian military towards the civilians was a gross violation of the Geneva Convention, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergency Situations and period of armed conflicts. “The mass murder of civilians in the free corridor zone and adjacent territories cannot be justified by any circumstances,” Memorial’s report noted.

It is the military-political leadership of Armenia that must be held accountable for the Khojaly genocide. In British journalist Thomas de Waal’s book Black Garden,the third President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan frankly admits the purposeful massacre of civilians in Khojaly by the Armenian armed forces.

Remarkably, the Republic of Armenia was headed by war criminals who are directly responsible for organizing the mass extermination of the residents of Khojaly and other Azerbaijani settlements. For almost 30 years, they have occupied 20% of the territory of Azerbaijan, committed the most violent ethnic cleansing against the Azerbaijani population in the occupied lands.

In February 1992, the heavily armed and supported by military power externally, Armenia hoped that Azerbaijan, completely unprepared for a large-scale war and disoriented by internal political struggle, would surrender and reconcile with the loss of Garabagh. However, not only did Azerbaijan withstand the war, but over time it turned into the most powerful state in the South Caucasus. Armenia persisted in its unwillingness to leave the occupied lands voluntarily, hence having doomed itself to a crushing defeat.

The patience of Azerbaijan had its limits. Thus, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces initiated a counter-offensive from September 27 till November 9, 2020. As a result of the liberation war, the occupation of the lands was ended, the territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan was restored. The iron fist of the Azerbaijan Army defeated the entire Armenian occupation army, eliminating, among other things, a number of war criminals responsible for the Khojaly genocide.

The great victory of Azerbaijan in the 44-day war gives confidence that the day of revival of Khojaly and the return of the surviving Khojaly residents and their descendants to their hometown is a reality of the near future.

World community must recognize the genocide of Azerbaijanis

However, the restoration of historical justice does not invalidate the urgency of recognizing the Khojaly genocide internationally and bringing to justice all the responsible war criminals.

The tragedy in Khojaly received official political and legal assessment in Azerbaijan back in February 1994, when the Milli Majlis adopted a special resolution "On the Day of the Khojaly Genocide", which details the causes of the incident and names the perpetrators. Subsequently, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev defined the Khojaly tragedy as "the unhealing pain of our people, a genocide committed against our people, the greatest crime of the last century."

However, Armenia's crimes against the Azerbaijani people still have not received due condemnation from the international community. Nevertheless, an increasing number of people around the world are learning the truth about the evil committed in Khojaly by Armenian barbarians. We can hear an increasing number of voices from all over the world demanding to recognize the Khojaly genocide as one of the most terrible tragedies of humanity in the 20th century, and to give its perpetrators a well-deserved punishment.

Parliaments of a number of countries adopted documents recognizing the Khojaly tragedy as a genocide of Azerbaijanis. Recently, the number of US states, whose legislative bodies have adopted resolutions on the Khojaly genocide, has also increased.

Undoubtedly, the most important event in terms of international recognition of the Khojaly tragedy was the adoption of a special resolution by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). It calls the tragedy “a crime against humanity”, “genocide carried out by Armenian armed groups against the peaceful Azerbaijani population”. Resolution was put forward as part of the Justice for Khojaly campaign initiated by the general coordinator for intercultural dialogue of the OIC Youth Forum Leyla Aliyeva. This document is significant because the OIC Parliamentary Assembly unites a quarter of the world's parliaments and is the largest inter-parliamentary structure.

Finally, on April 22, 2010 the European Court of Human Rights adopted a decision on the crimes committed in Khojaly. It qualifies the actions of invaders as "especially grave acts that may be equal to war crimes or crimes against humanity."

The people of Azerbaijan will never forget the Khojaly genocide. Not only will the memory of the victims of this tragic event of February 1992 always reminds us of the tragedy, but it will also be an insistent appeal, a warning against such atrocities on our land. And it is our strong independent state and its valiant Armed Forces that guarantee this now and in the future.