NKR MFA: Azerbaijanis’ “genocide” in Khojaly - a myth to distract international community’s attention from massacre of Armenians in Sumgait

PanARMENIAN.Net -
The anti-Armenian campaign in connection with the regular anniversary of the tragic events in the settlement of Khojaly, which has set everybody’s teeth on edge for a long time, has gained an unprecedented scope this year in Azerbaijan.





“In connection with the insinuations of official Baku, the Press Service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic considers it necessary to remind that a military operation was organized on February 25-26, 1992 with the aim of unblocking the only airport in the Republic situated near the settlement of Khojaly and neutralizing the fire-points of the enemy just in Khojaly, from where, beginning from spring 1991, the settlements of Nagorno Karabakh were regularly attacked by the Azerbaijani OMON-members and exposed to artillery bombardment, including from «Grad» rocket launchers – weapon of mass destruction (WMD) prohibited by numerous international conventions.



Fulfilling a vital goal for the Karabakh people, the units of the NKR self-defense forces, attacking Khojaly, provided a corridor for the civilians' safe leaving the military activities zone, about which the Azerbaijani party was informed beforehand. This fact was repeatedly confirmed by the Azerbaijani officials, in particular, the then President Ayaz Mutalibov. But, the Azerbaijani authorities made nothing for the peaceful population's withdrawal from the military activities area. Moreover, a column of civilians was shot down at the approaches to the Aghdam region’s border, which was later confirmed by Mutalibov, connecting this criminal act with the opposition’s attempts to remove him from his position, making him responsible for the events.

The territory, where pictures of numerous corpses were made, is in a three-kilometer distance from the town of Aghdam and in 11 kilometers from Khojaly. Up to the summer of 1993, this territory was under permanent control of the Azerbaijani armed forces, which excluded any access for the units of the Karabakh self-defense forces.



«The Azerbaijani official propaganda tries to blame Armenians for the killing of the civil population of Khojaly, but even Azerbaijani President Mutalibov admitted that “Armenians still provided a corridor for the civilians' leaving the place», the Russian Nezavisimaya Gazeta from April 2, 1992 wrote. Also, Ogonyok journal (#14-15, 1992) noted that «...the attack of Khojaly wasn't sudden».



Some details of that military operation are still shrouded in mystery, which is actively speculated by the Azerbaijani state propagandistic machine, using various falsifications, forgeries, and obvious lie. Last year, the NKR MFA drew the public attention to the false photo placed at some Azerbaijani websites, including the one of a generator of false ideas – The Heydar Aliyev Fund (www.azerbaijan.az). In fact, the photo related immediately to the events in Kosovo and just as such, along with numerous others, was introduced at the Serbian, Albanian, and one of the specialized German forums, at the site of The New York Times authoritative journal, and others. This year, new forgeries have been added to the noted one. Thus, about 20 false photos used by the Azerbaijani party, in particular, those of the victims of the Kurdish pogroms in Turkey, the victims of the massacre in Srebrennitsa, and others, were introduced during the February 24 presentation of the www.xocali.net project in Yerevan. Besides, outrageous falsifications were discovered in the lists of the Aghdam tragedy victims introduced by the Azerbaijani official structures – embassies, the presidential library, etc. Also, the site provides video-films about the interrogations of the Turks-Meskhetians, which testify that despite the Armenian party's warning of the Khojaly attack, the Azerbaijani servicemen banned the escape of the Turks-Meskhetians' families, which were artificially settled there by the Azerbaijani authorities.



The Azerbaijani propaganda tries to introduce the betrayal of the Khojaly civilians by their high-rank compatriots as the Armenians' revenge for the bloody orgy in Sumgait.



But, the remarks and assessments of the Khojaly events by some Azerbaijani top officials, human rights activists, and journalists refute flatly the false thesis of official Baku. Thus, Azerbaijani human rights activist Arif Yunusov wrote: «The town and its citizens were deliberately made victims of the political goal – to prevent the Azerbaijani Popular Front’s coming to power” (Azerbaijani Zerkalo newspaper, July 1992).



Tamerlan Karayev, in due time Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijani Republic (now AR Ambassador to India), testified: «The tragedy was implemented by the Azerbaijani authorities», specifically «some of the top officials» (Mukhalifat Azerbaijani newspaper, April 28, 1992).



Heydar Aliyev admitted himself that «the former leadership of Azerbaijan is also guilty” of the Khojaly events. According to Bilik-Dunyasi Agency, still in April 1992 he expressed a cynically monstrous idea: “The bloodshed will do good to us. We shouldn’t interfere in the course of the events». Did the «father» of Azerbaijan bear the responsibility for these words?



Czech journalist Yana Mazalova who, by the Azerbaijanis’ oversight, found herself in both groups of the mass media representatives, which were shown the «corpses defiled by Armenians», noted a sufficient difference in the latters' condition. Visiting the field immediately after the events, Mazalova didn't see any traces of barbarity on the corpses. And two days later, the journalists were shown the disfigured bodies already «prepared» for filming.





The Russian Megalopolis-Express newspaper wrote: «We cannot but admit that if the Azerbaijani Popular Front had really far-reaching goals, so it has achieved them. Mutalibov is compromised and dismissed, the international community is shocked, the Azerbaijanis and the friendly Turks believed in the so-called «genocide of the Azerbaijani population in Khojaly».

As it is known, still on February 26, 47 Armenian hostages were kept in Khojaly, which is deliberately concealed by the Azerbaijani mass media. After liberating Khojaly, there were only 13 of them (among them 6 women and a child), while the rest 34 were taken away in an unknown direction by the Azerbaijanis. So far, there is no information about there further fate. We only know that they were taken away from the village in the operation night, but they didn't enter Aghdam.





It is evident that those who wanted to make a semblance of the corpses' defilement by Armenians disfigured, first of all, the bodies of the Armenian hostages in order that they couldn’t be identified. Just for this purpose, the majority of the corpses were undressed, and just for this purpose, the victims' bodies were exposed to outrages, which changed them out of all recognition.

Proceeding from the abovementioned facts, we can confidently state that the Azerbaijani party is guilty of the death of the civilians of Khojaly and the Armenian hostages kept there, and that the Azerbaijani party committed a monstrous crime against its own people for the sake of its political intrigues and struggle for power.





It is already obvious for everybody that the «genocide» of Azerbaijanis in Khojaly is a myth created still by Heydar Aliyev and taken up by his throne-successor Aliyev-the-junior in order to draw the international community's attention away from the massacre of Armenians in Sumgait, Baku, Kirovabad, and many other populated-by-Armenians settlements, as well as to conceal the political, humanitarian, military, economic, and other penal offences of the Azerbaijani leadership against Armenian civilians and against its own people,” the statement of NKR Foreign Ministry said.

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