KHOJALU
The Truth about Khojalu Events
( Azeri Sources Testify)
An
anti-Armenian campaign has been hysterically raging in Azerbaijan throughout
the nine years following the Khojalu events the official Baku. The purpose
of the campaign is to falsify the facts and bring discredit on Armenia in
the eyes of the international community. The Khojalu events when peaceful
people died were exclusively the result of the political intrigues and struggle
for power in Azerbaijan. The real reasons lying behind these events are more
convincingly reflected in the testimonies of the Azeris themselves, both the
participants, eyewitnesses of the events and those who knew the ins and outs
in Baku.
According to M.
Safaroghli, an Azerbaijani journalist, "Khojalu was located in an important
strategic position. Losing control over Khojalu would mean a political fiasco
for Moutalibov". (Newspaper "Nezavisimaya Gazeta" ("Independent
Newspaper", February, 1993).
Along with Shushi and Aghdam, Khojalu was one
of the key bases from where Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno Karabagh was
continuously bombed during the winter months.
The population
of NKR which was in the danger of the total physical extinction by Azerbaijan
could survive only by neutralizing the weapon emplacements of Khojalu and
de-blocking the airport. Hundreds of peaceful people were killed in Stepanakert
as the result of the daily bombing from the adjacent Khojalu. The military
operation of the armed forced of NKR on the neutralization of the weapon emplacements
of Khojalu was not a surprise for Azerbaijan. For the first time the Azeri
side was notified about the forthcoming attack by TV nearly two months prior
to the operation. Arif Yunusov, a well-known champion of human rights in Azerbiajan
wrote about that in "Izvestia". The officials in Baku did not try
to hide their awareness, including Ayaz Moutalibov, the president of Azerbaijan.
He emphasized that "… the offense on Khojalu was not a surprise".("Ogoniok"
Magazine, N 14-15, 1992) As the result of these warnings the majority of the
peaceful people of Khojalu moved to safe zones.
The detachments
of NKR did everything possible in order to exclude the death of the peaceful
population of the settlement and left a corridor for the safe evacuation of
the peaceful population from the zone of military actions. The Azeri side
was timely informed about the opened corridor which allowed to evacuate the
people of Khojalu.
Elman Mamedov,
the mayor of Khojalu: "We knew that the corridor was left for the exit
of the peaceful people" ("Russkaya Misl" 03.03.1992, citation
from "Bakinskie Rabochiy" newspaper).
After the operation
was over 11 bodies of Azeris were found by the rescue group "Artsakh"
in the village and its neighboring areas, naturally, counting out the bodies
of the members of the armed formations dressed in uniforms (their number was
also small). The insignificant number of the peaceful victims of Khojalu in
the view of the intense military actions undertaken for the purpose of holding
control over the settlement evidenced that the Armenian side had taken all
measures on ensuring the maximal possible security of the people of the village.
Nevertheless, there is no doubt that a significant number of the peaceful
population of Khojalu became victims of the operation.
How many of the people of Khojalu were killed and where?
The Azeri side
is categorically silent about the place of the death of hundreds of residents
of the village. The truth is that all of them were coolly assassinated at
the distance of 11 km from Khojalu, about 2-3 km far from Aghdam which at
that time used to be the regional military base of the Azeri armed forces.
This mere fact is enough for casting light on the intricate story about the
massive extinction of the residents of Khojalu. It is hard to understand why
should the Armenians let the population of Khojalu flee from the besieged
village in order to kill them on the approaches of Aghdam putting their lives
at risk (at that time Aghdam was under the control of the Azeris).
In his interview
to "Nezavisimaya Gazeta" Moutalibov stated that "however, the
Armenians had left a corridor for the escape of the people. Why a fire should
have opened then? (cf.: "Nezavisimaya Gazeta", April 2, 1992) He
linked the fact of the criminal fusillade of the peaceful people with the
attempts of the opposition to remove him from power, laying the responsibility
for the tragedy entirely on him.
In his interview to "Novoye Vremia" ("New Time") Magazine
Moutalibov confirmed his statement which was made nine days before: "It
was evident that the some people had organized the shooting for shifting the
power in Azerbaijan" (cf.: "Novoye Vremia" , March 6, 2001)
.
Similar statements and assessments of the Khojalu events were made by several
other Azerbaijani top official and journalists.
R. Gajiyev, member of the Operating Committee of Aghdam Branch of NFA (National
Front of Azerbaijan): We could have helped the people of Khojalu because we
had the resources and means. However, the authorities of the republic wanted
to demonstarte to the people of Azerbaijan that they are not able to do so
and ask for the assistance of the CIS Army and with the help of the latter
also neutralize the opposition" (Moscow, "Izvestia", April,
1992).
The Azeri journalist
Arif Yunosov's view is slightly different from the statements given above.
According to Yunusov, "The town itself and its population are willingfully
sacrificed for the political purposes, i.e., prevent the National Front of
Azerbaijan from coming to power" (cf.: "Zerkalo" ("Mirror")
Newspaper, July, 1992.) Again, it follows that the Azeris themselves are the
perpetrators of the tragedy.
The Khojalu events
are the result of the treachery of the high-level Azeri authorities towards
the people of Khojalu whereas the Azeri propaganda blew up the story about
the "brutalities of the Armenians", and the dreadful pictures of
the site covered with defiled bodies were demonstrated by TV. It was propagated
that Khojalu was the retaliation of the Armenians for Sumgayit.
Tamerlan Karayev,
the former Chairman of the Supreme Council of Azerbaijan testifies: "The
tragedy was perpetrated by the Azeri authorities", in particular, "some
of the top officials" (cf.: "Moukhtalifat" Newspaper, April
28, 1992).
Yana Mazalova,
a Czech journalist, who, because of the oversight of the Azeris, was included
in both of the groups of journalists who visited the place of the events on
the first day and several days later, noticed the stunning difference how
the bodies looked at the first and second site visits. before and after between
the previous and latest outer look of the bodies. When Mazalova visited the
site immediately after the events she saw that the bodies did not bear any
traces of brutality whereas a couple of days later the bodies "adulterated"
by the Armenians and "ready" for the cameras were demonstrated to
the journalists.
Who killed the
peaceful people of Khojalu and later defiled their bodies, if the tragedy
took place not in the village liberated by the Armenians, and not along the
direction of the humanitarian corridor, but on the close approaches of Aghdam
town, a territory which was entirely under the control of the National Front
of Azerbaijan? Chingiz Moustafayev (Fuat-oghli), an independent Azeri TV journalist
and cameraman who filmed the aftereffect on February 28 and March 2, 1992,
doubted the official version of Azerbaijan and initiated his own investigation.
His life was the price for his very first report to the Moscow News Agency
"DR-Press" about the possible involvement of the Azeri side in the
crime: he was killed not far from Aghdam, and the details of the murder still
remain unrevealed. Moustafayev reported about the flight to Khojalu. He noted
that he could not film the dead bodies there, because "there was not
a single killed person there …". In the course of the first flight the
journalists shot only a couple of dozens of bodies of the Azeri soldiers which
were found not far from the village of Nakhichevanik. However, most of the
bodies were near Aghdam where they were video-filmed on February 29 and later
on March 2. These tapes were displayed at the session of Milli Medjlis and,
later, numerous TV channels of the world as an evidence of the massive manslaughter
of the Azeri population of Khojalu. The first flight of the helicopter with
the Azeri journalists on board took place on February 29, 1992. It is noteworthy
that the journalists who were informed about the massive offense of the Azeris
in Khojalu flew directly to the place of the events. However, they did not
find any evidence of the happenings and flew back. During the second flight
to the region of the massive slaughter, on March 2, 1992, the journalists
noticed that the positions of the dead bodies lying on the ground and the
level of the injuries and physical impairment was astonishingly different
as compared to the first inspection. Chingiz Moustafayev (Fuat-oghli) informed
the Azeri president A. Moutalibov about the changed positions of the bodies
and their physical impairment. Undoubtedly, by that time the Azeri president
understood the reasons which caused the falsification of the tragedy. Moutalibov
gave a really prophetic answer to the journalist, "Chingiz, don't tell
anyone that you think something is wrong because they'll kill you". Chingiz
Moutafayev was killed in the same field where he had shot the main Azeri "argument".
The present president of Azerbaijan Geydar Aliyev personally admitted that
the "former leadership of Azerbaijan was also at fault of the Khojalu
events". As early as in April of 1992 the following was articulated by
him, "The bloodshed will do good to us. We shouldn't interfere in the
course of events" (cf.: Bilik-Duniasi News Agency). It is out of question
who gained from the "bloodshed". Megapolis-Express wrote: "It
is impossible not to admit that if the National Front of Azerbaijan in fact
had defined far-reaching goals, it succeeded in addressing them. Moutalibov
is compromised and forced out of his post, the international community is
in shock, the Azeris and their brotherly Turks believed in the so-called "genocide
of the Azerbaijani people in Khojalu"("Megapolis-Express",
N17, 1992).
The Azeri mass
media was silent in its comments on the Khojalu events about another tragic
detail which was revealed later: 47 Armenians were held hostage in the "peaceful"
Khojalu since February 26. After the liberation of Khojalu only 13 of these
hostages were found in the settlement (including 6 women and 1 child), the
remaining 34 were taken away by the Azeris in the unknown direction. All that
is known about these hostages is that at the night of the operation they were
driven away from the place of imprisonment, but not from the settlement. There
is no information about their further status as hostages. It is obvious that
the bodies of the Armenian hostages were tormented beyond the degree when
they could be identified. This was done in order to create the illusion that
the bodies of the victims "had been defiled" by the Armenians. This
is the reason why the bodies of the wretched victims were outraged to the
extent that it was impossible to identify the victims.
As a matter of fact, around 700 inhabitants of Khojalu, including Turks -
Meskhets who for whatever reasons failed to use the free corridor for retreat
were passed to the Azerbaijani side without any conditions. After the thorough
investigation the fact of the unconditional return of the residents of Khojalu
to Azerbaijan was confirmed in the conclusion of the Human Rights Watch Center
"Memorial" (Moscow), as well as in the documentary film of Svetlana
Kulchitskaya, a journalist from St. Petersburg.
It follows from
the above-described facts that the blame for the death of the peaceful people
of Khojalu and those Armenians who had been taken hostage in the village lies
on the Azeris. The Azerbaijani side committed a crime against its own people,
and the motivation lies in the political intrigues and lust for power.
