Factsheet about the Events of Khojaly and Agdam

28 February, 2015

For already 23 years after the events of Khojaly and Agdam the official Baku has been trying to put the blame for those tragic events on Armenians and fanning traditional anti-Armenian hysteria through falsification of history. The events in the vicinity of Agdam, the territory under Azerbaijani control, which led to unfortunate deaths of civilians, were the result of political intrigues and struggle for power in Azerbaijan.

The true reasons are most convincingly revealed in the insider accounts of Azerbaijanis themselves both by eyewitnesses on the ground and designers in Baku.

Khojaly, along with Shushi and Agdam, was one of the main strongholds from which Stepanakert, the capital of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, was being shelled continuously and mercilessly for the harsh winter months of 1991/92 with barrages of artillery and missiles.

The daily shelling of Stepanakert from nearby Khojaly took the lives of hundreds of peaceful inhabitants, kept thousands hiding in basements under miserable conditions without water and sanitation. The severe shortage of food, medicine, and other vital commodities for life sustainment left no other option but to militarily suppress the death spreading army unit of the adversary located in Khojaly. The operation on the part of self-defense forces of Nagorno Karabakh was a matter of life or death; it was for the physical survival of its population condemned by Azerbaijan to complete annihilation.

The then President of Azerbaijan Ayaz Mutalibov stated that “The assault on Khojaly was not a surprise attack”1. In an interview in 1992 with the Russian newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta he emphasized that “a corridor was kept open by the Armenians for people to leave”2. However, a column of civilians was fired on by armed units of the Popular Front of Azerbaijan on the approaches to the Agdam district border, a fact later confirmed by Ayaz Mutalibov, who linked this criminal act to attempts by the opposition to remove him from power, and blamed his opponents entirely for what happened. In his interview with the Russian magazine Novoye Vremya Mutalibov stated that “the shooting of the Khojaly residents was obviously organized by someone to take control in Azerbaijan”3.

According to Azerbaijani journalist M. Safaroglu, “Khojaly occupied an important strategic position. The loss of Khojaly was a political fiasco for Mutalibov”4. Furthermore, there is an account by Azerbaijani journalist Arif Yunusov that “The town and its inhabitants were deliberately sacrificed for a political purpose – to prevent the Popular Front of Azerbaijan from coming to power”5.

Tamerlan Karayev, at one time Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Azerbaijan, bears witness: “The tragedy was committed by the authorities of Azerbaijan”, and specifically by “someone highly placed”6.

The Czech journalist Jana Mazalova, who under the oversight of the Azerbaijanis was included in both of the groups of press representatives to be shown the bodies mutilated by “Armenians”, noted a substantial difference in the two cases. When she went to the scene immediately after the events, Mazalova did not see any traces of barbarous treatment of the bodies. Yet a couple of days later the journalists were shown disfigured bodies already “prepared” for taping.

Who killed the peaceful inhabitants of Khojaly and then mutilated their bodies? This is a legitimate question, because the tragedy occurred not in the village taken by Armenians or on the route of the humanitarian corridor, but on the approaches to the town of Agdam – the territory fully controlled by Azerbaijanis?

The independent Azerbaijani cameraman Chingiz Mustafayev, who took pictures on 28th of February and 2nd of March 1992, had doubts about the official Azerbaijani version and began his own inquiry. The journalist’s very first report to the Moscow news agency D-Press on the possible complicity of the Azerbaijani side in the crimes cost Mustafayev his life – he was killed not far from Agdam under circumstances that are still unexplained.

The late President of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev himself recognized that Azerbaijan’s “former leadership were also guilty” for the events in Khojaly. Already in April 1992, according to the agency Bilik-Dunyasy, he had made the following comments: “The bloodshed will be to our advantage. We should not interfere in the course of events”.

Megapolis Express wrote: “It cannot be denied that, if the Popular Front of Azerbaijan actually set far-reaching objectives, they have been achieved. Mutalibov has been compromised and overthrown, public opinion worldwide has been shaken, and the Azerbaijanis and their Turkish brethren have believed in the so-called genocide of the Azerbaijani people in Khojaly”7.

One other tragic detail: It has become known that at the time of events under consideration 47 Armenians were already being held hostage in “peaceful” Khojaly, a fact that the Azerbaijani mass media “covering” the tragedy have failed to mention. After the liberation of Khojaly only 13 hostages (including 6 women and 1 child) were found there, the other 34 were taken away by the Azerbaijanis to an unknown location. The only thing known about them is that they were led from the village on the night of the operation but never reached Agdam. There is still no information concerning what eventually happened to them.

In the light of the facts brought above, it should be put on record with high degree of certainty that the killing of civilian inhabitants of the village of Khojaly was perpetrated by the Azerbaijani side as part of an evil scheme of internal struggle for power.

Notes

1 Ogonyok (magazine), Nos. 14-15, 1992
2 Nezavisimaya Gazeta, April 2, 1992
3 Novoye Vremya, March 6, 2001
4 Nezavisimaya Gazeta, February 1993
5 Zerkalo (newspaper), July 1992
6 Mikhalifat (newspaper), April 28, 1992
7 Megapolis Express, No. 17, 1992

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