Interview with Doz. Dr. Irade Mammedova
With the Azerbaijani army’s offensive six months ago, Karabakh, which had been under Armenian occupation for almost 30 years, regained its freedom and almost 700,000 Azerbaijani refugees had the hope of returning to their homeland. However, recent events, in particular the burning of abandoned properties of Azerbaijanis by Armenian migrants who had settled in the occupied region in violation of international law, brought back painful memories of the early 1990s. In particular, the targeted attacks by the Armenian armed forces on civilian settlements outside the Karabakh region were a reminder of the civilian victims. What did you think when you saw these scenes?
First of all, I would like to thank you and your organization for raising an important issue in connection with the occupation of Karabakh and the Khojaly massacre in particular. Yes, as a result of the victory of the Azerbaijani army in the second Karabakh war, which lasted 44 days, and the one-day anti-terrorist operation in September 2023, Karabakh regained its full freedom. The Azerbaijani government is doing everything it can to ensure that the Azerbaijani refugees can return home as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, the Armenian mine terror prevents a quick return. In addition, the Armenian armed forces, aware of their defeat in the second Karabakh war, have attacked civilian towns and the civilian population in order to intimidate the Azerbaijani population. In other words, as always, they aimed to destroy the civilian population. As our President Ilham Aliyev said during the second Karabakh war: “The vicious enemy is constantly bombing our settlements, every day our towns and villages on the front line are exposed to the fire of the hated enemy. The Terter region is being bombed the most, but Aghdam, Goranboy, Aghjabedi, Berde and other towns and regions are also under enemy fire. In other words, the Armenians violated the laws of war.
… we remember the precise military strikes by the Azerbaijani army, which were carried out with the help of Turkish and Israeli drones …
The Azerbaijani army kept casualties among the Armenian civilian population to a minimum through targeted attacks. The Armenian armed forces did the opposite. In order to break the will of the Azerbaijani state and the Azerbaijani people and to change the course of the war in its favor, Armenia fired rockets at the city of Ganja, which was more than 100 kilometers from the front line. This was the first civilian settlement to be attacked by Armenian forces outside the Karabakh region. The killing of civilians in this attack was a war crime against the Azerbaijani civilian population. For the first time since the Second World War, a member state of the OSCE has fired missiles at the territory and civilian population of another country. The Armenian side fired 5 rockets at the city of Ganja alone. On On October 4, 2020, a civilian named Aliyev Tunar was killed and more than 30 civilians were injured in the first attack. This was the first attack on a peaceful solution in the second Karabakh war. On the same day, the Armenian armed forces launched a rocket attack on Mingachevir, a town of more than 100,000 inhabitants located more than 80 kilometers from the area of military operations. Fortunately, two of the three rockets fired did not explode. One of the unexploded rockets hit in front of the Azerbaijan Thermal Power Plant LLC, the other near a house inhabited by civilians. The third rocket, which was fired at a private house, resulted in 5 people being hospitalized with more or less serious injuries, while the house was also severely damaged. On October 5, 3 civilians were injured in the second rocket attack on the city of Ganja. On October 8, during the third attack on the city, there were fortunately no deaths or injuries. On the same day, at around 13:00, Armenian forces in Khızı district of Azerbaijan attacked crude oil and export concentrate pipelines, which are not military targets, using war methods that can cause severe destruction. The Armenian forces attempted to launch rocket attacks towards the Khızı district, which is more than 300 kilometers away from the military operation zone. The enemy was unable to reach its target as it was neutralized from the air by the air defence forces of the Azerbaijani army. On October 11, 10 civilians were killed and more than 40 injured in the fourth rocket attack on the city of Ganja. This attack also took place after the signing of the ceasefire agreement between the parties. On October 17, the fifth rocket attack on the Azerbaijani city of Ganja killed 16 people, all civilians, injured 55, destroyed a residential building and damaged the city’s infrastructure, other buildings and cars. According to the Attorney General’s Office, 26 civilians, including women and children, were killed and 175 civilians injured in the rocket attacks on Ganja. In addition to Ganja, the Armenian side carried out rocket attacks on Baku-Novorossiyski (250 km from the war zone), the Oghuz-Gabala-Baku and Gabala pipelines (150 km away), the city of Mingachevir and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (Yevlah) pipeline (80 km away) and the city of Berde (50 km away). The rocket attack on the town of Berde killed 29 civilians and injured 112.
When you see these unforgettable crimes against humanity, when you see the injured and dead women, children, old people, young people and others who were pulled out from under the destroyed houses, your blood freezes in your veins. When you see these atrocities, you can no longer think, you are shocked. What was her crime? What does it mean to bomb these cities with missiles at night, when everyone is asleep, far away from the war zone where the civilian population is, so that the number of victims is high? The most interesting thing was that an Armenian who lived in Ganja was injured in the rocket attack by the Armenian armed forces.
But these sanctions were internationally outlawed …
It is true that these Armenian attacks have been condemned by the United Nations, the European Union and Turkey. But has anyone been held criminally responsible for the killing of innocent people as a result of these Armenian attacks? No, that is not the case. However, this is a serious violation of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their additional protocols as well as the resolutions of the UN Security Council. Because Ganja, which is outside the conflict zone of Azerbaijan, the cities of Mingachevir (hydroelectric power plant) and Yevlakh (Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline), where strategic facilities are located, Beylagan, Berde, Terter, Gabala, Goranboy, Aghjabedi, Absheron, Khızı and other regions were shelled with ballistic missiles and other heavy artillery.
The city of Khojaly comes to mind in connection with the occupation of Karabakh. Why was Khojaly attacked by the Armenian occupying forces?
Khojaly was one of the largest and oldest settlements in the Nagorno-Karabakh region and a strategically important point. For this reason, it was an obstacle to the success of the Armenian occupation plans. Khojaly, with an area of 0.97 thousand km², was located northeast of Khankendi in the Nagorno-Karabakh region and was the only civilian airport on the road from Agdam to Shusha and from Asgeran to Khankendi. The road from Khojaly led directly to Azerbaijan. The road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, the Baku-Kankendi railroad line and the Baku-Shusha highway also passed through Khojaly. The population of Khojaly, which numbered 24.2 thousand before the occupation and 7 thousand during the occupation, consisted exclusively of Turks (Azerbaijanis and Meskhetians) and was completely surrounded by Armenian villages as a result of the occupation. With the occupation of Khojaly, the whole of Nagorno-Karabakh, with the exception of Shusha, came under Armenian control.
What role do the events in Khojaly play in the collective memory of the Azerbaijani people? Could you explain that a little?
I would like to answer this question with the confession of Serzh Sargsyan, former President of Armenia and at the time involved in the terrible events around Khojaly, to the British journalist Thomas de Waal, author of the book “Karabakh”: “Until Khojaly, the Azerbaijanis thought we were joking and that the Armenians would not raise their hands against the civilian population. We managed to break this stereotype.” In other words, the scale of the Khojaly genocide is enormous and its brutality horrific. Since the last days of October 1991, all roads to Khojaly were controlled and besieged by Armenians. On January 2, 1991, the electricity in the region was cut off. This cut off Khojaly from communication with other regions of Azerbaijan and only transportation by helicopter was possible. On January 28, 1992, the helicopter was hit by an Armenian rocket from Khankendi over the village of Halfeli on its way from Agdam to Khojaly. Since this incident, helicopter transportation is no longer possible for the Turks in Nagorno-Karabakh. On the night of February 25, 1992, Armenian military units with the support of 10 tanks, 16 armored vehicles, 9 combat vehicles, 180 military experts, 16 armored vehicles and 9 combat vehicles of the 366th Motorized Regiment of the 23rd Division of the 4th Army surrounded Khojaly. Faced with the Armenian military units attacking with the most modern weapons, the population of Khojaly lacked any military support and equipment to defend themselves. Knowing this, the aggressors quickly occupied Khojaly, destroyed it and carried out what was probably the largest and most famous massacre of the late 20th century. Most of those murdered were killed by torture such as beheading, gouging out the eyes, peeling off the skin, burning alive, etc., as has often happened in history.
What do the official reports say about the number of victims?
According to official figures, 613 people were brutally massacred, 487 civilians were seriously injured and 1275 people were taken prisoner. The fate of 150 of these prisoners is still unknown even after many years. During this attack, in which the parties were not on equal military footing, the few Azerbaijani military units in Khojaly nevertheless tried to defend Khojaly against the Armenian occupying forces until the last man was killed. During the attack on Khojaly, which was supported by both the Armenian military units and the local Armenian population, about 3,000 unarmed civilian Karabakh Turks who were under siege tried to flee to save their lives, but most of them could not escape the Armenian brutality. The Armenian forces pursued those who managed to escape the siege and killed most of them. Those they captured were either tortured to death or traded as hostages for food and fuel.
In fact, the Khojaly tragedy is considered one of the best documented war crimes of modern times. There are also many survivors and eyewitnesses …
During my interview with Dürdane Aghayeva, one of those exchanged who experienced the brutality of Armenian captivity, it was impossible to listen quietly. You listen with tears in your eyes and think about how this then young girl endured and survived these atrocities. The Russian Major Leonid Kravets, who personally witnessed the events in Khojaly, writes: “When the captain saw the mutilated body of his own four-year-old son among the massacres, he lost his mind. Who in their right mind could have remained sane in the face of this horrific sight for a father? Another child was beheaded, and the bodies of women, children and old people lay everywhere.” This is how Seriyye Talibova, a resident of Khojaly, described the Armenian atrocities: “They took us to the Armenian cemetery. It is difficult for me to describe what happened here. They sacrificed four young Meskhetian Turks and three Azerbaijanis on the grave of an Armenian fighter. They cut off their heads. Then the soldiers and fighters tortured and killed the children in front of their parents.”
It is not without reason that the tragedy of Khojaly is compared to the fate of Khat, the Holocaust, Liditse, Serebrenisa, Rwanda and Songmin.
In the collective memory of the Azerbaijani people, the events of Khojaly are remembered as the most serious war crime in the Nagorno-Karabakh war between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
In fact, the Khojaly massacre is just one example of the atrocities committed in the entire Karabakh region. Even today, mass graves are still being discovered in the liberated Karabakh region. Isn’t this proof that there are many incidents similar to the Khojaly massacre committed by the Armenian occupation forces in Karabakh?
Yes, that is true. The mass graves (13 so far) discovered in the liberated areas bear witness to the crimes against humanity committed by Armenia against Azerbaijanis during the first Karabakh war. Today, mass graves and buildings where prisoners and hostages were held are being discovered in various localities in Karabakh, such as Shusha, Khankendi and Khojaly, and it is likely that this will continue to be the case in the future. So on On February 19, 2024, a building was discovered in the village of Malibeyli in the Khojaly district in which Azerbaijani prisoners and hostages were being held. The village was destroyed during the Azerbaijani army’s counter-terrorism operations on 19. and Liberated from the Armenian occupation on September 20, 2023. The traces found in the building indicate that Azerbaijani prisoners were held and tortured here. Another mass grave, which once again highlights the inhumane acts that Armenia is trying to deny, was discovered on February 21 during excavations for restoration and construction work in the city of Khojaly. The fact that most of the human remains found during the ongoing excavations in the region belong to women and children whose hands were tied with ropes and who were tortured to death proves Armenia’s policy of hatred and genocide against Azerbaijanis and war crimes against humanity. One of the most horrifying facts is the possibility that one of the remains found in the region belongs to a child aged 4-5 years.
And were there also war crimes outside the village of Khojaly?
Anyone who has followed the events of this period closely knows that since 1991 there have been many incidents similar to the Khojaly massacre, albeit on a smaller scale, by the Armenian occupying forces in Karabakh. It was as if these events were preparations for the Khojaly massacre. During the period in which these events took place, there were also intimidations, attacks and looting against Azerbaijani Turks. These acts of violence and atrocities in Nagorno-Karabakh increased in 1991, when Armenian attackers raided the villages of Karadagli in Khojavend and Masheli in Askeran, killing or injuring dozens of people. In August and September 1991, the attacks on buses on the Shusha, Jamilli, Agdam-Hocavend and Agdam-Karadaghli routes in Nagorno-Karabakh continued. These attacks again resulted in deaths and serious injuries. On On February 12, 1991, the villages of Malıbeyli and Kuşçular in Shusha, whose populations were mostly Azerbaijani Turks who had fled Armenia, were occupied by Armenian forces, and during the armed attacks on the village of Karadağlı between the Between February 13 and 17, 118 people, including children, women and the elderly, were taken prisoner. The Armenians executed 33 people and threw them into industrial pits and filled them up again. Among these 33 victims were also some who were only wounded and were buried alive.
While some of the prisoners were brutally killed by various methods of torture, 50 of them were rescued after fierce fighting by paying a ransom. However, many of those freed later died of their serious injuries. Most of the prisoners were treated brutally and inhumanely, beheaded, buried alive, had their teeth knocked out, starved, dehydrated and tortured to death. At the end of October and November 1991, many towns in Nagorno-Karabakh were destroyed, burned down and looted by Armenians in the same way. At the beginning of 1992, the Armenian army successively occupied the last settlements of the Azerbaijani Turks in Nagorno-Karabakh. In these villages forcibly occupied by Armenian troops, dozens of people were massacred, which can be described as a kind of genocide.
Were these crimes the result of a systematic extermination strategy or rather the work of Armenian volunteer organizations that could not be brought under control?
Civilians who tried to leave the city of Khojaly were pursued and brutally murdered by Armenian troops. The incident in Khojaly is part of the Armenian government’s terror policy and an attempt to kill and intimidate civilians and drive them out of the region. This enabled the Armenian army to occupy Nagorno-Karabakh and other regions of Azerbaijan. In any case, it is an ethnic cleansing of Azerbaijani Turks. The Khojaly atrocity is not only a documented and witnessed crime against humanity, but also a planned and programmed practice of extermination, as evidenced by the brazen and open confessions of the perpetrators.
… Monte Melkonian, who is known for his international terrorist activities and who commanded an armed militia of Armenian volunteers in Karabakh, comes to mind in this context.
Melkonian came to Armenia in 1990 and visited the Nagorno-Karabakh region in Azerbaijan. Monte Melkonian, who was the commander of an Armenian front commando during the occupation of the Azerbaijani region of Khojavwend, had tortured Azerbaijani prisoners during the genocide in Khojavavali. Durdane Aghayeva, who was captured by Armenians in Khojaly, told me that Monte Melkonian tortured her the most. Monte Melkonian was punished for his actions. According to one claim, he was killed by Ibad Huseynov, according to another by the crew of PDM No. 258 under the command of Rizvan Mammadvaliyev during the Battle of Marzili on June 12, 1993. Another example is Major Seyran Ohanyan, one of the perpetrators of the Khojaly massacre, who was Minister of Defense of the so-called “Nagorno-Karabakh Republic” from 2000 to 2007 and was then appointed Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia from 2008 to 2016. During the Second Karabakh War, he joined the so-called “Nagorno-Karabakh Republic” to fight against Azerbaijan again. On November 6, 2020, he and his son were seriously injured in attacks by the Azerbaijani army. Serzh Sargsyan, the former president of Armenia, who is still seeking revenge, personally committed brutal murders during the Khojaly genocide. The events in Khojaly were not only the work of Armenian gangs that had gotten out of control. The Khojaly genocide was deliberately, intentionally and consciously brought about by the Armenian state. The Armenian government committed this war crime against the civilian population, as former Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has clearly stated in interviews. The aim behind Khojaly and other massacres was the domination of Nagorno-Karabakh through ethnic cleansing and the implementation of an imperialist policy to create a future “Greater Armenia”. Azerbaijani Vice President and Head of the Department of Foreign Affairs in the Presidential Administration, Hikmet Hajiyev, declared on February 23, 2024 that Armenia as a state was responsible for the Khojaly genocide and other illegal acts against Azerbaijan.
In your opinion, what exactly are the massacres in Karabakh, especially in Khojaly: ethnic cleansing, genocide or massacre?
There are currently debates on both the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides as to what the Khojaly events can be described as. In the report by the Moscow law enforcement center “Memorial” on the massive human rights violations during the occupation of Khojaly by Armenian and Russian military units on the night of 25. to the February 26, 1992 states: “The perpetrators of the Khojaly tragedy cannot be justified. This statement is not only one of the first to be issued on the Khojaly events, but is also of great significance as it comes from one of the official bodies in Russia that openly supports the Armenian atrocities. The investigations and inquiries have shown that these atrocities, committed by the Armenian armed forces with the support of the then military units of the USSR, are clearly and unequivocally to be classified as crimes of genocide within the meaning of the United Nations General Assembly Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of December 9, 1948.”
At the same time, the definition of genocide in Article 103 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the crime committed in Khojaly are consistent and complementary. In other words, the massacres committed in Khojaly should be recognized as genocide in the category of international crimes. In particular, this situation should be recognized as genocide, which is defined in the relevant articles of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 “on the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in Time of Conflict In particular, this situation should be recognized as genocide, which is defined as “an attack on the lives of persons not taking a direct part in hostilities” in the relevant articles of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 “relating to the relief of the wounded and sick in armed forces in time of conflict, to the status of prisoners of war and to the protection of the civilian population in time of war”, It is not difficult to guess how to define the Khojaly events when viewed from the perspective that it is prohibited to “in any way cause the death or maiming of human beings, to treat them cruelly or to torture them, or to act in a manner that violates human dignity”.
In addition, a decree was issued to honor veterans who made special sacrifices in the defense of Khojaly. In view of all this, the events in Khojaly are, in my opinion, clearly genocide. The nature and extent of the crimes committed in Khojaly fully correspond to the definition contained in the Convention on the “Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide” adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 9, 1948.
Let us now look at the judicial aspects of the issue. What are the perpetrators of these crimes doing today? Will they answer for their crimes in a court of law? What is the status of the Azerbaijani state’s criminal proceedings in connection with these events?
The Azerbaijani state is making the necessary efforts in this regard and the Khojaly events are being clarified within the framework of international law through comprehensive judicial inquiries and investigations with evidence. As part of this judicial investigation into the events of Khojaly, more than two thousand people were questioned as witnesses and victims. Almost a thousand expert opinions were obtained and official assistance was requested from the Prosecutor General’s Offices of the Republics of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation, in particular on issues such as the list of soldiers of the Russian Motorized Regiment No. 366 who were involved in the events.
The Military Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Azerbaijan has registered around 7,500 cases in the course of prosecuting the events in Khojaly. More than 4,500 people, including more than 1,800 witnesses and more than 2,700 victims, have testified as eyewitnesses and more than 800 investigations have been carried out. As Azerbaijan is an internationally recognized state under the rule of law, it is legitimate under Azerbaijani law to punish 38 Armenian aggressors, including members of the 366th Armenian Army. Russian motorized regiment, who were proven to have participated in the atrocities in Khojaly, for crimes against peace and humanity and war crimes under Article 103 of the Azerbaijani Criminal Code, which provides for the punishment of the crime of genocide.
The decision to initiate legal proceedings against the perpetrators is also considered very justified, as such acts are proven both by visual evidence and by the victims’ testimonies. To this end, court orders were issued for the detention of those found guilty and the necessary documents for their international search and arrest were sent to the Interpol office in Azerbaijan. There is ample evidence of active responsibility for the Khojaly atrocities, and the collection of evidence about Yevgeny Nabokhinin, the commander of the 3rd Battalion during the Khojaly atrocities, and others. They should be prosecuted for the offenses specified in the relevant articles of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan. At the same time, investigations and inquiries are being carried out to identify those who have ruthlessly targeted prisoners and hostages, committed systematic torture and massacres, and forced Azerbaijani Turks to emigrate from their homeland.
The occupation of Khojaly and the actions that followed can be described or defined as Armenia’s genocide against the Turks and Muslims. While Armenia continues to deny this accusation, the members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), one of the international decision-making bodies, have issued a statement saying that “the Armenians massacred all the inhabitants of Khojaly”. However, she expressly refrained from using the term genocide in this text. In 1996, the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (supposedly founded to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict) merely condemned Yerevan and declared that the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan must be respected. The significance of this declaration becomes clearer against the backdrop of the Minsk Group’s pro-Armenian policy. However, it is still difficult to say whether the Minsk Group is effective in solving the problem. It is well known that the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was made possible by the 44-day civil war in 2020 and that the Minsk Group contributed nothing to this solution.
On April 22, 2010, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled that while the Khojaly atrocities are considered war crimes or equivalent to crimes against humanity, the fact that no official decision has yet been made is also considered a decision in favor of Armenia.
The investigations against Armenian separatists and leaders of criminal gangs (16 people, including Araik Harutyunyan, Ruben Vardanyan), who were arrested on 19. and September 20, 2003 in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan as part of local counter-terrorism measures have not yet been completed.
What are the consequences of the 30-year occupation of the Karabakh region? Is it possible to take stock of the damage caused?
The war has deprived Azerbaijan of very important underground and above-ground resources and has had a strong negative impact on the country’s economy in macroeconomic (e.g. gross domestic product, general price level, household income and expenditure), sectoral (especially agriculture, livestock and tourism) and regional terms. Added to this are the problems of the 788,950 refugees from Karabakh and the 350,000 Azerbaijani refugees who were expelled from Armenia, making a total of 1,138,450 refugees and migrants.
The damage inflicted by the Armenian aggressors on the national cultural centers of Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh region and the surrounding areas cannot be precisely quantified. For the plundered and destroyed material and spiritual resources are unique examples of the culture not only of Azerbaijan, but of the entire world civilization. According to preliminary and incomplete information, the damage to the Azerbaijani economy amounts to more than 60 billion dollars, including moral and psychological damage. According to preliminary estimates by experts, the occupation of Khojaly alone has caused material damage to Azerbaijan of more than 170 million 250 thousand dollars.
Of course, this material damage is minor compared to the suffering of the people of Karabakh who have lost their homes, who have lived for years in difficult conditions as refugees in student dormitories in Baku or in tents in various regions of Azerbaijan, who have lost their children, spouses and relatives to inhumane practices. As a result, thousands of people from Karabakh were forced to seek refuge in Baku and various regions of Azerbaijan, and there was virtually no international support. The 30-year occupation of Karabakh has also had a psychological impact on the refugees and displaced persons living in difficult conditions. Imagine if the Armenian occupiers had occupied 85 villages and towns in Zangilan, 127 in Lachin, 147 in Kalbajar, 97 in Jabrayil, 51 in Fuzuli and 89 in Aghdam and reduced them to rubble. After the liberation of the occupied territories of Karabakh by Azerbaijan, I personally visited the Armenian-occupied city of Agdam during a congress. I was horrified by what I saw. The city looked to me like Hiroshima after a nuclear attack. There was not a single building left, except for the hill that served as a landmark for the Armenians and where they kept pigs. They even cut down a 200-year-old plane tree in Imaret in Sarıcalı, the cemetery of the Karabakh Khans, and doused it with acid to prevent the tree from sprouting again.
There are 403 historical and religious monuments of our people in the occupied territories, including 67 mosques, 144 religious sites and 192 holy sites. Of the 67 Muslim mosques (13 in Shusha, 5 in Agdam, 16 in Fuzuli, 12 in Zangilan, 5 in Jabrayil, 8 in Gubadli, 8 in Lachin) officially operating in Karabakh and neighboring areas, 63 were completely destroyed and 4 were partially destroyed and rendered unusable. According to the research, the cultural heritage of Azerbaijan has suffered a material damage of 177 billion manats as a result of the armed aggression and occupation by Armenia.
As a result of Armenian barbarism, the occupied territories of Azerbaijan have been subjected to ecological terrorism for almost 30 years, the rich underground and above-ground resources have been illegally and brutally plundered, the region’s forest cover has been willfully destroyed, fertile land and water resources have been destroyed. The region suffers from environmental pollution and radioactive contamination. The disrespectful and vandalistic behavior of the Armenian occupiers towards the anthropogenic ecosystems can be observed everywhere in Karabakh. Destroyed bridges, roads, farmland and vineyards bear witness to this at every turn. One of the most important factors hindering reconstruction in Karabakh is the country’s landmines. In every part of Karabakh where Azerbaijanis used to live, you can come across mines of varying explosive power. The exact number of these mines is only known to the Armenians, who refuse to provide the Azerbaijani side with maps of the mined areas. According to rough estimates, the number of mines in Karabakh is in the hundreds of thousands. It is impossible to restore the anthropogenic ecosystems and maintain the normal life activities of the population without clearing the mines on the land.
The industrial plants destroyed during the occupation were considered the most important resources for the life of the population in the region. Before the occupation, industrial enterprises in Karabakh supplied 11% of decorative materials, 7.8% of limestone, 3% of construction materials, 11% of footwear, 5% of meat, 25.2% of butter, 35% of wine products, 13.5% of silk raw materials, 19.3% of wool and 11.5% of mineral water of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Since the occupying forces have completely destroyed the registered organizations, their reconstruction requires enormous financial resources.
The use of prohibited weapons by the Armenian army during the hostilities led to physical and chemical contamination of the region’s territory, destroyed a large number of rare plants and animals and caused considerable damage to the region’s flora and fauna. As a result of the chemical contamination of freshwater ecosystems, the flora and fauna of rivers and lakes disappeared, the self-renewal potential of the ecosystems came to a standstill and the freshwater basins became dead zones. Monitoring of the Okchu River by the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Azerbaijan after the occupation, for example, showed that the ecological pollution of the Okchu River was far above normal levels and led to mass deaths of fish.
Illegal archaeological excavations by Armenians in the Azykh Cave have caused considerable damage to rare bat species that had chosen this place as their habitat. Fires during the occupation led to the mass extinction of various animal species. For example, the destruction of the red oak (Quercus L.), the stunted tree and the hazelnut in the forests of Lachin led to the decline of certain bird and other animal species. Fires caused by white phosphorus bombs are not extinguished naturally, as such fires are long-lasting and cause an environmental disaster. In the occupied areas, 21 endemic plant species of Azerbaijan, including 82 endemic plants of the Caucasus, as well as hundreds of rare and endangered plant species were destroyed. These include the Karabakh tulip (Tulipa karabaghensis), the Karabakh breastflower (Psephellus karabaghensis Sosn) and the Shusha hornbeam (Carpinus schuschaensis H.J.P. Winkl). 60,000 hectares of forest in Azerbaijan were destroyed, cut down and removed, our soil and rivers were polluted and poisoned by the Armenians.
All this shows that the Armenians are practicing environmental terrorism against the ecosystem and biological species in the occupied Azerbaijani territories. The Karabakh region is rich in building raw materials for various purposes. The construction raw materials were illegally mined with the help of some foreign companies, which has led to serious anthropogenic damage to the natural environment. The competent state authorities of the Republic of Azerbaijan are assessing the extent of ecological damage to soil, flora and fauna and natural ecosystems in the areas where mines operated by Armenians are located.
The victims often carry the psychological damage and mental pain caused by such a brutal occupation with them for decades. It’s as if an entire generation is being labeled…
In Khojaly alone, 63 children were killed and 76 injured. In the 30 years of occupation, these figures are many times higher. There are also children who survived the genocide in Khojaly, who saw that night with their own eyes or who were captured by the Armenians and later liberated. They are now adults and scattered in various regions of Azerbaijan. Some are far from their homeland, others fell as martyrs in the 44-day Patriotic War. In the 21st century, it is very difficult for them to return to the 20th century and remember that terrible night that pained them, disturbed them, shook their souls and darkened their eyes. The childhood of these children of Khojaly, who were only one step away from death, is different, full of tragedy. Even if these children are still alive, their childhood is dead, the “childhood” page in their biographies is always blank. They are children who lost their childhood in one night. That is why they are also called “Khojaly children”. A. Khalilkizi, who found these surviving children and wrote down their words, called the childhood of the Khojali children a “childhood torn apart by bullets”. Yes, they find it hard to remember the events, but what about the children who have erased that night from their memories? For example, those who were born on January 1, 1988 in Khojaly and suffered two gunshot wounds during the genocide in Khojaly, like Amirova Nigar Tevekkul, who lives on by erasing that night from her memory. Or the information from a Russian journalist that most of the captured Meskhetian Turks were children who, half-dressed, were insulted by the Armenian soldiers. Was there any news about the fate of these children? What was the mental state of those who survived? Is it possible for the children of Karabakh, who witnessed the atrocities of the Armenians in general, to forget these tragic events? If only all children in our world, regardless of their religion, race or nationality, could experience a happy childhood.
The war crimes and the great humanitarian tragedy in Karabakh are not sufficiently recognized by the Western public. What do you think is the reason for this?
There are many reasons for this: the double standards of Western states towards Azerbaijan, the Christian factor, the activities of the Armenian lobby, the capture of Western media organizations by the Armenian lobby, etc. During the 30-year Armenian occupation of Karabakh, the member states of the Minsk Group were not interested in peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan out of self-interest and artificially prolonged the process by ignoring Armenia’s occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory, not stopping Armenia’s occupation and not forcing Armenians to leave the occupied territories. Azerbaijan liberated the territories occupied by the Armenians. The Western states, which had remained silent about Khojaly and other genocides and massacres, began to defend the rights of the Armenians in Karabakh.
Azerbaijan continued to grant the Armenians of Karabakh the right to stay. But the Armenians left Azerbaijan voluntarily and went to Armenia. Nevertheless, Western media and government representatives are distorting events. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who made clear the bias of the Western media, said of the journalists who interviewed him: “They were all very aggressive, as if it was not an interview but an accusation. Nothing is happening on the Armenian side. Nobody asks Pashinyan why he attacked Ganja with ballistic missiles. Why did he kill 92 people? Why did he attack the funeral in Terter? Why did he attack Berde with cluster bombs, killing 21 people and injuring 70? They only attack us. The international media only slander Azerbaijan”.
The same comparison can be made in the case of Khojaly. Of course, there are exceptions in the media that photograph the truth and report objectively. In other words, the Western countries are dependent on their own interests and the activities of the Armenian diaspora in this respect. Think about it! The inhumane atrocities of Khojaly were first made known to the world public as genocide by the journalist Cengiz Mustafayev. On June 4, 1992, Mustafayev showed the pictures of the massacre at a press conference in Moscow, thus ensuring that the atrocities and the inhuman images from Khojaly became known in the world press. However, the Armenian authorities claimed that the number of dead was only 80 and that the atrocity images were forged documents for propaganda purposes. The military cameraman Seyidağa Möhsünlü, who recorded the images of the people from Khojaly who came to Agdam and the people from Khojaly who were rescued from captivity, was able to refute this denial through the testimonies of eyewitnesses.
News and articles exposing the Armenian atrocities were published in 1992 in the French newspapers “Valeurs Actuelles” (March 14), “Le Monde” (March 14), “The Sunday Times” (March 1), “New York Times” (March 3), “Washington Post” (February 28), “The Sunday Times” (March 8) and “Financial Times” (March 9). Although the Paris-based magazine “Cru l`Eveneman” on March 25 and the newspaper “Izvestia” on March 13 reported extensively on the subject, the countries in which these newspapers and magazines were published remained silent about the events in Khojaly. Even after the Azerbaijani army had completely liberated Karabakh from occupation, France, for example, launched a smear campaign against Azerbaijan and directly supported and armed the aggressor Armenia. The Armenian diaspora in France and other countries is very strong. It is therefore very difficult to inform them about the realities in Azerbaijan.
What do you mean exactly? Can you give some concrete examples?
Reza Degati, a South Azerbaijani photographer who lives in France, is an example of this. It is very difficult to publish an article or a book about the genocide and massacres committed by Armenians in Karabakh, including Khojaly. I know that very well myself. A book chapter I wrote on the psychological impact of the Khojaly genocide on children, which was to be published in the UK, was not published with various excuses, and eventually even the bibliography of that article said that the name Khojaly could not be included. It is interesting that the Armenians in Khojaly massacre children, women and old people, the Western public remains silent, the Armenians leave Karabakh voluntarily without being threatened, and the Western public speaks loudly about the violation of the rights of the Armenians. Where is the justice?
There is certainly still a lot of educational work to be done. What initiatives are there to recognize the Khojaly events as genocide at the international level?
The Azerbaijani parliament voted on February 25, 1997 the events of February 26, 1992 in Khojaly was declared a day of remembrance for the victims of the genocide in Khojaly. Thanks to the regular activities of the Azerbaijani state, the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, the International Center for Multiculturalism in Baku, the State Committee for Cooperation with Religious Organizations and the Office of Caucasian Muslims, as well as the strong lobbying of Turkey, we can say that the Khojaly events have been recognized as genocide or massacre by 17 different countries of the world, 25 states and one state of the USA. The city of Keçiören in Ankara, which has a population of 1.3 million, is the first municipality in Turkey to officially recognize the Khojaly genocide. In a resolution passed by the city council on March 9, 2005, it was determined that in the night of 25. to the On February 26, 1992, a genocide was committed against the Armenians in Khojaly, in which hundreds of civilians were brutally massacred, and on the same day a special park was inaugurated in Keçiören to commemorate the victims of the Khojaly genocide.
At the 39th meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which took place in Djibouti from 15 to 17 November 2012, the Khojaly tragedy was recognized as genocide for the first time. This declaration is very important for the recognition of the events of Khojaly as “genocide” and is considered the first international support. The Islamic Summit, the highest decision-making body of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, declared at its 12th summit meeting on 6. and February 7, 2013 in Cairo officially declared that “the Khojaly tragedy is a genocide and a crime against humanity”. On 26 February 2020, the Organization of Turkic States issued a statement on the 28th anniversary of the Khojaly genocide and published a commemorative message on behalf of its Secretary General Baghdad Amreev on the organization’s official website, describing the Khojaly tragedy as one of the bloodiest crimes in human history and classifying it as genocide.
Support for the recognition of the Khojaly events as genocide, as recognized and declared by Azerbaijan, has continued to grow over the years and has been endorsed by the Senate of the United States of Mexico, the Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the Senate of Colombia, the International Relations Committee of the Chamber of Deputies of the Supreme Parliament of the Czech Republic, the People’s Assembly of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Congress of the Republic of Peru and the National Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Congress of the Republic of Peru, the National Assembly of Panama, the National Congress of Honduras, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly of the Republic of Sudan, the Congress of Guatemala, the National Council of the Republic of Slovenia, the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly of the Republic of Djibouti, the House of Representatives of the Republic of Paraguay, the Senate of Jordan, the House of Representatives of the Indonesian Parliament and the Upper House of the National Council of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan have recognized the atrocities committed by Armenia as genocide and massacre. 25 states in the US – Massachusetts, Texas, New Jersey, Georgia, Maine, New Mexico, Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Arizona, Utah, Nebraska, Hawaii, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, Illinois and one county – Miami-Dade have recognized the Khodjali genocide as a genocide or massacre.
Dr. Irade Mammedova is head of the scientific group “Historical Demography of Azerbaijan” at the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan