Tragedy in Khojaly military review. Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Khojaly tragedy

On the night of February 25-26, 1992, during the Nagorno-Karabakh armed conflict, Armenian armed formations, with the participation of servicemen of the 366th regiment of the Joint Forces of the CIS stationed in Stepanakert (assumed to have acted without an order from the command), stormed the city of Khojaly, predominantly populated by Azerbaijanis .

There is a different assessment of the events by the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides of the conflict. Official Baku calls the incident one of the terrible tragedies of the 20th century and unambiguously qualifies it as genocide and a war crime. Officials of Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), without denying that during the capture of Khojaly there could have been crimes against the civilian population, refer them to the realities of wartime. The assault on Khojaly is interpreted as a legitimate military operation to neutralize the Khojaly bridgehead, from which Stepanakert was fired with rockets.

The situation in the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in late 1991 - early 1992

Since the autumn of 1991, the National Army of Azerbaijan began to form and operate in Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan. Units of the OMON of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan continued to operate. In addition to these official formations, various detachments operated there, in words subordinate to the Popular Front of Azerbaijan, but in reality not subordinate to anyone.

Since January 1992, no electricity was supplied to Khojaly, there was no heating, no running water, telephones did not work. Part of the residents left the besieged city, but the complete evacuation of the civilian population, despite the insistent requests of the head of the executive power of the city Elman Mammadov, was not organized. By February 13, 1992, when the last helicopter flight was made to Khojaly, no more than 300 residents were evacuated from there.

The January offensive of the armed forces of Azerbaijan towards the village of Askeran with the Armenian population could lead to the lifting of the blockade from Khojaly, but it was not successful.

On February 25, 1992, the assault on Khojaly by Armenian armed formations began. According to some reports, this choice of date was timed to coincide with the anniversary of the pogroms against the Armenian population in Sumgayit.

Assault on Khojaly February 25-26, 1992

Defenders. By the time of the assault, there were from 2 to 4 thousand inhabitants in Khojaly, including several hundred defenders of the city. Khojaly was defended by militias (about 160 people), OMON officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan and soldiers of the National Army of Azerbaijan. According to information received from both sides, there were 3 units of armored vehicles in the city, as well as an Alazan installation. According to the participants of the assault and NKR officials, there were also 2 "Grad" multiple rocket launchers in Khojaly. Alif Hajiyev, commander of the OMON of the Khojaly airport, was in charge of the defense of the city of Khojaly.

Participants in the attack. NOAA formations consisted of detachments (companies) subordinate to territorial commanders, and those, in turn, to the commander and chief of staff, who were appointed by the decision of the Presidium of the NKR Supreme Council. Officials have repeatedly stated that all Armenian armed units in Nagorno-Karabakh are under a single command. The detachments did not have a charter and a single oath. There are orders for the army, which are communicated to the fighters by the commanders. However, even commanders often did not have these orders in writing, and none of the rank and file soldiers read them at all. The only document regulating the behavior of members of the armed formations in relation to the civilian population of the opposing side is Order No. 1 on the National Liberation Army of Artsakh, which categorically prohibits any violence against the civilian population of the opposite side and mockery of the corpses of the enemy, however, its content is ordinary the soldiers knew only from the words of the commanders.

NOAA units took part in the assault with the support of armored vehicles - armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles and tanks.

It was not possible to obtain any information about who exactly gave the order to storm Khojaly and who led the operation. However, from the statement of the NKR leadership that it fully controls the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, it follows that it is responsible both for the development and implementation of the operation to capture Khojaly, and for all other actions related to solving the problems of its population.

Participation of military personnel of the 366th regiment of the Soviet Army. According to almost all the refugees from Khojaly, servicemen of the 366th regiment took part in the assault on the city, and some of them entered the city.

According to information received from the Armenian side, combat vehicles of the 366th regiment with crews took part in the assault on Khojaly, but did not directly enter the city. According to the Armenian side, the participation of military personnel in the hostilities was not authorized by a written order of the regiment's command.

Storm progress. Artillery shelling of Khojaly began at about 23:00 on February 25. At the same time, first of all, the barracks, located in the depths of the residential area, and defense outposts were destroyed. The entry of infantry detachments into the city took place from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. on February 26.

According to members of the Armenian armed formations, organized resistance on the scale of the entire Khojaly garrison was quickly broken. The destruction in Khojaly confirms the fact of shelling, but does not correspond to the destruction and damage characteristic of stubborn street fighting. The last pocket of resistance was crushed by 7 o'clock in the morning.

Part of the population soon after the start of the assault began to leave Khojaly, trying to go towards Agdam. In some groups of fleeing there were armed people from the garrison of the city.

People left in two directions:

from the eastern outskirts of the city to the northeast along the riverbed, leaving Askeran on the left (it was this path, as Armenian officials pointed out, that was left as a "free corridor");
from the northern outskirts of the city to the northeast, leaving Askeran on the right (apparently, a smaller part of the refugees left along this path).

Thus, most civilians left Khojaly, and approximately 200-300 people remained in Khojaly, hiding in their houses and cellars.

As a result of the shelling of the city, an unspecified number of civilians died on the territory of Khojaly during the assault. The Armenian side practically refused to provide information on the number of people who died in this way.

According to the Armenian side, the attackers lost up to 10-12 people killed.

"Free corridor" for the exit of the population

According to the NKR officials, a “free corridor” was left for the civilian population to leave Khojaly, which began at the eastern outskirts of the city, ran along the riverbed and went northeast, leading towards Aghdam and leaving Askeran on the left. The width of the corridor was 100-200 and in some places up to 300 m. The members of the Armenian armed formations promised not to fire at civilians and members of military formations who came out without weapons and were within this “corridor”.

According to officials of the NKR and participants in the assault, the population of Khojaly at the beginning of the assault was informed of the existence of such a "corridor" with the help of loudspeakers mounted on armored personnel carriers. However, the persons who reported this information did not rule out that most of the population of Khojaly could not hear the message about the “free corridor” because of the shooting and the low power of the loudspeakers.

NKR officials also reported that a few days before the assault helicopters had dropped leaflets over Khojaly calling on the population of Khojaly to use the "free corridor". However, not a single copy of such a leaflet was provided to confirm this. No traces of such leaflets were found in Khojaly either. Refugees from Khojaly who were interviewed reported that they had never heard of such leaflets.

In Aghdam and Baku, 60 people who fled from Khojaly during the storming of the city were interviewed. Only one person from those interviewed said that he knew about the existence of a “free corridor” (he was informed about this by a “military” from the Khojaly garrison).

A few days before the assault, representatives of the Armenian side repeatedly, using radio communications, informed the authorities of Khojaly about the upcoming assault and urged them to immediately completely remove the population from the city. The fact that this information was received by the Azerbaijani side and transmitted to Baku is confirmed in the publications of the Baku newspapers ("Baku worker").

The existence of the "corridor" is also indicated by the words of the Khodjaly chief executive Elman Mammadov, quoted in the newspaper "Russian Thought" dated April 3, 1992: "We knew that this corridor was intended for the exit of the civilian population ...".

The fate of the inhabitants of Khojaly

According to the official data of the Azerbaijani side, in total during the assault on Khojaly and the events that followed it: .

613 people were killed (including 63 children, 106 women, 70 elderly);
8 families are completely destroyed;
25 children lost both parents;
130 children lost one parent;
Wounded - 487 people (including 76 children);
People who were held hostage - 1275 people;
Missing - 150 people;
Damage was caused to the state and personal property of citizens estimated at 5 billion rubles (in prices as of April 1, 1992).

Assessing the total number of dead residents of Khojaly, it should be taken into account that people died not only during the shelling of refugees (part of the bodies of people who died in this way were taken to Agdam), but also froze while wandering in the mountains. It is not possible to accurately determine the number of frozen inhabitants of Khojaly. According to the newspaper "Karabakh" dated 26.03.92, the commission for assistance to refugees from Khojaly issued benefits to 476 families of the victims.

Shortly after the start of the assault, the inhabitants rushed out of the city in a panic. People did not have time to take the essentials - many of the fugitives were lightly dressed (as a result of which they received frostbite of varying degrees), many refugees interviewed in Baku and Aghdam did not even have documents.

Refugees leaving along the "free corridor". A large stream of residents rushed out of the city along the riverbed. In some groups of refugees there were armed people from the garrison of the city. These refugees, walking along the "free corridor" in the territory adjacent to the Aghdam region of Azerbaijan, were fired upon, as a result of which many people died. The surviving refugees dispersed. The fugitives stumbled upon the Armenian outposts and were subjected to shelling. Some of the refugees still managed to get to Agdam; part, mostly women and children (it is impossible to establish the exact number), froze during wanderings in the mountains; part, according to the testimony of those who went to Agdam, was captured near the villages of Pirjamal and Nakhichevanik. There are testimonies of already exchanged residents of Khojaly that a certain number of prisoners were shot.

The place of mass death of refugees, as well as the bodies of those killed, were filmed when Azerbaijani units carried out an operation to transport the bodies by helicopter to Agdam. From the shots it follows that the bodies of those killed were scattered over a large area. Among the bodies photographed at the place of mass death, most were the bodies of women and the elderly, among the dead were also children. At the same time, there were also people in uniform among those killed. In general, several dozen bodies were recorded on videotape.

It can be assumed that, taking into account the lack of roads and the physical capabilities of the mass of people, the refugees from Khojaly could reach the place of mass death in about 7-8 hours (the way along the highway, running approximately parallel to the "free corridor" zone, takes about 2 hours). Thus, the shelling of refugees took place already at dawn.

Official representatives of the NKR and members of the Armenian armed groups explained the death of civilians in the "free corridor" zone by the fact that armed people left with the refugees, who fired at the Armenian outposts, causing return fire, as well as an attempt to break through from the side of the main Azerbaijani forces. According to the members of the Armenian armed detachments, the Azerbaijani formations attempted an armed breakthrough in the direction of the "free corridor" from Agdam. At the moment when the Armenian outposts were repulsing the attack, the first groups of refugees from Khojaly approached them in the rear. Armed people among the refugees opened fire on the Armenian outposts. During the battle, one post was destroyed (2 people were killed, 10 people were injured), but the fighters of another post, the existence of which the Azerbaijanis did not suspect, opened fire at close range on people coming from Khojaly.

According to the testimonies of refugees from Khojaly, armed people walking in the stream of refugees engaged in skirmishes with the Armenian outposts, but each time the shooting was started by the Armenian side first.

Refugees on their way from the northern outskirts of the city to the northeast. Groups of refugees, moving from the northern outskirts of the city to the northeast, were also subjected to shelling, leaving Askeran on the right.

In the journal of the ambulance train in the city of Aghdam, through which almost all the injured residents and defenders of Khojaly passed, 598 wounded and frostbite were recorded (most of them were frostbitten). A case of scalping a living person was also recorded there.

There is information cited by Thomas de Waal that the commander of the defense of Khojaly Hajiyev urged civilians to leave for Aghdam, promising to give them OMON detachments to protect them, which would accompany them to the city itself. At night, a huge crowd of people ran knee-deep in the snow through the forest and began to descend into the valley of the Gargar River. In the early morning, the inhabitants of Khojaly, accompanied by a few riot policemen, came out onto the plain not far from the Armenian village of Nakhichevanik. Here they were met with a flurry of fire by Armenian fighters, who sat on the mountain slopes right above the plain. The policemen returned fire, but the forces were very unequal, and they were shot down. More and more refugees arrived at the place of the horrific massacre.

Hijran Alekperova, a former resident of Khojaly, told a representative of the human rights organization Human Rights Watch: "We got to Nakhichevanik by nine in the morning. There was a field, there were many dead on it. Probably, there were a hundred of them. I did not try to count them. I was wounded in this field. Hajiyev Alif was shot, and I wanted to help him. The bullet hit in my stomach. I saw where they were shooting from. I saw many corpses in this field. They were killed quite recently - their skin color has not changed yet".

Sergei Bondarev, Russian, resident of Khojaly, recalls: "It turned out to be the most difficult thing to choose a safe path. We decided to stick to the gas pipeline, but after walking three or four kilometers, we found that the road leads to Askeran. The power line also led there. There was only one thing left - to make my way through the forest. I was already exhausted, therefore, despite to my wife's protests, forced her to go further with the people, promising that as soon as I gain strength, I will catch up with them. Soon I really caught up with them, but my wife was not among them. Suddenly, shots began to be heard from Askeran. others began to fall. I looked at my watch - the only thing I managed to take with me. It was exactly 6.10 am. But the Khojaly people continued to go towards the enemy, since there was no other way out. Among the women and children, I noticed my wife. I started shouting to they lay down on the ground. It was a terrible sight that I will never forget: strong, armed to the teeth Armenian guys shoot at defenseless women and children rushing about in deep snow" .

The fate of the inhabitants who remained in the city. After the city was occupied by Armenian armed formations, about 300 civilians remained in it, including 86 Meskhetian Turks.

According to the testimony of residents, participants in the assault, officials of the NKR and representatives of the media who were at that time in the Khojaly region, all the remaining residents were taken prisoner and taken to Stepanakert (a temporary detention center and a motorcade), to a detention center in Krasnoye village and the detention center in the city of Askeran. Some, with the permission of the NKR leadership, were taken to private homes of Armenian families, whose relatives were imprisoned on the territory of Azerbaijan.

According to the official officials of the NKR, all women and children were handed over to the Azerbaijani side free of charge within a week.

According to information received from both sides, by March 28, 1992, over 700 captive residents of Khojaly, detained both in the city itself and on the way to Agdam, had been handed over to the Azerbaijani side. Most of them were women and children.

At the same time, there are testimonies of the inhabitants of Khojaly that women and children, as well as men, were kept as "exchange material". These testimonies are confirmed by personal observations of representatives of the HRC "Memorial": on March 13, residents of Khojaly, including women and young girls, were still held hostage in the city of Askeran. There is reliable evidence that women were forcibly kept in Askeran even after this date.

Conditions of detention of captured defenders and residents of Khojaly. During the inspection by the observers of the "Memorial" TDF in the city of Stepanakert, where captured residents of Khojaly and captured members of the Azerbaijani armed formations (all of them are defined as "hostages" in the conflict zone) are kept, it was found that the conditions of their detention are extremely unsatisfactory. The appearance of the Azerbaijanis held in the TDF testified that they receive extremely poor food, they have obvious signs of exhaustion. Oral information was received that the prisoners were regularly beaten. It should also be noted that the observers were given the opportunity to examine only a part of the prisoners.

According to the testimony of the inhabitants and defenders of Khojaly taken prisoner and then exchanged, the men were beaten. Most of the testimonies noted that women and children, unlike men, were not beaten. However, there are testimonies, confirmed by doctors in Baku and Aghdam, about cases of rape, including of minors.

Property of Khojaly residents. The fleeing residents of Khojaly did not have the opportunity to take with them even the most necessary minimum of their property. The inhabitants, taken away from Khojaly by members of the Armenian armed formations, were not given the opportunity to take at least part of it with them. The abandoned property was taken out by the residents of Stepanakert and nearby settlements. By decision of the Supreme Council of the NKR, houses in Khojaly are settled by needy Armenians, for which they are given numbers.

The reaction of official authorities to the Khojaly events

The NKR Supreme Council issued a statement deploring the cases of cruelty during the capture of Khojaly. However, no attempts were made to investigate the crimes related to the capture of Khojaly. At the same time, officials did not deny that atrocities could have taken place during the capture of Khojaly, since among the members of the Armenian armed groups there are embittered people whose relatives were killed by Azerbaijanis, as well as people with a criminal past.

In an interview with Nezavisimaya Gazeta on April 2, 1992, by then the resigned President of Azerbaijan, Ayaz Mutalibov, blamed the crime on unnamed forces seeking his resignation. According to Thomas de Waal, in this way he tried to play down his role in the inability to protect the city.

Major Valery Babayan, an employee of the Armenian police, believes that the main motive for those events was personal revenge. He told the American journalist Paul Quinn-Judge that many of those involved in the attack on Khojaly, "were originally from Sumgayit and other similar places."

When the Armenian commander Serge Sargsyan was asked to tell about the capture of Khojaly, he cautiously answered: "We prefer not to talk about it out loud." As for the number of victims, he said "a lot has been exaggerated", and the fleeing Azerbaijanis offered armed resistance.

However, Sargsyan spoke more honestly and more harshly about the events that had taken place: "But I think that the main issue was completely different. Before Khojaly, the Azerbaijanis thought that they could joke with us, they thought that the Armenians were not capable of raising a hand against the civilian population. We managed to break this [stereotype]. That's what happened. And we must also take into account that among those boys there were people who fled from Baku and Sumgayit".

This assessment suggests that the Khojaly massacres were, at least in part, a deliberate act of intimidation.

Legal assessment of the events in Khojaly on February 25-26, 1992

Employees of the Memorial Human Rights Center were among the first to give a legal assessment of the events in Khojaly. After conducting their own investigation, collecting and summarizing significant amounts of information, human rights activists came to the following conclusions.

During the military operation to seize the city of Khojaly, mass cases of violence against the civilian population of the city took place.

Information about the existence of a "free corridor" was not brought to the attention of the bulk of the inhabitants of Khojaly.

The civilian population remaining in Khojaly after it was occupied by Armenian troops was deported. These actions were carried out in an organized manner, many of the deportees were kept in Stepanakert, which clearly indicates the corresponding order of the NKR authorities.

The massacre of civilians located in the "free corridor" zone and the adjacent territory cannot be justified by any circumstances.

The capture and holding as "hostages" of civilians in Khojaly, including women, is in clear contradiction with the readiness declared by the NKR authorities to transfer all civilians of Khojaly to the Azerbaijani side free of charge.

The inhabitants of Khojaly were illegally deprived of their property, which was appropriated by the inhabitants of Stepanakert and neighboring settlements. The NKR authorities legalized such appropriation of other people's property by issuing warrants for moving into houses belonging to the fled and deported residents of Khojaly.

Servicemen of the 366th motorized rifle regiment belonging to the troops of the Commonwealth of Independent States took part in the assault on Khojaly. The facts of the participation of CIS military personnel in military operations and military operations in the conflict region, as well as the facts of the transfer of military property to the formations of the conflicting parties require a special investigation.

Based on the foregoing, the Human Rights Center "Memorial" states that during the assault on the city of Khojaly, the actions of the Armenian armed forces of Nagorno-Karabakh in relation to the civilians of Khojaly are in gross contradiction with the Geneva Convention, as well as with the following articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (adopted UN General Assembly December 10, 1948):

article 2, declaring that “everyone shall have all the rights and all the freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind whatsoever, such as ... language, religion, ... national ... origin.. . or other position”;
article 3, which recognizes the right of everyone to life, liberty and security of person;
article 5, which prohibits cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment;
article 9, which prohibits arbitrary arrest, detention or expulsion;
article 17, which proclaims the right of every person to own property and prohibits the arbitrary deprivation of a person of his property.

The actions of armed formations grossly contradict the Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergencies and During Armed Conflicts (proclaimed by the UN General Assembly on December 14, 1974).

The Azerbaijani prosecutor's office, having conducted its own investigation into the events in Khojaly, qualified the actions of the organizers and perpetrators of this tragedy as genocide and a war crime.

In written declaration No. 324, 30 members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) from Albania, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Norway, Poland and Turkey stated that "on February 26, 1992, the Armenians slaughtered the population of Khojaly and completely destroyed city" and called on the Assembly to recognize the massacre in Khojaly as part of the "genocide carried out by Armenians against the Azerbaijani population" .

In 2010, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization of the Islamic Conference adopted a document, according to which the parliaments of 51 states were recommended to recognize the Khojaly tragedy as a crime against humanity.

Memorials in memory of the Khojaly tragedy were erected in Turkey (Ankara, 2011; Usak, 2014) and Germany (Berlin, 2011).

Notes

Report of the Human Rights Center "Memorial" on the mass violations of human rights associated with the occupation of the settlement of Khojaly on the night of February 25-26, 1992 by armed groups // Caucasian Knot, 26.02.2013.
Tom de Waal. "Black Garden" (Chapter 11. August 1991 - May 1992 The beginning of the war) // Caucasian Knot.
The Khojaly genocide is one of the most heinous crimes of the 20th century // 1news.az, 26/02/2015.
Khojaly - the most cruel tragedy of the end of the last century // FNKA of Russian Azerbaijanis.
Justice for Khojaly // Nezavisimaya Gazeta, 26.02.2010.
Recognition of the genocide perpetrated against the Azeri population by the Armenians. Written Declaration No. 324, 2nd edition, originally tabled on 26 April 2001.
Khojaly massacre - a crime against humanity // Mirror, 02.02.2010.
Gaceta Parlamentaria, Número 3502, miércoles 2 de mayo de 2012; Diputados se solidarizan con la República de Azerbaiyán por genocidio // Emisoras Unidas, 07.10.2015.

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Man, like all living beings, comes into the world, lives, grows old, dies. This is the usual formula of life, subject to the laws of nature. However, a person sometimes violates this formula. He destroys himself, he ends his own life. And from heaven comes a voice that the murder of a man by a man is ungodly. We are all creations of the Lord, and therefore no one chooses both parents and the Motherland himself. This choice belongs to the Lord. On February 26, 1992, the Armenians opposed God. Having attacked Khojaly, located in the Nagorno-Karabakh zone of the Republic of Azerbaijan, they killed 613 people, crippled 657 people, and took 1275 people hostage. The fate of 150 people who were taken hostage is still unknown.

THEY WILL NEVER BE ADULT

Səriyyə Cəfərova. “Onlar heç vaxt böyüməyəcəklər”, ensiklopediya, ingilis, rus, azərbaycan dillərində, “Çaşıoğlu” nəşriyyatı, Bakı, 2006.

Reader! This book is about children. But there are no children's songs in it, no pictures drawn by them, no poems written by them, no fairy tales that they listen to. They will never grow up. They will forever be children. They are longing, grief, sorrow that will never be erased from the hearts of Azerbaijanis. For this anguish, this grief, this sorrow are inscribed in our hearts with blood. But we didn't wash away the blood with blood. Why? This terrible question is intended not only for the Azerbaijanis who survived the Khojaly tragedy. The answer to it must be found by all the peoples of the world.

We are a people who straighten up and rise to their feet after great tragedies, experiencing their grief in themselves. We do not announce it to the whole world and do not convey our sorrows to anyone. And this book is not a chronicle of our sorrows. We have prepared it in order to inform about the tragedy not only of children from Khojaly, but of all children of the world. Yes, this book is an expression of protest from children to adults whose lives have been cut short.

Every year on February 26, millions of Azerbaijanis watch videotapes reflecting the horrors of Armenian blood-drinking and shudder. These shots were captured by the National Hero of Azerbaijan Chingiz Mustafayev, who died in the line of his professional duty during the battles for Karabakh. To give a written image of these frames, probably, not a single writing person will be able to. For the picture of atrocity, blood-drinking, horror is so deep that the human imagination is powerless to find words capable of expressing it.

63 children and teenagers were killed in the Khojaly tragedy. These murders were carried out so brutally that in protest against this massacre it is impossible to ask the question: "What was the fault of the children?" For the hatred of the Armenians for the people they shot is so strong that the question: “What is the fault of the children?” in contrast to that hatred, he would look very primitive. What kind of sin can a child have? There was only one fault behind the bloodied children from Khojaly: they were Azerbaijanis!

These children will never sing songs, draw, read poetry, listen to fairy tales.
No one will ask them the question: “What will you become when you grow up?”!
On their unfulfilled dreams, the longing of the world will turn green.
People, make sure that this grief does not take root!

I am a witness!

About February 26, 1992 - one of the most terrible and ruthless nights in history - I didn’t read in books, I didn’t hear from people who survived the tragedy of that night. It's just that fate was destined for me terrible.
I am a witness to that tragedy.
I am an unfortunate resident of Khojaly who went through the Khojaly tragedy, experienced that horror, and now I am surprised that I survived, and at the same time regret it.

I don't have the strength to grab onto the story and question it. I only have the strength to call on people and shout: “Enough, stop shedding blood! ..”

The book you are about to read may be the world's only collection of stories about children whose lives were cut short. Maybe this is the first encyclopedia about martyr children. But, reader, this encyclopedia will only give you information about the terrible events of life. If you read this book and are not ready to cry, do not lose your peace, look back at your baby sleeping sweetly in the cradle, at the child playing in the yard with peers. Would you agree to freeze them on a frosty night in the snow? Can you bear it if your children go missing, if they meet a bullet and are covered in red blood?

And the Khojaly children slept just as sweetly in their cradles, they were also unlived by the sounds of their mother's lullaby.

And Khodjaly children played on the banks of the river, on the mountain, on the mountain slopes. And they pursued their dreams.
Now they are gone.
But the people of Khojaly withstood this absence.
These children will never exist.
Mothers will never call them home.
Teachers will never pick them up and ask for a lesson.
Their names will not be in class magazines, they will become a bloody page of history.
For most of them don't even have graves...

I taught most of those kids. Their faces, their eyes are still before my eyes, their words, their voices still ring in my ears. They dream of me every night. I wrote this book to tell people these dreams of mine. Span by span, I went around the villages, cities, collected their photographs, once again experienced the night of the terrible February 26th. Perhaps this is my last duty to their souls. For fourteen years I have tried to fulfill this duty. But it was only now that it was destined. The head of the "Azerbaijani Way" Political Movement, taking on the entire financial burden, published this book in three languages, and it will turn out even better than I wanted. If everyone tried to fulfill their civic duty to the Motherland like this. Then the Khojaly tragedy would not have happened, and there would be no need to write such bitter and bloody books. For I will never again ask them the question: “Guys, who learned the lesson?”
Now I have to turn to them and ask the question: "Who wants to live?"
I know that everyone will raise their hands and whisper, "Teacher, me!"
I don't want to hear this whisper from the children from Khojaly.
I can't stand this answer, I can't stand it...
My tears, my grief, sorrow, my unhealed wound, my inexhaustible longing… my martyr disciples. I should have been your teacher, not witness to your death!
I love you!
People, love them too!
Love and be sad.
For the hands of these children, clinging to adults, will ask until the end of time: “What was our fault ?!”
Answer adults!

I would like to draw the attention of readers to the lack of photographs in some materials. The photographs of some of the murdered children in the Khojaly tragedy were torn, burned, turned into ashes, like their fates.

Sariya Muslimkyzy

The ill-fated inhabitants of the ill-fated city
Biographies

Chinara Nazim kyzy Abyshova was born in 1982 in Khojaly. Chingiz Nazim oglu Abyshov was born in 1986 in Khojaly. After February 26, 1992, no one saw them either alive or dead.

They were unable to leave Khojaly on 26 February. Therefore, their fate is unknown, as well as the fate of Khojaly. Chinara was 10 years old, her brother Chingiz was 6. A ditch flowed near their house… The shore of the ditch was a favorite place for Chinara and Chingiz. Their mother Mahbuba was a dressmaker. From scraps of multi-colored fabrics from which she sewed dresses, Chinara sewed many clothes for her dolls. When the clothes got dirty, the girl washed them in the canal and dried them on the stones. The children's father Nazim was a driver. He also stopped the car next to the canal. Wet through, Genghis was washing his father's car. After the house of their grandmother Medina in old Khojaly, in a place called Gyshlaglar, was burned down by the Armenians, she lived with her grandchildren. When grandmother Medina, who witnessed the terrible tragedy, told her grandchildren about how her house was set on fire, Genghis asked her grandmother in fright: “And if the Armenians burn down our house, how will we stay in the cold?” When the Armenians burned the old Khojaly and killed the children, grandmother Medina survived.

Grandmother Medina was unable to protect her grandchildren. And she didn't manage to save herself. That night, her son Nazim was on duty. Grandmother Medina, Mahbuba, Chinara, Genghis were waiting for him. It's been a long time since midnight. Mahbuba tied Chingiz to her back, and Chinaru took her by the hand and decided to hide in one of the cellars of the village and sit there until her husband arrived. When they were crossing the ditch, one shoe of Chinara fell into the water and swam away. They ran. Women, children, old people, crowding in cellars, pinned their hope only on God.

Sara Siyavush kyzy Salimova, who was captured that night, says: “My brother Khagani was a policeman. My mother, sister, me, brother Khazar were waiting for him at home. Bursting into our place, the Armenians took us prisoner and took us to the village of Norakia. In the morning they put me in a car and brought me to our village so that I could show the houses of the people whose names they mentioned. The House of Culture, where the soldiers of the National Army lived, was burned to the ground. At the gate of the house of Uncle Alish, who once worked as a chairman, two children and a woman were killed. They were Makhbuba Abyshova and her children Chinara and Chingiz. And grandmother Medina disappeared that gloomy night. … You have probably heard the expression “grave of the unknown soldier”, but may you never come across the expression “grave of the unknown child”. And if you meet, know that this is the grave of children left in Khojaly, children whose fate is unknown...

The story of three brothers
Biography

Usubov Elshad Kamran oglu was born in 1974 in Khojaly. Captured along with brothers Zakir and Aliyar on February 26, 1992, at the age of 18. Their fate is still unknown.

On the night of the occupation of Khojaly, Agil Guliyev, the commander of a detachment of volunteers who came to defend the city, was seriously wounded. Elshada Matan's mother took care of Agil like her own son. The roads were closed, and therefore it was impossible to send him to Baku. On the night of February 26, three brothers - Zakir, Aliyar, Elshad, and Agil's friends, having joined forces, wanted to pull Agil out of the city on a stretcher. However, one of the bullets hit Agil and he died. After that, the three brothers, their father Kamran and mother Matan, walked for three days. They are exhausted from frost and cold. Having gone astray, they did not come to Aghdam, but to the village of Dahraz, where the Armenians lived. When they, thinking that more than three hundred armed Armenians standing on a rock, shouted to them in Azerbaijani: “Khojaly people, come here!”, They came closer, it was already too late. The Khojaly residents, who, wanting to escape, ran away with them, fell under a hail of Armenian bullets, many Armenians killed, left the wounded in the snow, the survivors were taken prisoner. Among the prisoners, 13 young people were chosen, including the three brothers Zakir, Aliyar and Elshad, and taken away. Although their father Kamran kishi and mother Matan begged: “Leave us old people at least one of the three sons,” the Armenians pushed them away with a kick and beat them with the butt of a machine gun.

Until now, no one has reported any news about the brothers Zakir, Aliyar and Elshad, or from the rest of the captured young people.
Who will raise a hand to put an end to the story of the three brothers who went missing?

Lost dreams...
Biography

Allahverdiyev Mahir Novruz oglu was born in 1974 in Khojaly. He went missing on February 26, 1992, at the age of 18. Until now, nothing is known about his fate.

18 years is the time when a person's dreams bloom. But in 1992, the young people of Khojaly had one desire: for the war to end, for peace to come to the fertile land of Karabakh, so that they, like everyone else, get an education, create families, have children ... In fact, this is the dream of every young person living in the zone conflict. It's a pity that where guns speak, so many teenagers like Mahir can't fulfill this simple wish. Yes, even now...

On February 26, 1992, Mahir, together with his father Novruz, transports his grandfather Saleh through the Askeran fortress, who lost both eyes during the Great Patriotic War. According to Tajir, a resident of Khojaly, who witnessed this event, Novruz, who could not bear his blind father, smoked incessantly. The fate of a disabled father and an eighteen-year-old son depended on him. Grandfather, father, son ... alas, that night made the fate of the three of them unknown ... That terrible night, their grandmother Mahira Maleika was with them. When the shooting started, they lost their grandmother Maleyka. Near Nakhchivanik, grandmother Maleyka was taken prisoner. She survived all the torments of captivity. And Mahir, taken prisoner by the Armenians, also suffered unimaginable torments. The captive grandmother and grandson, who were held in Askeran, met each other here. After that, no one knows anything about their fate.

Now Mahir is marked in official documents as missing. And behind this word, the unfulfilled dreams of an eighteen-year-old young man are lost.

Waiting for you girl
Biography

Yusifova Natavan Panah kyzy, was born in 1988 in Shusha. She went missing on February 26, 1992, at the age of 4. Her fate is still unknown.

Before the birth of Natavan, her family was expelled from their ancestral lands in the Masis region of Armenia and found shelter in Shusha. Since the third child in the Natavan family was born in Shusha, she was given the name of the daughter of the Karabakh Khan Natavan. A lively little girl with long eyelashes, black eyebrows, black eyes was the favorite of the family. Fate brought them to Khojaly. Panah worked in Khojaly at the police station, so the family lived in Khojaly. And then…

The rest is best heard from Father Natavan Panah Yusifov: “That night I was on duty. After our post was captured by the enemy, I ran home and placed my three children and wife Sarah in a house in the middle of the village. Not far from the house, having taken a position with Vidadi Javadov, we started a shootout. Suddenly, the Armenians destroyed the house with a grenade launcher. The house was on fire. It was impossible to get close. We came to the police station. There was no one there. Arriving under the bridge in Khojaly, under the leadership of one person, we went to the forest. It was on the morning of February 26th. When we approached a place called Gara Gaya, a heavy firefight began. We were shelled and killed from everywhere. Along the ditch, the width of which was only enough for one person, we crawled to Agdam. A few days after the tragedy, the exchange of prisoners taken in Khojaly began. A bus of people released from captivity came to the central hospital of Aghdam. I found my daughter Servinaz and son Ramil there. I asked Aunt Nurkhanym, who had been released from captivity, about my wife and Natavan. She replied that when the house collapsed, Sarah died, but she did not know anything about Natavan.

Panah Yusifov is still asking about Natavan and looking for her...
Even her innocent soul does not report itself. Who knows, maybe children don't have souls...

The saddest story...
Biographies

Kuliyeva Parvane Garyagdy kyzy, born in 1979, Kulieva Revane Garyagdy kyzy, born in 1982, Kuliyev Shukur Garyagdy oglu, born in 1985, Khojaly. They froze to death with their mother on February 26, 1992 in the forest: Parvane at the age of 13, Revane at the age of 11, Shukur at the age of 7.

Sarah did not get to know maternal love, maternal care. And therefore, every time, at the birth of a child, she considered herself happy and said: “I will raise them with maternal care, which did not fall to my lot.” And when Sarah read the story "The Ice Statue", she was very impressed by how a mother in the war, turning into an ice statue, saved her child from the cold. How was Sarah to know that she, wanting to save her three children, would turn into an ice statue, freeze with her children ...

How can those blond kids with big almond eyes dance and sing at the New Year's celebrations be forgotten? Putting a crown on her head, Parvane turned into a mischievous spark, Revane sang a song, and Shukur danced.

And on February 26, everything froze ...
The children's uncle, Tahir, was ill with jaundice and had been in bed for several months. And Shukur rushed about in the heat.
Garyagdy wrapped a shawl around his sick brother and put him on his back. And Sarah, having tied her son Shukur to her back, took the children by the hands. The family ran towards the forest. Garyagdy, who, going to the pasture, guarded the cattle from predatory wolves, climbed the snowy passes, leaning on his staff. And Sarah, cut off from her husband during a shootout, walked, gathering all her strength, taking her children by the hands. Shukur's temperature gradually rose. Although they were exhausted due to the frost, the blizzard, Sarah did not stop. They had been walking for three days, and the mother wanted to light a fire to keep warm. She asked for matches from fellow countrymen she met near the village of Dahraz. And they answered: “While you are kindling a fire, you will lose time, better gather your strength and get to Aghdam.” The children, walking without food or drink, lost their last strength. Parvana and Revane could no longer walk. They were barefoot - they had lost their shoes. Their legs were red and swollen.

So - the son is on the back of the mother, the daughter is nearby - right in the snow they froze and turned into ice statues ...
O chronicler, have you seen such a sad story in the pages of history?

She was named Sevinj ...
Biography

Sevinj Akper kyzy Kuliyeva was born in 1985 in Khojaly. Killed on February 27, 1992, at the age of 7.

She was longingly waiting for the day when, having tied her hair with a snow-white bow, taking a briefcase in her hands, she would go to school. Perhaps, in her forever closed eyes, the longing of that expectation still lives ...

She was supposed to study at a school that had just been built in Khojaly. But one day, waking up early, she heard from her parents that this school had been destroyed by an Armenian shell. The news of the day she went sad: it means that she will not be able to study at the new school ... On the other hand, the builders left. What was the point of building? The Armenians destroyed everything anyway. The departure of the builders finally cut off the hope of the little girl ...
In the evenings, the silence of death seemed to descend on Khojaly. Both Sevinj and her peers did not want the night to fall. From the explosions of shells, the children shuddered, spent nights without sleep.
Sevinj often ran to her grandfather, who worked in the communications department, staring at the telephones with her little eyes. Grandfather anxiously asked for help from above, and they told him: "Wait."
And on February 26, nothing had to be expected. The ill-fated 366th regiment attacked Khojaly. When the mother took Sevinj by the hand and they ran, the girl pressed her alphabet to her chest.

In the town of Gara Gaya, one of the Armenian bullets hit Sevinj in the left side. Her mother Metanet was also badly injured. Although the mother was able to escape from death, Sevinj lived only a day after being injured. She died in the Agdam hospital. Her father Akper, who fought with the enemy, also died that night.
The grave of a girl who had the name Sevinj for seven years, but did not taste the joys of life, is located in the village of Shotlanly, Agjabadi district. Every spring, drooping violets are seen around this grave.

Grandson of aunt Tamasha
Biography

Mammadov Zahir Ramiz oglu was born in 1985 in Khojaly. He was shot at the age of 7 on February 27, 1992.

When Aunt Tamasha's grandson Zahir was born, she was immensely happy. Then life was great. Grandmother and grandson doted on each other. This continued until February 26, 1992. After that day, Aunt Tamasha became one of those who fell to the lot of "Khojaly destiny".

That night, Aunt Tamasha, having sifted the flour that remained at the bottom of the bag, kneaded the dough. And she made another bun for her grandson. As soon as she finished baking bread, machine guns crackled. Aunt Tamasha, whose heart was filled with black fear, with the words: “O Allah, help!” took off her apron. It was already dark, everything around was shrouded in darkness. Aunt Tamasha waited for her sons Vasif, Rasif, son-in-law Salim, grandson Zahir and gradually lost patience. Opening the gate, she stepped out into the yard. People ran away. Her son Vasif, who was returning from his post at that time, shouting: “Armenians are everywhere in the village!”, He took his mother by the hand. They ran towards the forest. When they approached the road to Nakhchivanik, a tank and two armored personnel carriers blocked their path. Armenians descended from the armored personnel carrier opened fire on people. Rasif was hit by a bullet. Aunt Tamasha shouted to Vasif: “Your brother was killed, go close his eyes!” Vasif closed his brother's eyes. Together with their mother, together with their combined efforts, they put his body under a tree and covered it with branches and branches so that predators would not get it as food. The armed Armenians surrounded the people and took them prisoner. People were taken to the police station in Askeran. Zahir, who was wounded in the leg, was also brought to Askeran.

The Armenians killed the son of aunt Tamash Vasif, her son-in-law Salim, the grandson Zahir, and aunt Tamash was released.
So that Aunt Tamasha would carry the bitterness of losing her sons and grandson for the rest of her life...

Book continuation

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Karabakh > Genocide in Khojaly

Khojaly - our pain and memory

February 26, 1992. This date is inscribed in black letters in the history of the Azerbaijani people as the day of a monstrous crime, a bloody genocide committed by the Armenian armed forces against the helpless civilian population of Khojaly, a small town in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Khojaly genocide is one of the most terrible and bloody pages of Armenia's military aggression against Azerbaijan. 19 years have passed since that ill-fated day, but the pain of the Khojaly tragedy in our blood memory is still fresh and palpable, like an undecaying wound.

The Khojaly genocide is on a par with such crimes against humanity as the genocide committed by the Nazis in Khatyn (Belarus, March 22, 1943), Lidice (Czech Republic, June 10, 1942), Oradour (France, June 10, 1944). In the same row is the Vietnamese village of Song My, set on fire by American troops (March 16, 1968), as well as the genocide committed by the Serbian army against Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica (Bosnia and Herzegovina, July 12, 1995).

On the night of February 25-26, 1992, having exterminated hundreds of Azerbaijanis - inhabitants of Khojaly, the Armenians committed a daring crime against all mankind, thereby showing the true, bloody face of militant Armenian nationalism.

In the commission of this monstrous atrocity, along with the Armenian armed formations - both the regular army of the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian separatists of Nagorno-Karabakh - the 366th motorized rifle regiment of the Soviet army, a significant part of whose personnel were Armenian military personnel.

The Khojaly genocide was a continuation, a new bloody page in the targeted policy of genocide, terror, deportation and ethnic cleansing carried out by Armenian chauvinists against the Azerbaijani people since the beginning of the 20th century. The massacre perpetrated by Armenian Dashnaks against Azerbaijanis in 1905 and 1918, the transfer of Zangezur, the original Azerbaijani land, to Armenia in 1920, the creation of Armenian autonomy in Nagorno-Karabakh in 1923 and the gradual survival of the Azerbaijani population from there, the deportation of 100 thousand of our compatriots from Armenia in 1948 -1953, finally, the mass expulsion of Azerbaijanis (250 thousand people) from Armenia and the incitement of Armenian separatism in Nagorno-Karabakh in 1988 - all these atrocities were components of a single strategic plan of militant Armenian nationalism.

Committing the Khojaly genocide, the Armenian armed forces wanted to terrify the Azerbaijani population of Nagorno-Karabakh, thereby accelerating the ethnic cleansing of the Azerbaijanis in the region, and then starting a full-scale war of conquest against Azerbaijan. It is no coincidence that it was after Khojaly that the occupation of Azerbaijani territories by Armenia was expanded, from May 1992 to October 1993, eight regions were occupied, including seven outside Nagorno-Karabakh. As a result, 20% of the territory of Azerbaijan is still under the occupation of Armenia.

When the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict began, about a third of the autonomy's population (about 160,000) were Azerbaijanis. The city of Khojaly was the second largest (after Shushi) Azerbaijani settlement in Nagorno-Karabakh. In the autumn of 1991, there were 7 thousand people in the city. Hundreds of Azerbaijani families expelled from Khankendi found temporary shelter in Khojaly. On September 2, 1991, the Armenian separatists announced the creation of the so-called "Nagorno-Karabakh Republic", after which the attacks of the Armenian forces on the Azerbaijani settlements of the region intensified.

On November 20, 1991, near the village of Karakend in the Khojavend region, the Armenian forces shot down a helicopter "MI-8", in which there were the highest statesmen of Azerbaijan, as well as a peacekeeping group of representatives of Russia and Kazakhstan, who acted as a mediator in resolving the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The killing of 22 people in the helicopter marked the end of the first attempt at a peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict. After the grouping of forces of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs was introduced from Nagorno-Karabakh in mid-December, the weapons of which went to Armenian formations, attacks on Azerbaijani villages became even more intense.

In total, from October 1991 to January 1992, the Armenian armed forces occupied about 30 Azerbaijani villages in Nagorno-Karabakh - Tugh, Salakatin, Imaret Gervend, Jamilli, Meshali, Nyabilyar, Khojavend, Divanallar, Gaybaly, Karkijahan and others, which were burned and looted . Hundreds of residents of these villages were killed, wounded, taken hostage.

In the first half of February, the Armenians occupied the villages of Malibeyli, Gushchular and Garadaghly, inflicting a bloody massacre on their population. Only in the village of Garadaghly (occupied on February 17) about 70 people were killed. And these days (February 12-18) the first peacekeeping mission of the OSCE (then CSCE) was in the region.

Having occupied almost all Azerbaijani villages in Nagorno-Karabakh, the Armenian armed formations were preparing to take the most strategic settlement - Khojaly. This city was the only airport in Nagorno-Karabakh, and the road connecting Khankendi and Askeran (an Armenian-populated village) passed through it, which since October 1991 was controlled by Armenian forces. For three months Khojaly has been blocked by Armenian armed formations.

From the beginning of January 1992, no electricity was supplied to Khojaly. The city was subjected to daily shelling from artillery and heavy equipment. To our great regret, the then leadership of Azerbaijan did not actually take any steps to withdraw Khojaly from the blockade, to prevent the tragedy of its helpless inhabitants.

After the Armenians shot down a helicopter with 40 people on board in the sky of Khojaly on January 28, air communication with the besieged city also ceased. By that time, part of the inhabitants had left Khojaly. By the time of the assault, there were about 2.5 thousand people there.

The assault on the city began on the evening of February 25 with a two-hour shelling, which was carried out from Alazan guns, as well as tanks, armored personnel carriers, and infantry fighting vehicles. Most of the military equipment involved in the bloody operation formally belonged to the 366th motorized rifle regiment of the already former Soviet army, which at that time was also formally subordinate to the so-called Joint Armed Forces of the CIS.

In fact, the actually ownerless regiment was under the control of the Armenians. To verify this, let's look at the facts. Note that all these facts were reflected in Russian newspapers, including Izvestia and Krasnaya Zvezda (an organ of the USSR Ministry of Defense, and then the Russian Federation) dated March 1992.

So, the 366th Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment of the Soviet Army, which ingloriously ended its “military path” with the Khojaly genocide:

Place of deployment - the city of Khankendi. Number (staff) - 1800. Number (actually) - 350. Military equipment - about 100 units. Commander - Colonel Yu. Zarvigorov. 103 people from the personnel of the regiment, including 49 officers and ensigns, are Armenians.

The attack on Khojaly involved the 2nd battalion of the 366th regiment under the command of Major Oganyan Seyran Mishegovich (at the moment he is the "minister of defense" of the illegal regime in Nagorno-Karabakh), the 1st battalion (Chief of Staff Valery Isaevich Chitchyan) and part of the military equipment and military personnel of the 3rd battalion (commander Evgeny Nabokikhin).

It should be noted that the 366th regiment was "involved" in the occupation of Azerbaijani settlements up to Khojaly. As the then newspapers wrote, a night departure from a part of one BMP for "combat duty" cost a thousand rubles. At the headquarters of the Transcaucasian Military District, one of the leaders of which was Lieutenant General Iosif Oganyan, these facts were, of course, well informed.

Moreover, in January 1992, when the question of the withdrawal of the regiment from Khankendy was raised, Lieutenant General Oganyan personally came to agitate his fellow tribesmen in the regiment to prevent this. After his departure, the commander of the 2nd battalion, the above-mentioned major S. Ohanyan, together with his subordinate Armenian officers and soldiers, having captured several tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, as well as two artillery pieces, occupied dominant positions in the vicinity of Khankendi, declared that he would not allow the withdrawal of equipment from parts. Already after the Khojaly bloody massacre, on February 28, the commander-in-chief of the CIS Allied Armed Forces, Marshal Yevgeny Shaposhnikov, ordered the immediate withdrawal of the 366th regiment.

On March 2-3, a small amount of equipment and two hundred military personnel (non-Armenian nationality) left Khankendi, and several dozen more military personnel left part of it without permission. Most of the military equipment, including 25 tanks, 87 infantry fighting vehicles, 28 armored personnel carriers and 45 artillery pieces, as well as several Shilka ZSU (the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper wrote about this), went to the Armenian armed forces, and was used by them in the future. occupation of Azerbaijani territories and committing new bloody crimes.

The Armenian armed forces that entered Khojaly carried out an unimaginably monstrous massacre of the civilian population. Shortly after the start of the assault, part of the inhabitants tried to leave Khojaly in two directions: from the eastern outskirts of the city to the northeast along the riverbed, leaving Askeran on the left and from the northern outskirts of the city to the northeast. However, soon many of the Khojaly residents who tried to leave were ambushed by the Armenian forces and were brutally killed.

Later, the Armenian side tried to assert that allegedly a “free corridor” was left for the residents to leave Khojaly.However, the Russian human rights center Memorial, which prepared an independent report on the Khojaly massacre, denied these claims. The report emphasizes that part of the population wishing to flee was killed "in pre-arranged ambushes."

According to the human rights center "Memorial", 200 corpses of Khojaly residents were delivered to Aghdam in 4 days, on which facts of abuse were recorded. During the examination, it was found that the cause of death of most of them was bullet wounds, 20 - shrapnel wounds, 10 people died from blows with blunt objects. Representatives of "Memorial" also noted the fact of scalping of corpses. The brutal abuse of the bodies of the killed Azerbaijanis by the Armenian military, the facts of scalping the corpses were recorded by foreign journalists.

Speaking about the Khojaly genocide, one should also note the helplessness and incompetence of the then leadership of Azerbaijan and the political forces that seriously influenced the situation in the country, their indifferent attitude to the fate of the people. Fearing people's wrath, in the early days of the tragedy, the leadership of the republic even tried to downplay the scale of what happened, did not take effective steps to promptly and thoroughly inform the international community about this bloody crime. In the statement of the Supreme Council of Azerbaijan dated March 3, 1992, there was not a word about the participation of the 366th regiment in the massacre committed in Khojaly.

With the coming to power of Heydar Aliyev in the republic, the government and parliament of Azerbaijan took consistent measures to bring to the attention of the international community the truth about the scale and horrors of the crimes committed by Armenian nationalists against Azerbaijanis, including the Khojaly genocide, in order to achieve recognition of all this monstrous atrocity of Armenian barbarians as genocide. On February 24, 1994, the Milli Majlis adopted a resolution declaring February 26 as the "Day of the Khojaly genocide." Appeals were accepted to the UN, other international organizations, parliaments of the countries of the world.

" The Khojaly genocide, directed in general against the Azerbaijani people, with its unthinkable cruelty and inhuman methods of reprisal, is an act of atrocity in the history of mankind. This genocide, at the same time, is a historical crime against all mankind," Heydar Aliyev said in his address to the world community.

In recent years, much has been done to bring the truth about the Khojaly genocide to the attention of the world community within the framework of international organizations. One of the first official documents distributed by Azerbaijani parliamentarians in PACE was a written declaration No. 324 dated April 26, 2001 entitled "Recognition of the genocide committed by Armenians against the Azerbaijani people."

“On February 26, 1992, the Armenians massacred the inhabitants of the city of Khojaly and completely destroyed this city. Armenian separatism in Nagorno-Karabakh and 20 percent of the occupied Azerbaijani territories led to the death of thousands of people and the emergence of more than a million people as refugees,” said the document, which was signed by 30 PACE parliamentarians from different countries. Refugees from Khojaly, who survived the horrors of the genocide and miraculously survived, today are scattered and live in 48 regions of Azerbaijan. They live with hope for the recognition of this genocide, for a just settlement of the Karabakh conflict, for the restoration of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

At the same time, it is regrettable that to this day this monstrous crime against humanity, like the entire aggression of Armenia against Azerbaijan, has not received a worthy condemnation in the international arena. Until now, international organizations for the most part prefer to bypass this topic.

At the same time, it should be recognized that, unfortunately, we ourselves, too, have not yet done everything so that the world community learns this bitter truth closer, and this genocide was given an appropriate international legal assessment. To achieve this is our duty to the memory of the killed Khojaly residents. Because Khojaly is our national pain and blood memory.

Vugar Orhan,