KHOJALY TRAGEDY

The Khojaly massacre is a tragedy that has been inscribed in the memory of the Azerbaijani people for 20 years, as terrible event involving themass murder of civilians during the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. On the night of February 25th to 26th, 1992, Armenian forces, with the help of the Russian 366th Motor Rifle Regiment invaded Khojaly village. The city had been under siege since October 1991, at which point all roads leading to the city were blocked, and the only available transport was via helicopter. The last helicopter landed in the city on January 28, 1992. After a civilian helicopter was shot down over Shusha city, leaving 40 Azerbaijanis, the air route was also blocked. As of the second half of February 1992, Khojaly was under a military blockade by Armenian Armed Forces, and subjected to daily gunfire and attacks. The preparation for the Khojaly invasion started with the deployment of military equipment by Regiment #366, which was in position on the evening of February 25, 2012. Constant gunfire began. The whole city was on fire at about 5am, 26th February. 2,500 civilians remaining in the city left hoping to reach Agdam. 613 of these 2,500 fell victim to enemy fire. As a result of this tragedy, 613 Khojaly civilians were killed (63 children, 106 women, and 70 elderly). 8 families were completely annihilated. 130 children lost one of their parents, and another 25 lost both of them. 76 out of 487 people wounded by an enemy bullet were children. 1275 Khojaly residents were taken prisoner and 150 went missing. Because Khojaly was attacked from three directions, the residents were forced to flee in the direction of Asgaran. This was revealed to be part of an enemy strategy. The fleeing villagers were stopped by Armenian forces near Nakchevanik village and shot down. Exhausted after travelling through snowy mountains and woods, the villagers were cruelly killed by Armenian armed units on the Asgaran-Nakchevanik plain. On February 28th, a group including journalists was able to reach the area. Everybody was shocked at the scene -- the plain was full of dead bodies. Despite one helicopter guarding the air, the other helicopter could pick up only four of the corpses under Armenian shooting. On March 1st local and foreign journalists witnessed more cruelty. The dead were mutilated -- scalped or burned, their ears and other body organs were cut off, their eyes were removed, they had suffered multiple bullet and bayonet wounds. On February 2nd 2012 a resolution passed by Mexican Senate described the 25-26 February Khojaly massacre as an act of genocide. In 2012, the Foreign Relations Committee of the Pakistani Senate passed a resolution condemning the massacre of civilians in Khojaly.