The Khojaly genocide is one of the most heinous crimes of genocide committed against the peaceful Azerbaijani population during the aggressive war of Armenia against Azerbaijan. Before that, according to a pre-prepared plan, with particular cruelty, a massacre was perpetrated against a part of the civilian population of the village of Baganis Airym, adjacent to Armenia, the Gazakh region of Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani villages in Nagorno-Karabakh - Imaret Garvend, Tugh, Selaketin, Akhullu, Khojavend, Jamilli, Nabilar, Mesheli, Hasanabad , Karkijahan, Gaybaly, Malybeyli, Yukhara and Ashagi Gushchular, Garadaghly during their occupation. Suffice it to say that a few days before the Khojaly genocide, on February 17, 1992, more than 80 Azerbaijanis were massacred in the village of Garadaghly, Khojavend region.
Starting from the second half of February, Khojaly, located 10 kilometers southeast of Khankendi, at a strategic point between the Agdam-Shusha and Askeran-Khankendi roads, where the only airport in Nagorno-Karabakh was located, was completely surrounded by Armenian military formations. All attempts by civilians in groups or alone to get out of the encirclement were suppressed.
On the night of February 25-26, 1992, the armed forces of Armenia, violating all the norms international law, used heavy military equipment against civilians of the besieged city of Khojaly, massacred them with unprecedented cruelty, the city was barbarously wiped off the face of the earth. As a result of a monstrous criminal act directed not only against the Azerbaijani people, but also against all mankind, 613 peaceful Azerbaijanis were brutally killed because of their nationality, among them were 63 children, 106 women, 70 old people. 8 families were completely destroyed, 25 children lost both parents, and 130 lost one of them. In addition, 487 civilians were seriously injured, 1275 people were taken hostage. The fate of 150 hostages, including 68 women and 26 children, remains unknown.
National leader Heydar Aliyev, expressing a sharp protest against the fact that the then leadership of the country abandoned Khojaly to its fate, said: “The treacherous position of the then authorities regarding the national independence of Azerbaijan and our people, its criminal indifference to its constitutional the power, the anarchy and chaos that prevailed in the republic, the insidious personal ambitions of individual politicians directly created the conditions for this historical tragedy. Indifference was shown to the calls for help from our citizens, who for a long time were left to the mercy of fate in an enemy environment, despite the fact that there were real opportunities to save Khojaly, the innocent population was purposefully left for reprisal. The Khojaly genocide, which once again revealed and showed the true face of Armenian fascism, is a historical crime directed not only against the Azerbaijani people, but also against all mankind, and must be condemned by the civilized world in accordance with international law.”
The nature and scale of the crimes committed in the city of Khojaly confirm that they fully comply with the definition expressed in the Convention "On the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide", adopted by the UN General Assembly Resolution No. 260 (III) of December 9, 1948. A pre-planned act of mass and merciless reprisals was committed precisely with the aim of completely destroying the people living in this territory for being Azerbaijanis. The rampaging executioners scalped people, cut out various organs, gouged out the eyes of young children, ripped open the stomachs of pregnant women, buried or burned people alive, and mined some of the corpses. People who tried to escape from the burning city and escape were not spared, the Armenian military, who ambushed the roads and in the forests, killed civilians with particular cruelty.
The Khojaly genocide is on a par with such tragedies as the Holocaust, the genocides in Khatyn, Songmi, Lidice, Babi Yar, Rwanda and Srebrenica, which left a deep mark on world history as a massacre of civilians.
The organizers of the Khojaly genocide, which is a crime against humanity, were the political and state leadership of the Republic of Armenia, and the direct perpetrators were the units of the Armenian armed forces of Armenia, the Armenian terrorist groups in Nagorno-Karabakh and the personnel of the 366th motorized rifle regiment of the former Soviet army.
The Khojaly genocide is one of a series of acts of massacre committed to crush the resolve of our people, who rose up to defend native land during the aggression of the Armenian armed forces against Azerbaijan, to undermine its morale, to destroy part of the Azerbaijani population Nagorno-Karabakh. This is confirmed by the fact that about a month and a half after the Khojaly tragedy - on April 8, as a result of a pre-planned act of massacre during the occupation of the village of Agdaban in the Kalbajar region, 67 civilians, including children, women and the elderly, were killed with particular cruelty, dozens of people were captured in hostages went missing, the village was completely burned. As a continuation of this, on August 28, 1992, another merciless crime was committed in the village of Balligaya, Goranboy region - the massacre of people. As a result, 24 Azerbaijani civilians were mercilessly killed, among them 6 young children, including a 6-month-old child, and three young children lost both parents. The bodies of some of the civilians killed were burned. Even a 93-year-old woman was not spared in Ballygay, but in general, the majority of those killed were children, women and the elderly.
Based on the resolution of the Milli Majlis of February 24, 1994, February 26 was declared the day of the Khojaly genocide.
On February 24, 2017, the Parliament of Azerbaijan once again confirmed that by the resolutions of the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan dated February 24, 1994, February 24, 1995, February 27, 2007 and February 24, 2012, the massacre committed on the night of 25 to 26 February 1992 against Azerbaijanis year in the city of Khojaly by the military formations of the Republic of Armenia, the Armenian armed detachments in Nagorno-Karabakh and the 366th motorized rifle regiment of the former Soviet army, was regarded as a crime of genocide.
The law enforcement agencies of the Republic of Azerbaijan continue to take measures to identify those who took part in the commission of the act of genocide in the city of Khojaly and bring them to justice.
National leader Heydar Aliyev said about the Khojaly genocide: “The government and people of Azerbaijan are faced with the task of bringing to the states, parliaments of the world, the general public the truth about the Khojaly genocide and, in general, the atrocities committed by Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, as it is, with with all its scale and horrors, to achieve recognition of all this as a real act of genocide. This is our civil and human duty to the memory of the martyrs of Khojaly. On the other hand, receiving a genuine international political and legal assessment of the tragedy, the deserved punishment of its ideologists, organizers and perpetrators is an important condition for such cruel acts directed against humanity in general not to be repeated in the future.
In this regard, the work organized by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation within the framework of the “Justice for Khojaly!” campaign is expanding every year. As a result of systematic work aimed at recognizing the Khojaly genocide on a global scale, the relevant documents of the Parliamentary Union of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the parliaments of Mexico, Pakistan, the Czech Republic, Peru, Colombia, Panama, Honduras, Sudan, Guatemala and Djibouti confirm that the massacres committed in Khojaly murder is an act of genocide. The parliaments of Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Jordan, Slovenia, Scotland, as well as the executive and legislative bodies of more than 20 states of the United States of America, regarded the Khojaly tragedy as genocide and strongly condemned it.
By order of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, the Khojaly genocide is celebrated annually with large-scale events. In 2017, the 25th anniversary of the Khojaly genocide was also marked by another nationwide procession in Baku. During the march, such appeals and slogans as “The world must recognize the Khojaly genocide!”, “Justice for Khojaly!”, “Don’t forget Khojaly!”, “Down with Armenian fascism!”, “Khojaly - genocide of the 20th century”, “To criminals avoid punishment!" etc.
The nationwide processions connected with the Khojaly genocide, which have become a tradition, demonstrate the close unity of the Azerbaijani people, their deep respect for the memory of the victims of the genocide, their determination to do everything possible to liberate the occupied lands and restore the country's territorial integrity.

Introduction

Khojaly massacre (Azerbaijani Xocalı qırğını) is a massacre of the inhabitants of the Azerbaijani city of Khojaly by Armenian armed forces, which in a number of sources is characterized as the largest and most brutal bloodshed during the Karabakh war. On the night of February 25-26, 1992, Armenian armed formations, with the participation of some servicemen of the 366th regiment of the CIS Joint Forces stationed in Stepanakert (assumed to have acted without an order from the command), occupied the city of Khojaly. Hundreds of civilians were killed during and after the assault.

1. Background

The offensive of the Armenian armed formations on the city of Khojaly inhabited by Azerbaijanis was predetermined by the strategic location of the city. The settlement is located 10 km southeast of Stepanakert, on a series of Karabakh mountains. Agdam-Shusha, Askeran-Stepanakert roads pass through Khojaly, and the airport is located here - the only one in Nagorno-Karabakh capable of receiving large aircraft.

Since 1988, Khojaly has repeatedly become the epicenter of conflicts between local and republican authorities. The Armenian side opposed the fact that the Azerbaijani authorities carried out intensive construction there and accommodated refugees - Azerbaijanis and Meskhetian Turks, considering this purposeful action to change the demographic situation in the region. The population of the settlement, which was 2135 people in 1988, increased to 6300 people by 1991, including due to Azerbaijani refugees from Stepanakert and some other settlements of Nagorno-Karabakh. 54 families of Meskhetian Turks who fled from the pogroms from Ferghana (Uzbek SSR) also settled in the city. In 1990, Khojaly received the status of a city. The OMON unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan was located here, which since 1990 controlled the airport. There are numerous testimonies of violence and bullying by OMON officers against passengers and pilots of Armenian nationality while the airport was still functioning. To provide employment for the sharply increased population in the city, the construction of branches of the largest industrial enterprises of Azerbaijan, residential buildings and other household facilities was launched.

Since the autumn of 1991, Khojaly was practically blocked by the Armenian armed formations, and after the withdrawal of the internal troops of the USSR from Nagorno-Karabakh, a complete blockade was established. Since January 1992 there has been no electricity supply to Khojaly . Part of the inhabitants left the besieged city, but the complete evacuation of the civilian population, despite the persistent requests of the head of the Azerbaijani executive power of Khojaly E. Mammadov, was not organized.

There was no telephone connection, electricity, heating, running water in Khojaly. Since October 1991, the only means of communication with outside world became helicopters. By February 13, 1992, when the last helicopter flight was made to Khojaly, less than 300 residents were evacuated from there.

Alif Hajiyev was the head of the city's defense. Khojaly lasted several months under his leadership .

The Russian human rights center Memorial, which conducted its own investigation into the circumstances of the tragedy, claims that by the beginning of the assault there were from 2 to 4 thousand inhabitants in the city, including several hundred defenders of the city: Army of Azerbaijan. According to information received from both sides, there were 3 units of armored vehicles in the city, as well as the Alazan installation. According to the Armenian side, there were also 2 Grad multiple rocket launchers in Khojaly.”

During the winter months of 1991-92. Khojaly was under constant artillery fire. Most of the attacks were carried out at night. The international human rights organization Human Rights Watch has collected testimonies from refugees showing that some shelling was indiscriminate or directed directly at civilian targets, resulting in civilian casualties.

2. Assault on Khojaly

At about 11 pm on February 25, 1992, artillery shelling of Khojaly began, and from 1 am to 4 am the next day, infantry detachments entered the city, crushing the last center of resistance of the defenders of Khojaly by 7 am. Journalist Tom de Waal describes the start of the assault:

The assault began on the night of February 25-26. This day was probably chosen to commemorate the Armenian pogroms in Sumgayit four years earlier. Armored vehicles of the 366th regiment of the Soviet Army provided combat support to the Armenians. They surrounded Khojaly from three sides, after which the Armenian soldiers entered the city and crushed the resistance of the defenders.

Markar and Seta Melkonyan, brother and wife of Monte Melkonyan, who from the beginning of February 1992 was one of the leaders of the Armenian armed groups in Karabakh (Martuni region), in his book "My Brother's Road: An American's Fateful Journey to Armenia" (2005) ) also indicate that the attack on Khojaly was undertaken on the anniversary of the events in Sumgayit and could be regarded as a kind of act of retribution.

Part of the population soon after the start of the assault began to leave Khojaly, trying to go towards Agdam. As stated in the report of the human rights organization "Memorial", 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).

According to the human rights organization Memorial, “as a result of the shelling of the city, an unspecified number of civilians died in 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 Memorial, “a large stream of residents rushed out of the city along the riverbed (path 1). 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.

According to Human Rights Watch, which also conducted its own investigation into the tragedy, fire was opened on the retreating riot police and fleeing residents by Armenians and servicemen of the 366th CIS regiment (apparently acting without orders from their commanders) in a field near the village of Nakhichevanik, which was then under the control of the Armenians. According to Human Rights Watch, “a crowd of residents, accompanied by a couple of dozen retreating defenders, fled the city after it passed to the Armenian armed forces. When they approached the border with Azerbaijan, they ran into an Armenian armed post and were brutally shot.” .

Groups of refugees who went by another road, in relation to which Askeran was on the right, were also subjected to shelling.

3. Investigation

On February 28, a group of journalists on two helicopters managed to get to the place where the Azerbaijanis were killed. Despite the cover of the second helicopter, due to heavy shelling by Armenian militants, they were able to take out only four corpses. Russian TV reporter Yuri Romanov, who, together with Azerbaijani journalist Chingiz Mustafayev, was the first to visit the site of the tragedy, recalled the moment of arrival at the place of death of civilians as follows:

I look out the round window (helicopter) and literally recoil from the incredibly scary picture. On the yellow grass of the foothills, where gray cakes of snow, the remnants of winter snowdrifts, still melt in the shade, dead people lie. All this vast area to the near horizon is littered with the corpses of women, old men, old women, boys and girls of all ages, from an infant to a teenager ... The eye pulls out two figures from the mess of bodies - a grandmother and a little girl. The grandmother, with her gray head uncovered, lies face down next to a tiny girl in a blue hooded jacket. For some reason, their legs are tied with barbed wire, and my grandmother's hands are also tied. Both are shot in the head. With the last gesture, a little girl, about four years old, stretches out her hands to the murdered grandmother. Stunned, I don't even immediately remember the camera...

On the same day, Thomas Goltz reported to the Washington Post from Agdam:

Refugees say that hundreds died during the Armenian attack... Of the seven corpses we saw here today, two were children's and three were women's, one of the bodies had a wound in the chest, apparently with close range. Many of the 120 refugees being treated at the Aghdam hospital have multiple stab wounds.

Anatole Lieven of The Times of London wrote:

Two groups, apparently two families, were killed together - the children were engulfed in the arms of the women. Some of them, including a little girl, had monstrous head wounds: in fact, only the face remained. The survivors said that the Armenians shot them at close range, already lying on the ground.

According to The New York Times,

Near Aghdam, on the border of Nagorno-Karabakh, according to Reuters photographer Frederika Langen, she saw two trucks filled with the corpses of Azerbaijanis. “I counted 35 in the first truck and it looks like it was the same in the second one,” she said. “Some had their heads cut off, many were burned. All of them were men, but only a few were in protective uniforms.

According to the BBC Morning News,

The reporter said that he, the videographer and other Western journalists saw over 100 corpses of men, women and children slaughtered by Armenians. They were shot in the head from a distance of one meter. The photo also shows almost ten corpses (mostly women and children) shot in the head.

The correspondent of the Izvestia newspaper V. Belykh reported in his report:

“From time to time, the bodies of their victims exchanged for living hostages are brought to Aghdam. But even in a nightmare, this will not be seen: gouged out eyes, cut off ears, scalped, severed heads. Bundles of several corpses, which were dragged along the ground for a long time on ropes behind an armored personnel carrier. There is no limit to bullying."

He cites the testimony of a Russian Air Force helicopter pilot, Major Leonid Kravets:

“On February 26, I took the wounded out of Stepanakert and returned back through the Askeran Gate. Some bright spots on the ground caught my eye. He went down, and then my flight mechanic shouted: “Look, there are women and children.” Yes, I myself have already seen about two hundred dead, scattered along the slope, among whom wandered people with weapons. Then we flew to pick up the corpses. We had a local police captain with us. He saw his four-year-old son there with a crushed skull and was moved by reason. Another child, whom we managed to pick up before they started firing at us, had his head cut off. The mutilated bodies of women, children and old people I saw everywhere.

According to the American magazine Newsweek, many were killed at close range while trying to escape, and some had their faces disfigured.

According to Time magazine columnist Jill Smalle,

The simple explanation given by the attacking Armenians, who insist that innocent people were not killed on purpose, is not at all believable.

Russian cameraman Yuri Romanov describes a six-year-old Khojaly girl whose eyes were burned out with cigarette butts.

Helen Womack, a journalist for the British newspaper The Independent, reported from the scene:

When I arrived in Agdam on Tuesday evening, I saw 75 fresh graves in one of the cemeteries and four mutilated corpses in the mosque. In the field hospital set up in wagons at the railway station, I also saw women and children with bullet wounds.

Journalist Francis Clynes, while in Aghdam, cited the testimony of a surviving boy in The New York Times:

“They came to our house and told us to run or burn to death,” said Ahmed Mammadov, an 11-year-old refugee from Khojaly who was wounded in the arm. “They broke everything around and threw a grenade that wounded my older brother and mother. I saw how Natavan Usubova died with her mother from another grenade,” he said, referring to a 4-year-old girl.

As Memorial reports in its report,

“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 (including those published in the press), 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.”

“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 to the 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 the officials of the NKR and the 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 dropped leaflets over Khojaly calling on the people of Khojaly to use the “free corridor”. However, not a single copy of such a leaflet was provided to the observers of "Memorial" in support of this. In Khojaly, the observers of "Memorial" also did not find any traces of such leaflets. Refugees from Khojaly who were interviewed reported that they had never heard of such leaflets.

In Aghdam and Baku, "Memorial" observers interviewed 60 people who fled from Khojaly during the storming of the city. Only one of 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). Even those detained residents of Khojaly who were interviewed by the “Memorial” observers in the presence of deputy R. Hayrikyan in the Stepanakert temporary detention center did not hear anything about the “free corridor”.

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 withdraw 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 Khojaly 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 declared provision of a "free corridor" for the population to leave Khojaly can be regarded either as deliberate actions of the NKR officials to "cleanse" the city from its inhabitants, or as a recognition by the NKR authorities that they are unable to ensure the observance of the rights of the civilian population in the territory under their control. person, regardless of his belonging to a particular nationality.

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

For 200 years, the Azerbaijani people have been constantly subjected to ethnic cleansing and a policy of genocide by Armenian chauvinists. Azerbaijanis were expelled from their historical lands, became refugees and forced migrants, and all this was accompanied by massacres committed by Armenians. The expulsion of Azerbaijanis from their historical and ethnic lands continued during the Soviet era. In 1948-1953, 150,000 Azerbaijanis were deported from Armenia and settled in the Kura-Araz lowland. In the second half of the 80s of the 20th century, Armenians, taking advantage of the situation that had developed to implement the ideas of "Great Armenia", again put forward territorial claims in relation to the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. And in 1988, 250,000 Azerbaijanis were expelled from this territory. These Azerbaijani refugees were forced to settle in the surrounding areas. Institute of History named after A. Bkikhanov ANAS. Khojaly genocide - a tragedy of the 20th century [Electronic resource]. - http: //www.azerbaijan. az/portal/Karabakh/Genocide/genocide_r.html One of the points of their settlement was Khojaly, which at that time was a settlement with a population of 2135 people. The Armenian side opposed the fact that the Azerbaijani authorities carried out intensive construction there and accommodated refugees - Azerbaijanis and Meskhetian Turks, considering this purposeful action to change the demographic situation in the region. By 1991, the population of the settlement increased to 6300 people, including due to Azerbaijani refugees from Agdam (Stepanakert) and some other settlements of Nagorno-Karabakh. To provide employment for the sharply increased population in the city, the construction of branches of the largest industrial enterprises of Azerbaijan, residential buildings and other household facilities was launched. In 1990, Khojaly received the status of a city. In Khojaly, there was a unit of the OMON of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan, which since 1990 controlled the airport. Since the autumn of 1991, Khojaly was practically blocked by the Armenian armed formations, and after the withdrawal of the internal troops of the USSR from Nagorno-Karabakh (October 1991), a complete blockade was established. There was no electricity, telephone, heating, running water in the city. Part of the inhabitants left the besieged city, but part of the population refused to leave the city, despite the persistent requests of the head of the Azerbaijani executive power of Khojaly, Elman Mammadov. On October 30, 1991, automobile communications were interrupted, and from October 1991, helicopters became the only means of communication with the outside world. Last flight was carried out on January 28, 1992, when less than 300 residents were taken out of the city. 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 [Electronic resource]. - http: //www.memo.ru/hr/hotpoints/karabah/Hojaly/index. htm Air communication was interrupted due to the fact that a civilian helicopter was shot down over the city of Shusha, as a result of which 41 people died tragically. During the winter months of 1991-1992, Khojaly was under constant artillery fire. Most of the attacks were carried out at night.

Since the beginning of 1992, the Armenian army has occupied one after another the Azerbaijani settlements in the mountainous part of Karabakh. During the armed attack on the village of Garadaghly, Khojavend region, which lasted from February 13 to 17, 118 people (children, women, old people) were taken prisoner, 33 people were shot by Armenians, at the same time, the dead and wounded were buried together in a household pit. those taken prisoner were mercilessly killed, and 50 people were released from captivity with great difficulty. 18 people from among those released subsequently died from their incurable wounds. The monstrous treatment of those held captive, vandalism against them, cutting off people's heads, burying them alive, pulling out teeth, keeping them without bread and water was the most serious crime against humanity. Gasanov, A.Sh. Khojaly genocide: causes, consequences and recognition in the international arena [Electronic resource]. - http: //www.1news. az/politics/20170226115442395.html It should be taken into account that since 1992 Azerbaijan and Armenia have been in a state of war, and therefore one should rely on Geneva convention about protection civil population in time wars dated August 12, 1949, regarding the actions that were committed by the Armenians against civilians. So, according to this convention, "it is forbidden and always and everywhere will be prohibited a) encroachments on life and physical integrity, in particular all types of murder, mutilation, cruel treatment, torture and torture; b) hostage-taking; c) encroachment on human dignity, in particular, insulting and degrading treatment.These points were violated in relation to the Azerbaijanis of the village of Garadaghly.

The city of Khojaly, as a strategically important territory in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, interfered with the aggressive plans of the Armenians. The regional center of Karabakh is Stepanakert, main city Karabakh and the capital of Armenians, was extremely vulnerable. Located on an open gentle slope of a mountain, it was surrounded on all sides by Azerbaijani settlements. 25 km to the east was Agdam and the flat part of Azerbaijan, 10 km to the north was the city of Khojaly populated by Azerbaijanis. Directly above Stepanakert, on the south side, on the mountain is the city of Shusha. The only connection with the outside world was provided by helicopters flying to Armenia over the mountains. De Waal, T. "Caucasian Knot" [Electronic resource]. - http: //www.kavkaz-uzel. eu/articles/201859/ One of the highlights of the city was that it had the only airport in Nagorno-Karabakh. Therefore, the main goal of the Armenian armed forces was to control the Askeran-Khankendi road passing through Khojaly and to capture the airport located in the city. In addition, in the course of the Khojaly genocide, committed with particular cruelty, the Armenians set a goal to wipe out this ancient settlement of Azerbaijan from the face of the earth.

On the night of February 25-26, 1992, during the Armenian-Azerbaijani, Nagorno-Karabakh armed conflict, one of the greatest tragedies in the history of the Azerbaijani Turks took place - the Khojaly massacre. At 23:00 that night Armenians attacked Khojaly from 3 directions. This attack involved armed groups subordinate to the Armed Forces of the Armenian Republic, mercenary soldiers, Armenian formations of Nagorno-Karabakh, calling themselves the Artsakh People's Army, and military personnel of the 366th Russian motorized rifle regiment, which, as it turned out later, consisted mainly of Armenian officers and ensigns. In this assault, they showed the greatest activity military equipment The 366th regiment, occupying a forward position from Khankendi, standing behind them Russian-Armenian armed detachments, and in the direction from Askeran - more than 1000 armed militants. At first, the foot forces, advancing with the help of the tanks of the 366th regiment towards the city, destroyed the military headquarters and firing positions located in the city with artillery fire. The defenders of the city bravely fought the enemy until morning. Some of them put explosive devices on themselves and rushed at enemy equipment. The last point of resistance was destroyed at 7 am. During the shelling in the city of Khojaly, fighting bravely, hundreds of people died. The civilian population, moving from different directions towards Aghdam, was fired upon by the Armenian armed forces, taken hostage and subjected to monstrous torture. Armenian soldiers, hiding on the roads where civilians could run, killed everyone in a row. Mamedov, S.S. Khojaly genocide [Text]. / S.S. Mammadov. - Baku: Mutarjim, 2012. - 16s.

According to almost all 22 Azerbaijanis, witnesses of the Khojaly events, interviewed " Helsinki Watch", in the winter of 1991-1992, the village was shelled almost daily. According to Khasan Allahyarov, a construction worker, the city was constantly under fire, but usually it was machine guns, and on that day, an infantry fighting vehicle [infantry fighting vehicles] and tanks appeared before his eyes, firing from all directions. When he came out, he saw that bombs were falling everywhere. Residents fled in separate groups, amidst chaos and panic, most of them did not take personal belongings or warm clothes. As a result, hundreds of people suffered from severe frostbite, some died. Most of the inhabitants of Khojaly moved along the road, through the mountains and shortly before dawn came to an open field near the village of Nakhchivanli, which at that time was under the control of Armenians.It was here that the most intense shelling took place. Among the victims of this shelling were women and children was 9. According to Nazili Khametova, who received a gunshot wound in her left leg, those who stood up wounded him.51-year-old Baloglan Allahyarov stories It is believed that when they reached the field, they were fired upon from the side of the forest. Then they were forced to flee towards the gorge, where his wife and daughter-in-law were shot dead. Then the Armenians took off their rings. The circumstances of the attack on the people who fled from Khojaly towards the village of Nakhchivanly testify that the Armenian armed forces and the 366th CIS Regiment deliberately ignored this usual, legally mandated, attack restriction. While witnesses and victims gave varying accounts of the exact time the shelling began near Nakhichevanik, they all reported that it was bright enough to see clearly and thus the attackers could distinguish unarmed civilians from armed and/or using people's weapons. Also, evidence suggests that the attackers shot at all the fleeing people indiscriminately. Under such circumstances, the killing of fleeing military personnel cannot justify the predictably higher number of civilian casualties. Bloodshed in the Caucasus: Escalation of the armed conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh (

Khojaly genocide Politics, Karabakh One of the most terrible tragedies that the Azerbaijani people faced in the 20th century is the Khojaly genocide. The Khojaly tragedy is a bloody event that entered the history of mankind along with the genocide in Khatyn, Lidice, Oradur. On the night of February 25-26, 1992, the armed forces of Armenia, the Armenian armed detachments of Nagorno-Karabakh of Azerbaijan, with the direct participation personnel and technicians of the 366th motorized rifle regiment of the army of the former USSR, located in Khankendi, captured the city of Khojaly, located between Khankendi and Askeran, thereby carrying out a policy of genocide against the Azerbaijani people. During the capture of Khojaly, 613 civilians, including 63 children, 106 women, 70 old people, were killed in just one night. Terrible atrocities were carried out only for the reason that the peaceful inhabitants of Khojaly are Azerbaijanis. Almost all of them were tortured, killed with extreme cruelty: people were beheaded, their eyes were gouged out, pregnant women's stomachs were ripped open with bayonets. That night, the 2nd Battalion of the 366th Regiment, under the command of Major Oganyan Seyran Mushegovich (Oganyan Seyran is currently the “Minister of Defense” of the illegal regime of Nagorno-Karabakh), the 3rd Battalion of the 366th Regiment, under the commanded by Yevgeny Nabokikhin, chief of staff of the 1st battalion Valery Isaevich Chitchyan and more than 50 officers and ensigns of Armenian nationality serving in the regiment. (From "Materials of the investigation on the occupation of Khojaly") Part of the population of the city, trying to escape from brutal violence, fell into a specially arranged ambush and was exterminated. In the message of the Russian Human Rights Center "Memorial" it was noted that within four days 200 corpses of Azerbaijanis killed in Khojaly were delivered to Aghdam, facts of desecration of dozens of corpses were established. In Aghdam, 181 corpses (130 male and 51 female, including 13 children's corpses) were subjected to a forensic medical examination. During the examination, it was established that the cause of death of 151 people was gunshot wounds, 20 people - shrapnel wounds, 10 people were killed by blunt guns. The human rights center also noted the fact of scalping living people. From the testimonies of witnesses of the Khojaly genocide: The Azerbaijani children killed by the Armenians had their chests torn open and their hearts cut open. Most of the corpses were cut into pieces. Jamal Abdulhuseyn oglu Heydarov: “At a distance of 2 kilometers from the farm near the area called Garagay, there were many mutilated corpses of Azerbaijanis. The children killed by the Armenians had their chests torn open and their hearts cut open, and most of the corpses were cut into pieces.” Shahin Zulfugar oglu Heydarov: he saw about 80 corpses near the village of Nakhchivanik (Khojaly). The corpses were terribly disfigured, mutilated and decapitated. Among the dead were police major Alif Hajiyev, his close relatives Salimov Fakhraddin and Salimov Mikayil. Jalil Gumbatali oglu Humbatov: before his eyes, the Armenians shot his wife Firuza, son Mugan, daughter Simuzar and daughter-in-law Sudaba. Kubra Adil gizi Pashayeva: entering the Kyatik forest, she ended up in an Armenian encirclement. In the bushes where she hid, the woman witnessed the execution of her husband Pashaev Shura Tapdyg oglu and Pashaev's son Elshad Shura oglu. Khyazangyul Tyavyakkul gizi Amirov: during the occupation of Khojaly, Armenian militants took her entire family hostage. The Armenians shot Khyazangyul's mother Raya, her 7-year-old sister Egana, aunt Goycha, and her father Amirov Tyavyakkul was burned with petrol. Zoya Ali gizi Aliyeva: hid in the forest for 3 days together with 150 other Khojaly residents. In the forest next to Zoya, Akhmedova Dunya and her sister Gulhar died, freezing from frost. Kubra Alish gizi Mustafayeva: “as soon as the Armenians took us hostage, they immediately shot 6 people who were next to me.” Saida Gurban gizi Kerimova: “We were taken hostage in the composition of 12 people. The Armenians, brutally torturing, killed my daughter Nyazakat, shot Tapdyg, Syaadyat, Irada.” Ali Agami oglu Najafov: “Armenians, surrounding the fleeing people, shot 30-40 people on the spot.”

This is perhaps the most shocking photo, actively fueling the myth of ripping open the belly of a pregnant woman and extracting a dead fetus from there.

It is important to note that this scene was not recorded on the video footage that flooded the entire Internet, which testifies, first of all, to the unwillingness of the authors to show the surrounding background. It follows that even if the photo really captures the victim of aggression, then this act of violence definitely did not take place in the vicinity of Agdam (the real localization of the place of events that Azerbaijanis prefer to call "Khojaly").

The focus is on the fetus, while the rest of the composition is "blurred" in such a way as to hide the true location of the corpse, in particular, the hospital stretcher on which the body rests, and hence the fact of setting the frame.

Now consider the inconsistencies in turn.

1. The even contour, shape and line of the incision clearly indicate that this is a classic sectional incision, which means that there is not an act of sadism, but a purposeful forensic procedure. And the inflated myth about "an angry Armenian who ripped open the belly of a pregnant woman" is obviously untenable in this case.

2. Hands in medical gloves are clearly visible.

3. Scalpel on a corpse. Yes, during the war it was tight with weapons, but it is unlikely that a medical scalpel was part of the arsenal of weapons of the Liberation Army of Nagorno-Karabakh.

4. A white sheet, carefully covering the intimate parts of the corpse, is tucked behind the head of the child, who was attached to the dead body. Most likely, they tried to avoid contact of a living child with a corpse. How often do pathologists, removing a fetus from the womb of a dead mother, so carefully wrap the child in a sheet to prevent contact with a dead body? Such a precaution can only indicate that the photo shows not the extraction, but the attachment of the fetus. At the same time, having a scalpel as a guide, the dimensions of which are standardized, it is not difficult to calculate the height of the child, the volume of the head, the length of the arms and legs and determine that its dimensions correspond to a live-born child, which would be impossible with the picture presented by the Azerbaijanis.

5. The person "extracting" the fetus is definitely dressed in a surgical gown, and not just medical clothes or a military uniform, which in turn indicates a professional procedure carried out during the dissection of the corpse.

6. Hands holding the head of the fetus: only a professional obstetrician can hold the head of the child so carefully, and the child is alive, not a dead newborn.

7. The cuts of the ribs are also perfectly visible in the photo. Anyone who is at least a little versed in the methods of dissecting corpses will confidently determine: without the presence of special equipment in the form of a special saw and a scalpel for cutting costal bones, cut with a simple or military knife chest impossible.

8. Pay attention to the right hand of the corpse: swelling and coloration of the skin indicate that the prescription of death is at least 24-36 hours, while the color of the child’s skin is light, even, no swelling, or any other cadaveric phenomena are not observed. It is unlikely that the fetus could remain alive while in the womb of a mother who died more than a day ago. And the fact that the child is alive is beyond doubt.

9. The border of light and dark on the thigh of the corpse. With a certain degree of probability, it can be argued that these are post-mortem changes in the skin (cadaveric spots) and the corpse was lying on the stomach, which is explained by the undarkened inner part of the thigh. In other words:

A) the pregnant woman could not die on her back, as evidenced by the specific darkening of the skin,
b) but she also couldn’t lie on her stomach, being pregnant - because of the stomach, the thighs had to remain in weight and then the inner part of the thighs would also darken.

10. Increased blur for film black and white photography, as well as the absence of graininess inherent in black and white photographs, indicates that the photo has been repeatedly corrected in Photoshop or any other editor.

11.Changed focus. To focus the frame in this way, it was necessary to shoot with a tilt-shift lens - a very rare and expensive equipment, which, moreover, appeared much later than 1992.

12. Lack of photographs of the "victim" from other angles. After a short search on the Internet, a terrible photograph was found relating to the events in the Balkans, which, most likely, led the Azerbaijanis to such an idea. The proof is also the fact that the photograph from the Baku azerprop was presented no earlier than 2004 - in any case, we were not able to find older copies either on the Web or on the video chronicle.

For comparison, pay attention to the incision line, the posture of the fetus and how the pathologist holds the dead fetus removed from the mother's womb in the photo below. These are photographic evidence of the victims of the Balkan massacre. They are recorded according to all the canons of the collection of factual material, which is not observed in the case of the photo from “Khojaly”.