5. What did mass media report?

6. THE COMMITTEE FOR PEOPLE'S HELP TO KARABAKH (OF THE) ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE AZERBAIJAN SSR - 1988

5. What did mass media report?

Newsweek (November 29, 1993, p. 50)

"Armenians occupy a quarter of Azerbaijan's territory, and they've displaced almost a million Azerbaijani civilians. Friends of Armenia's powerful lobby in Washington, including the U.S. Government are suddenly a bit aghast. 'What we see now is a systematic destruction of every village in their way' says a senior state department official. It's vandalism".

THE GUARDIAN, 2 September 1993
NOWHERE TO HIDE FOR AZERI REFUGEES

Armenia is pushing a new wave of displaced people towards Iran.

Jonathan RUGMAN in Kanliq, south-west Azerbaijan, reports

On the main road south through Gubadly province, thousands of men, women and children are packed into trucks at an Azeri checkpoint waiting for permission to leave. Helicopters shuttle in and out with the wounded, while a group of women sit wailing at the roadside, tearing at their bloodstained faces with their fingernails in a frenzy of grief. A new exodus of refugees is under way towards Azerbaijan's border with Iran as Armenia forces continue ignoring United Nations demands that they stop their offensive.

This week the UNHCR began distributing 4,000 tents and 50,000 blankets to those displaced in the recent hostilities. The organization representatives reported about 250,000 Azeris have been displaced so far this year and about 1 million since the massacre began in 1988.

Newsweek 16 March 1992
By Pascal Privat with Steve Le Vine in Moscow
THE FACE OF A MASSACRE

"Azerbaijan was a charnel house again last week: a place of mourning refugees and dozens of mangled corpses dragged to a makeshift morgue behind the mosque. They were ordinary Azerbaijani men, women and children of Khojaly, a small village in war-torn Upper Garabagh overrun by Armenian forces on Feb. 25-26. Many were killed at close range while trying to flee; some had their faces mutilated, others were scalped. While the victims' families mourned".

The New York Times, Tuesday, March 3, 1992
MASSACRE BY ARMENIANS

Aghdam, Azerbaijan, March 2 (Reuters) - Fresh evidence emerged today of a massacre of civilians by Armenian militants in Upper Garabagh, a predominantly Armenian enclave of Azerbaijan.

Scalping Reported

Azerbaijani officials and journalists who flew briefly to the region by helicopter brought back three dead children with the back of their heads blown off. They said shooting by Armenians has prevented them from retrieving more bodies.

"Women and children have been scalped", said Assad Faradshev, an aide to Upper Garabagh's Azerbaijani Governor. "When we began to pick up bodies, they began firing at us".

The Azerbaijani police chief in Aghdam, Rashid Mamedov, said: "The bodies are lying there like flocks of sheep. Even the fascists did nothing like this".

Truckloads of Bodies

Near Aghdam on the outskirts of Upper Garabagh, a “Reuters” photographer, Frederique Lengaigne, said she had seen two trucks filled with Azerbaijani bodies.

"In the first one I counted 35, and it looked as though there were as many in the second», she said. "Some had their head cut off, and many had been burnt. They were all men, and a few had been wearing khaki uniforms".

The Sunday Times 1 March 1992
By Thomas Goltz, Aghdam, Azerbaijan
ARMENIAN SOLDIERS MASSACRE HUNDREDS OF FLEEING FAMILIES

Survivors reported that Armenian soldiers shot and bayoneted more than 450 Azeris, many of them women and children. Hundreds, possibly thousands, were missing and feared dead.

The attackers killed most of the soldiers and volunteers defending the women and children. They then turned their guns on the terrified refugees. The few survivors later described what happened: “That's when the real slaughter began”, said Azer Hajiev, one of three soldiers to survive. “The Armenians just shot and shot. And then they came in and started carving up people with their bayonets and knives”.

“They were constantly shooting”, echoed Rasia Aslanova, who arrived in Aghdam with other women and children who made their way through Armenian lines. She said her husband, Kayun, and a son-in-law were massacred in front of her. Her daughter was still missing. One boy who arrived in Aghdam had an ear sliced off.

The survivors said 2000 others, some of whom had fled separately, were still missing in the grueling terrain; many could perish from their wounds or the cold. By late yesterday, 479 deaths had been registered at the morgue in Aghdam morgue, and 29 bodies had been buried in the cemetery. Of the seven corpses I saw awaiting burial, two were children and three were women, one shot through the chest at point blank range.

Aghdam hospital was a scene of carnage and terror. Doctors said they had 140 patients who escaped slaughter, most with bullet injuries or deep stab wounds. Nor were they safe in Aghdam. On friday night rockets fell on the city which has a population of 150,000, destroying several buildings and killing one person.

The Times, 2 March 1992
CORPSES LITTER HILLS IN KARABAKH
(ANATOL LIEVEN COMES UNDER FIRE WHILE FLYING TO INVESTIGATE THE MASS KILLINGS OF REFUGEES BY ARMENIAN TROOPS)

As we swooped low over the snow-covered hills of Upper Garabagh we saw the scattered corpses. Apparently, the refugees had been shot down as they ran. An Azerbaijani film of the places we flew over, shown to journalists afterwards, showed DOZENS OF CORPSES lying in various parts of the hills.

The Azerbaijanis claim that AS MANY AS 1000 have died in a MASS KILLING of AZERBAIJANIS fleeing from the town of Khodjaly, seized by Armenians last week. A further 4,000 are believed to be wounded, frozen to death or missing.

The civilian helicopter's job was to land in the mountains and pick up bodies at sites of the mass killings. The civilian helicopter picked up four corpses, and it was during this and a previous mission that an Azerbaijani cameraman filmed the several dozen bodies on the hillsides. Back at the airfield in Aghdam, we took a look at the bodies the civilian helicopter had picked up. Two old men small girls were in blood, their limbs contorted by the cold and rigor mortis. They had been shot.

TIME, March 16, 1992
By Jill SMOLOWE -Reported by Yuri ZARAKHOVICH/Moscow
MASSACRE IN KHOJALY

While the details are argued, this much is plain: something grim and unconscionable happened in the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly two weeks ago. So far, some 200 dead Azerbaijanis, many of them mutilated, have been transported out of the town tucked inside the Armenian-dominated enclave of Upper Garabagh for burial in neighboring Azerbaijan. The total number of deaths - the Azerbaijanis claim 1,324 civilians have been slaughtered, most of them women and children - is unknown.

Videotapes circulated by the Azerbaijanis include images of defaced civilians, some of them scalped, others shot in the head.

BBC1 Morning News at 07.37, Tuesday 3 March 1992

"BBC reporter was live on line and he claimed that he saw more than 100 bodies of Azeri men, women and children as well as a baby who are shot dead from their heads from a very short distance".

BBC1 Morning News at 08:12, Tuesday 3 March 1992

"Very disturbing picture has shown that many civilian corpses who were picked up from mountain. Reporter said he, a cameraman and Western Journalists have seen more than 100 corpses, who are men, women, and children, massacred by Armenians. They have been shot dead from their heads as close as 1 meter. Picture also has shown nearly ten bodies (mainly women and children) are shot dead from their heads. Azerbaijan claimed that more than 1000 civilians massacred by Armenian forces".

Channel 4 News at 19.00, Monday 2 March 1992

"2 French journalists have seen 32 corpses of men, women and children in civilian clothes. Many of them shot dead from their heads as close as less than 1 meter".

Report from Karabakpress

A merciless massacre of the civilian population of the small Azeri town of Khojaly (Population 6000) in Karabagh, Azerbaijan, is reported to have taken place on the night of February 28 by the Soviet Armenian Army. Close to 1000 people are reported to have been massacred. Elderly and children were not spared. Many were badly beaten and shot at close range. A sense of rage and helplessness has overwhelmed the Azeri population in face of the well armed and equipped Armenian Army. The neighboring Azeri city of Aghdam outside of the Karabagh region has come under heavy Armenian artillery shelling. City hospital was hit and two pregnant women as well as a new born infant were killed. Azerbaijan is appealing to the international community to condemn such barbaric and ruthless attacks on its population and its sovereignty.

Boston Sunday Globe, November 21, 1993
by Jon Auerbach
Globe Correspondent

CHAKHARLI, Azerbaijan – The truckloads of scared and lost children, the sobbing mothers, the stench of sickness and the sea of blank faces in this mud-covered refugee camp obscure the deeper issue of why tens of thousands of Azeris have fled here.

"What we see now is a systematic destruction of every village in their way", said one senior US official. "It's one of the most disgusting things we've seen".

"It's vandalism" the US official said. "The idea that there is an aggressive intent in a sound conclusion"

The United Nations estimates that there are more than 1 million refugees in Azerbaijan, roughly one seventh of the former Soviet republic's entire population. Thousands who fled to neighboring Iran are being slowly repatriated to refugee camps already bursting at the seams. But because of the Armenians' policy of burning villages, relief organizations say there is no hope that the Azeris could return home anytime soon.

At Chakharli, about 10 miles from Iran, more than 10,000 refugees are crammed into a makeshift tent city. Aziz Azizova, 33, arrived in the Iranian run camp about three weeks ago, after she and her five children were forced to flee their home in the village of Buik-Merjan.

"I left my village with nothing, not even my shoes" she said. "You see how our children live? Some of them are living right in the mud".

Azizova, like thousands of others had escaped by fleeing across the Araz River into neighboring Iran. The UN estimates that around 300 Azeris, mainly women and children, drowned in the river's currents. One of the people who did make it across was Samaz Mamedova, a 40-year-old accountant. Sitting with friends in tent No. 566 on a recent day, Mamedova explained how the Armenians seized her village in less than a half hour, forcing the entire population toward the river in a chaotic scramble for survival.

Cebbar Leygara, Kurdish Leader - October 13, 1992

"Today's ethnic cleansing policies by the Serbians against Croatians and Muslims of Yugoslavia, as well as the Soviet Republic of Armenia's against the Muslim population of neighboring Azerbaijan, are really no different in their aspirations than the genocide perpetrated by the Armenian Government 78 years ago against the Turkish and Kurdish Muslims and Sephardic Jews living in these lands".

Tofik Kasimov Azeri Leader - September 25, 1992

"The crime of systematic cleansing by mass killing and extermination of the Muslim population in Soviet Republic of Armenia, Upper Garabagh, Bosnia and Herzegovina is an 'Islamic Holocaust' comparable to the extermination of 2.5 million Muslims by the Armenian Government during the WWI and of over 6 million European Jews during the WWII".

The Times, 3 March 1992
MASSACRE UNCOVERED
By ANATOL LIEVEN

More than sixty bodies, including those of women and children, have been spotted on hillsides in Upper Garabagh, confirming claims that Armenian troops massacred Azeri refugees. Hundreds are missing. Scattered amid the withered grass and bushes along a small valley and across the hillside beyond are the bodies of last Wednesday's massacre by Armenian forces of Azerbaijani refugees.

In all, 31 bodies could be counted at the scene. At least another 31 have been taken into Aghdam over the past five days. These figures do not include civilians reported killed when the Armenians stormed the Azerbaijani town of Khodjaly on Tuesday night. The figures also do not include other as yet undiscovered bodies.

Zahid Jabarov, a survivor of the massacre, said he saw up to 200 people shot down at the point we visited, and refugees who came by different routes have also told of being shot at repeatedly and of leaving a trail of bodies along their path. Around the bodies we saw were scattered possessions, clothing and personnel documents. The bodies themselves have been preserved by the bitter cold which killed others as they hid in the hills and forest after the massacre. All are the bodies of ordinary people, dressed in the poor, ugly clothing of workers.

Of the 31 we saw, only one policeman and two apparent national volunteers were wearing uniform. All the rest were civilians, including eight women and three small children. Two groups, apparently families, had fallen together, the children cradled in the women's arms. Several of them, including one small girl, had terrible head injuries: only her face was left. Survivors have told how they saw Armenians shooting them point blank as they lay on the ground.

6. THE COMMITTEE FOR PEOPLE'S HELP TO KARABAKH (OF THE) ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE AZERBAIJAN SSR - 1988
An Appeal to Mankind

During the last three years Azerbaijan and its multinational population are vainly fighting for justice within the limits of the Soviet Union. All humanitarian, constitutional human rights guaranteed by the UN Charter, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Helsinki Agreements, Human Problems International Forums, documents signed by the Soviet Union - all of them are violated.

The USSR's President, government bodies do not defend Azerbaijan though they are all empowered to take necessary measures to guarantee life and peace. The 240,000 strong army of Armenian terrorists with Moscow's tacit consent wages an undeclared war of annihilation against Azerbaijan. As a result, a part of Azerbaijan has been occupied and annexed, thousands of people killed, thousands wounded.

Some 400,000 Azerbaijanis have been brutally and inhumanly deported from the Armenian SSR, their historical homeland. Together with them 64,000 Russians and 62,000 Kurds have also been driven out, a part of them now settled in Azerbaijan. Some 80,000 Turkish-Meshetis, Lezghins and representatives of other Caucasian nationalities who escaped from the Central Asia where the President and government bodies did not guarantee them the life and peace also suffered from these deportations.

One of the scandalous vandalisms directed not only against Azerbaijan science but the world civilization as well is the Armenian extremists' destruction of the Garabagh scientific experimental base of The Institute of Genetics and Selection of the Academy of Sciences of the Azerbaijan SSR. We beg you for humanitarian help and political assistance, for the honour and dignity of 7 million Azerbaijanis are violated, its territory, culture and history are trampled, its people are shot. There is persistent negative image of Azerbaijanians abroad, and this defamation is spread over the whole world by Soviet mass media, Armenian lobby in the USSR and the United States.

We are for a united, indivisible, sovereign Azerbaijan, we are for a common Caucasian home proclaimed in 1918 by one of the founding fathers of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic - Muhammed Emin Rasulzade. But all these goals and expectations are trampled upon the Soviet leadership in favour of the Armenian expansionists encouraged by Moscow and intended to create a new '1,000 Year Reich' - the 'Great Armenia' - by annexing the neighboring lands.

The world public opinion shed tears to save the whales, suffers for penguins dying out in the Antarctic Continent. But what about the lives of seven million human beings? If these people are Muslims, does it mean that they are less valuable? Can people be discriminated by their color of skin or religion, by their residence or other attributes?

The Age, Melbourne, 6/3/92

By Helen WOMACK - Aghdam, Azerbaijan, Thursday

The exact number of victims is still unclear, but there can be little doubt that Azeri civilians were massacred by Armenian Army in the snowy mountains of Upper Garabagh last week.

Refugees from the enclave town of Khojaly, sheltering in the Azeri border town of Aghdam, give largely consistent accounts of how Armenians attacked their homes on the night of 25 February, chased those who fled and shot them in the surrounding forests. Yesterday, I saw 75 freshly dug graves in one cemetery in addition to four mutilated corpses we were shown in the mosque when we arrived in Aghdam late on Tuesday. I also saw women and children with bullet wounds in a makeshift hospital in a string of railway carriages.

Khojaly, is an Azeri town in Upper Garabagh. Rashid Mamedov, Commander of Police in Aghdam, said only about 500 escaped to his town. So where are the rest? Some might have been imprisoned, he said, or fled. Many bodies were still lying in the mountains because Azeris have lack of helicopters to retrieve them. He believed more than 1000 had perished, some of cold in temperatures as low as minus 10 degrees.

When Azeris saw the Armenians with a convoy of armored personnel carriers, they realized they could not hope to defend themselves, and fled into the forests. In the small hours, the massacre started. Mr. Nazirov, who believes his wife and two children were taken prisoner, repeated what many other refugees have said - that troops of the former Soviet army helped the Armenians to attack Khojaly. "It is not my opinion; I saw it with my own eyes".

The Washington Post 2/28/92
Upper Garabagh Victims Buried in Azerbaijani Town

"Refugees claim hundreds died in Armenian Attack...Of seven bodies seen here today, two were children and three were women, one shot through the chest at what appeared to be close range. Another 120 refugees being treated at Aghdam's hospital include many with multiple stab wounds».

The New York Times, 3/6/92
A Final Goodbye in Azerbaijan

[Photo by Associated Press]: "At a cemetery in Aghdam, Azerbaijan, family members and friends grieved during the burial of victims massacred by the Armenians in Upper Garabagh. Chingiz Iskandarov, right, hugged the coffin containing the remains of his brother, one of the victims. A copy of Koran lay atop the coffin".

The Washington Post, 3/6/92
Final Embrace

[Photo by Associated Press]: "Chingiz Iskenderov, right, weeps over coffin holding the remains of his brother as other relatives grieve at an Azarbaijani cemetery yesterday amid burial of victims killed by Armenians in Upper Garabagh".

The Washington Times, 3/2/92
Armenian Raid Leaves Azeris Dead or Fleeing

"...about 1,000 of Khojaly's 10,000 people were massacred by the Armenian Army in Tuesdays attack. Azerbaijani television showed truckloads of corpses being evacuated from the Khocaly area“.

The Independent, 2/29/92
By Helen Womack

"Elif Haban, a Reuter correspondent in Aghdam, reported that after a massacre on Wednesday, Azeris were burying scores of people who died when Armenians overran the town of Khojaly. The world is turning its back on what's happening here. We are dying and you are just watching, one mourner shouted at a group of journalists».

Reuters, 2/12/92
Armenians Burn Azeri Village

"Armenian Army attacked a strategic Azeri village...in Upper Garabagh and burnt it to the ground on Tuesday, Commonwealth television reported.

Channel one television said the village of Malybeili, in the Khojaly district, was now cut off and a large number of wounded were left stranded. Itar-Tass news agency said several people were killed and 20 wounded in the attack on the village... Tass also said shells fired from Armenian villages into the Azeri populated town of Susha, just 6 miles south of Stepenakert, demolished two houses and damaged five others».

The Washington Times, 3/3/92
Massacre Reports Horrify Azerbaijan

"Azeri officials who returned from the scene to this town about nine miles away brought back three dead children, the backs of their heads blown off...'Women and children had been scalped,' said Assad Faradzev, an aide to Karabagh's Azeri governor. Azeri television showed pictures of one truckload of bodies brought to the Azeri town of Aghdam, some with their faces apparently scratched with knives or their eyes gouged out».

The Washington Post, 3/3/92
Killings Rife in Upper Garabagh

"Journalists in the area reported seeing dozens of corpses, including some of the civilians, and Azerbaijani officials said Armenians began shooting at them when they sought to recover the bodies».

The Times, (London) 3/3/92
Bodies Mark Site of Karabagh Massacre

"A local truce was enforced to allow the Azerbaijanis to collect their dead and any refugees still hiding in the hills and forest. All are the bodies of ordinary people, dressed in the poor, ugly clothing of workers... All the rest were civilians, including eight women and three small children. Two groups, apparently families, had fallen together, the children cradled in the women's arms. Several of them, including one small girl, had terrible head injuries: only her face was left. Survivors have told how they saw Armenians shooting them point blank as they lay on the ground».

The SUNDAY TIMES, 8 March 1992
Thomas Goltz, the first to report the massacre by Armenian soldiers, reports from Aghdam.

Khojaly used to be a barren Azeri town, with empty shops and treeless dirt roads. Yet it was still home to thousands of Azeri people who, in happier times, tended fields and flocks of geese. Last week it was wiped off the map.

As sickening reports trickled in to the Azerbaijani border town of Aghdam, and the bodies piled up in the morgues, there was little doubt that Khojaly and the stark foothills and gullies around it had been the site of the most terrible massacre since the Soviet Union broke apart.

I was the last Westerner to visit Khojaly. That was in january and people were predicting their fate with grim resignation. Zumrut Ezoya, a mother of four on board the helicopter that ferried us into the town, called her community "sitting ducks, ready to get shot". She and her family were among the victims of the massacre by the Armenians on February 26.

"The Armenians have taken all the outlying villages, one by one, and the government does nothing». Balakisi Sakikov, 55, a father of five, said. "Next they will drive us out or kill us all», said Dilbar, his wife. The couple, their three sons and three daughters were killed in the massacre, as were many other people I had spoken to.

"It was close to the Armenian lines we knew we would have to cross. There was a road, and the first units of the column ran across then all hell broke loose. Bullets were raining down from all sides. we had just entered their trap».

The Azeri defenders picked off one by one. Survivors say that Armenian forces then began a pitiless slaughter, firing at anything moved in the gullies. A video taken by an Azeri cameraman, wailing and crying as he filmed body after body, showed a grizzly trail of death leading towards higher, forested ground where the villagers had sought refuge from the Armenians.

"The Armenians just shot and shot and shot», said Omar Veyselov, lying in hospital in Aghdam with sharapnel wounds. "I saw my wife and daughter fall right by me».

People wandered through the hospital corridors looking for news of the loved ones. Some vented their fury on foreigners: " Where is my daughter, where is my son ?" wailed a mother. "Raped. Butchered. Lost».

The Independent, London, 12/6/92
Painful Search

The gruesome extent of February's killings of Azeris by Armenians in the town of Hojali is at last emerging in Azerbaijan - about 600 men, women and children dead.

The State Prosecutor, Aydin Rasulov, the cheif investigator of a 15-man team looking into what Azerbaijan calls the "Hojali Massacre", said his figure of 600 people dead was a minimum on preliminary findings. A similar estimate was given by Elman Memmedov, the mayor of Hojali. An even higher one was printed in the Baku newspaper Ordu in May - 479 dead people named and more than 200 bodies reported unidentified. This figure of nearly 700 dead is quoted as official by Leila Yunusova, the new spokeswoman of the Azeri Ministry of Defence.

Francois Zen Ruffinen, head of delegation of the International Red Cross in Baku, said the Muslim imam of the nearby city of Aghdam had reported a figure of 580 bodies received at his mosque from Khojaly, most of them civilians. "We did not count the bodies. But the figure seems reasonable. It is no fantasy», Mr Zen Ruffinen said. "We have some idea since we gave the body bags and products to wash the dead».

Mr Rasulov endeavours to give an unemotional estimate of the number of dead in the massacre. "Don't get worked up. It will take several months to get a final figure», the 43-year-old lawyer said at his small office. Mr Rasulov knows about these things. It took him two years to reach a firm conclusion that 131 people were killed and 714 wounded when Soviet troops and tanks crushed a nationalist uprising in Baku in January 1990. Officially, 184 people have so far been certified as dead, being the number of people that could be medically examined by the republic's forensic department. "This is just a small percentage of the dead», said Rafiq Youssifov, the republic's chief forensic scientist. "They were the only bodies brought to us. Remember the chaos and the fact that we are Muslims and have to wash and bury our dead within 24 hours».

Of these 184 people, 51 were women, and 13 were children under 14 years old. Gunshots killed 151 people, shrapnel killed 20 and axes or blunt instruments killed 10. Exposure in the highland snows killed the last three. Thirty-three people showed signs of deliberate mutilation, including ears, noses, breasts or penises cut off and eyes gouged out, according to Professor Youssifov's report. Those 184 bodies examined were less than a third of those believed to have been killed, Mr Rasulov said.

"There were too many bodies of dead and wounded on the ground to count properly: 470-500 in Hojali, 650-700 people by the stream and the road and 85-100 visible around Nakhchivanik village», Mr Manafov wrote in a statement countersigned by the helicopter pilot.

"People waved up to us for help. We saw three dead children and one two-year-old alive by one dead woman. The live one was pulling at her arm for the mother to get up. We tried to land but Armenians started a barrage against our helicopter and we had to return».

There has been no consolidation of the lists and figures in circulation because of the political upheavals of the last few months and the fact that nobody knows exactly who was in Hojali at the time - many inhabitants were displaced from other villages taken over by Armenian forces.

The Independent, London, 12/6/92
Photographs: Liu Heung / AP
Frederique Lengaigne / Reuter

Arif Sadikov sat quietly in the shade of a cafe-bar on the Caspian Sea esplanade of Baku and showed a line of stitches in his trousers, torn by an Armenian bullet as he fled the town of Khojaly just over three months ago, writes Hugh Pope.

"I'm still wearing the same clothes, I don't have any others», the 51-year-old carpenter said, beginning his account of the Hojali disaster. "I was wounded in five places, but I am lucky to be alive».

Mr Sadikov and his wife were short of food, without electricity for more than a month, and cut off from helicopter flights for 12 days. They sensed the Armenian noose was tightening around the 2,000 to 3,000 people left in the straggling Azeri town on the edge of Karabakh.

"At about 11 pm a bombardment started such as we had never heard before, eight or nine kinds of weapons, artillery, heavy machine-guns, the lot», Mr Sadikov said.

Soon neighbours were pouring down the street from the direction of the attack. Some huddled in shelters but others started fleeing the town, down a hill, through a stream and through the snow into a forest on the other side.

To escape, the townspeople had to reach the Azeri town of Aghdam about 15 miles away. They thought they were going to make it, until at about dawn they reached a bottleneck between the two Azeri villages of Nakhchivanik and Saderak.

"None of my group was hurt up to then ... Then we were spotted by a car on the road, and the Armenian outposts started opening fire», Mr Sadikov said. Mr Sadikov said only 10 people from his group of 80 made it through, including his wife and militiaman son. Seven of his immediate relations died, including his 67-year-old elder brother.

"I only had time to reach down and cover his face with his hat», he said, pulling his own big flat Turkish cap over his eyes. "We have never got any of the bodies back».

The first groups were lucky to have the benefit of covering fire. One hero of the evacuation, Alif Hajief, was shot dead as he struggled to change a magazine while covering the third group's crossing, Mr Sadikov said.

Another hero, Elman Memmedov, the mayor of Hojali, said he and several others spent the whole day of 26 February in the bushy hillside, surrounded by dead bodies as they tried to keep three Armenian armoured personnel carriers at bay.

As the survivors staggered the last mile into Aghdam, there was little comfort in a town from which most of the population was soon to flee.

"The night after we reached the town there was a big Armenian rocket attack. Some people just kept going», Mr Sadikov said. "I had to get to the hospital for treatment. I was in a bad way. They even found a bullet in my sock».

Victims of massacre: An Azeri woman mourns her son, killed in the Khojaly massacre in February (left). Nurses struggle in primitive conditions (centre) to save a wounded man in a makeshift operating theatre set up in a train carriage. Grief-stricken relatives in the town of Aghdam (right) weep over the coffin of another of the massacre victims. Calculating the final death toll has been complicated because Muslims bury their dead within 24 hours.

Newsweek, November 29, 1993, p. 50

"For the past seven months Armenian troops and tanks have swept across Azerbaijan – a land grab exceeded only by what the Serbs have accomplished in Bosnia in the past year...Last month they pushed south all the way to the Iranian border, driving more than 60,000 Azerbaijani civilians across the Araz river into Iran – and looting and torching vacant villages in their wake».

Amnesty International Secretariat
1 Easton Street
London WC1X 8DJ
United Kingdom
22 APRIL 1994
ARMENIA: MUSLIM PRISONERS MURDERED IN "EXECUTION-TYPE SHOOTINGS"

Forensic evidence released this month suggests that six Azerbaydzhani prisoners of war held in Armenia were victims of "execution-type shootings", according to a forensic expert.

Following an announcement, in February, by the Armenian Foreign Ministry that eight Azerbaydzhani prisoners had been shot while attempting to escape, ten bodies were transferred from Armenia to Azerbaydzhan in March. Professor Derrick Pounder, head of the Department of Forensic Medicine at the University of Dundee, United Kingdom, began post- mortem examinations on the bodies at the beginning of April. The bodies had also undergone previous examinations by both the Armenians and the Azeris.

He found that six of the men - Rustam Ramazan ogly Agev, Elehan Guseyn ogly Akhmedov, Elman Mamed ogly Akhmedov, Kurchat Kiyaz ogly Mamedov, Eldar Chakhbaba ogly Mamedov and Faig Gabil ogly Guliyev - had been murdered by a single gunshot wound to the head. He also found that in three of the six cases the muzzle of the gun had been in contact with the head at the time the shot was fired. It was not possible to determine the range at which the shot had been fired in the other three cases owing to earlier removal of physical evidence.

Professor Pounder concluded that the pattern of gunshot wounds was not consistent with allegations that the six men had been shot while attempting to escape, and said that the common pattern of the wounds was "strongly suggestive of execution-type shootings". Amnesty International is urging the Armenian authorities to conduct a prompt, impartial and thorough investigation into the deaths of these six men, to make the findings public, and to bring to justice any perpetrators of execution-style killings, within the bounds of international law.

The human rights organization is also urging the Armenian authorities to investigate the circumstances surrounding the deaths of the remaining four men whose bodies were returned, in order to determine if criminal proceedings are necessary in their cases also. Professor Pounder found that one of these had wounds to the throat in a pattern of injury consistent with suicide, one died of a single gunshot wound to the chest, and in two instances the cause of death could not be determined.

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MARCH 2, 1994
PRESIDENT LEVON TER-PETROSSIAN
MARSHAL BAGRAMIAN PROSPECT, 26
375019 YEREVAN
BY FAX:52-15-81

DEAR PRESIDENT TER-PETROSSIAN,

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH\HELSINKI (Formerly Helsinki Watch) is the largest human rights organization in the United States. We have closely followed the Armenian massacre of the Azeri people in Upper Garabagh, and have published two reports on violations of the Geneva Conventions.

I am writing you to express our organisation's deep concern about the deaths of Azerbaijani prisoners of war in Armenia. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, the following men were shot to death in an Armenian detention camp in Sritak in late January or early February:

1.      Rustam Ramazan-oglu Agaev,(birthdate unknown), from Masalin District

2.      Elman Mamed-oglu Akhmedov, b. 1961, from Yevlakh District

3.      Elshan Hussein-oglu Akhmedov, b.1974, from Saatlin District

4.      Bakhram AKIF-oglu Giiasov,b. 1972, from Siazan

5.      FAIG Gabil-oglu Guliev, b.1969, from Baku

6.      Enver Asker-oglu Jafarov, b.1972, from Sumgait

7.      Eldar Shahbaba-oglu Mamedov, b.1966, from Baku

8.      Girshad Kniaz-oglu Mamedov, b.1974 from Yevlakh

I thank you for your attention to this matter and look forward to learning the results of the investigation. Yours sincerely,

Jerald Laber
Executive Director

In Armenian unit, Russian is spoken.
By Paul Quinn-Judge.
THE BOSTON GLOBE
Monday, March 16 1992

Hankendi («Stepanakert»), Upper Garabagh - Troops of the former Soviet army are continuing to fight and die in Upper Garabagh, despite claim by the Commonwealth of Independent States' high command that they have been withdrawn.

The last Commonwealth unit in Upper Garabagh, the 366th Motorized Rigiment, was officially pulled out last week. But a fair sprinkling of non-Armenian troops can be seen in and around Hankendi («Stepanakert»), the Armenian-held capital of the disputed enclave.

They are serving in tank crews, repairing military equipment, visiting comrades in the hospital. Some claim to be half-Armenian,despite their blond hair. All, however, give or take orders in Russian, not Armenian. And all are described as volunteers, fighting for cause, not high salaries. They are like Valery, a captain from Mogilev, Belarus. A veteran of fighting in Somalia and an officer of the elite airborne, Valery - who would not give his surname - is now battalion commander of a new Armenian unit.

Then there is Yury Nikolayevich, a cheery but cautious lieutenant colonel said to have been the deputy commander of the 366th regiment. Yuri Nikolayevich is still wearing his uniform. He refuses to give his full name or talk about his current role.

Armenian officials say that Yury Nikolayevich went over to the Armenian fighters last week with a large part of the regiment's military hardware. The fighters are also people like the unnamed Russian soldier who was killed last Thursday along with his Armenian comrade when their armored personnel carrier hit an Azerbaijani land mine.

Valery plans to spend at least the next three years here. At the moment, he is receiving only food and accomodation Karabagh Armenians,he says. But sometime soon,he expects to sign a formal contract. He refers to the Azerbaijani fighters as "dukhi", the Soviet army slang for Afghan mujahideen. Most are savages, he says.

He believes that Islam has to be checked here in Karabagh. "If not”, he says, "I'll have to fight them in Belarus». And he is now training Armenian Karabagh's first border unit, made up, he says, of Armenians who had served in the Soviet airborne, marines and border forces... Across the Caucasus, and in other hot spots like Moldova, local political activists are raiding military arsenals...

Last week, Armenian militants took Commonwealth officers hostage in the town of Artiq after an abortive raid on a military base. In most cases, the militants and senior officers admit, the raids are an inside job. The Artiq raid was "obviously a foul-up", said an official of the Dashnak party, the militant Armenian group that is spearheading the fight in Upper Garabagh. "No one ever just seizes weapons: You always buy off someone inside the barracks. Obviously, the deal went wrong”.

Massacre by Armenians Being Reported
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Tuesday, March 3 1992

AGHDAM, Azerbaijan, March 2 (Reuters) - The last of the former Soviet troops in the Caucasus enclave of Upper Garabagh began pulling out today as fresh evidence emerged of a massacre of civilians by Armenian militants. The Itar-Tass press agency said the 366th Motorized Infantry Regiment had started its withdrawal, in effect removing the last frail buffer separating the region's two warring ethnic groups, Armenians and Azerbaijanis.

The two sides made no attempt to interfere, it added. Upper Garabagh is within the republic of Azerbaijan, but most of its population is Armenian.

Shelling of Town Reported

The Azerbaijani press agency Azerinform reported fresh Armenian missile fire on the Azerbaijani-populated town of Shusha in Upper Garabagh on Sunday night. It said to several people had been wounded in another attack, on the settlement of Venjali, early today.

The republic of Armenia reiterated denials that its mi- litants had killed 1000 people in the Azerbaijani-populated town of Khojaly last week and had massacred men, women and children fleeing the carnage across snow-covered mountain passes.

But dozens of bodies scattered over the area lent credence to Azerbaijani reports of massacre.

Azerbaijani officials and journalists who flew briefly to the region by helicopter brought back three dead chilren with the backs of their heads blown off. They said shooting by Armenians had prevented them from recovering more bodies.

"Women and children had been scalped», said Assad Faradjev, an aide to Upper Garabagh Azerbaijani Governor. "When we began to pick up bodies, they began firing at us».

The Azerbaijani militia chief in Aghdam, Rashid Mamedov, said: "The bodies are lying there like flocks of sheep. Even fascists did nothing like this».

Two Trucks Filled With Bodies

Near Aghdam on the outskirts of Upper Garabagh, a Reuters photographer, Frederique Lengaigne, said she had seen two trucks filled with Azerbaijani bodies.

"In the first one I counted 35, and it looked as though there were almost as many in the second», she said. "Some had their heads cut off, and many had been burnt. They were all men, and a few had been wearing khaki uniforms»...

Four years of fighting in Upper Garabagh have killed 1500-2000 people. The last week's fighting has been the most savage yet. The 366th Regiment [of the Russian regular Army - Ed.], based in Hankendi («Stepanakert»), the biggest town of Upper Garabagh, has been caught at the center of fighting in which at least three of its soldiers were killed late last month.

Speaking to his Parliament in Yerevan, the Armenian capital, President Levon Ter-Petrosyan criticized the withdrawal from the enclave of the commonwealth's last troops. "This regiment, though not involved in military operations, was a stabilizing factor», Mr. Ter-Petrosian said.

Khojaly – the main target

Khojaly assault by Armenian armed forces was predetermined by strategic location of the city. The city with population of 7000 people is situated 10 kilometers to South-East from Hankendi. Khojaly is situated on the way Aghdam-Shusha, Askeran-Hankendi and has an airport, the only in Upper Garabagh.

Khojaly is the historical place and memorials of ancient history have still remained here. The memorials of Khojaly-Kedabek culture of XIV-VII centuries b.c. are near Khojaly village. The funeral memorials - the stone boxes, barrows and necropolis of the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age, as well as architectural memorials – round crypt (1356-1357) and mausoleum (XIV century) were found here. The various stone, bronze, bone adornment, the ceramics household goods were found during the archeological excavations. The name of the Assyrian king Adadnerari (807-788 cc. B.C.) was written on one of the beads found in Khojaly.

The population ranched and done with the wine-growing, beekeeping and grain farming. There were the textile fabrics, 2 secondary schools and 2 partial secondary schools in the city.

In connection with the events of last years hundreds of turk-meskhets families - refugees from Fergana (Uzbekistan), as well as Azerbaijanis expatriated from Armenia have taken refuge in this city. Because of that the construction of branches of big industrial enterprises of Azerbaijan, residential buildings and other sites were developed.

Later the Armenian side admitted that one of the first goals of Armenian armed forces was the liquidation of Khojaly base to open the corridor connected Askeran village and Hankendi («Stepanakert») across the city and unblocking of the only airport, which was under control of the Azerbaijanis.

Pay attention to the phrase “the liquidation of Khojaly base”. These words, which are also heard today, disclose motives of mass extirpation of children and women, motives of bloody massacre implemented by Armenians.

Chronicle of tragedy

Khojaly was under blockade since October, 1991. On October, 30 the ground traffic was cut off and helicopter was the only way of transportation. The last civilian helicopter arrived in Khojaly on January, 28 and after civilian helicopter was brought down over Shusha city, as a result of which 40 people died, the helicopter traffic also stopped its functioning. Beginning from January, 2 there was no electricity in the city. The city lived due to the courage of population and heroism of his defenders. Defense of the city was organized by local guard forces, militia and fighters of National Army armed mainly by submachine guns.

From the second part of February Khojaly was encircled by Armenian armed forces and subjected to daily artillery and hard military equipment firing, attack attempts of the Armenian side. Preparation for Khojaly assault began in the evening of February, 25 when the military equipment of regiment No 366 began to take positions around the city. The assault of the city began with the 2 hours firing by tanks, armored cars and guns with the missile “Alazan”. Khojaly was blocked from three sides and the people tried to escape in Askeran direction. But very soon they understood that it was the ominous trap. Near Nakhchivanik village the Armenian armed forces opened the fire on the unarmed people. Just here, in Askeran-Nakhchevanik shallow gully many of the children and women, elders, frostbitten and weaken in the snow of forests and mountain passes became the victims of the brutality of Armenian armed forces.

These events took place when Foreign Minister of Islamic Republic of Iran Ali Akbar Vilayati visited the region with mediatory mission. On February, 25 he met with leadership of Azerbaijan in Baku and on February, 27 he planned to go to the Karabakh, and then to Armenia. In connection with that according to agreement of both parts three days cease fire was declared from February, 27 till March, 1, but it was also ignored by the Armenian side. It was also happened on February, 12 when the mission of Council of Security and Cooperation in Europe arrived in Karabakh with the aim to acquaint and analyse the situation in the conflict zone and possibilities of its settlement, and then it planned to go to Yerevan and Baku. Exactly on February, 12 Armenian extremists carried out capture of Malibeyli and Gushchular villages of Shusha district, as a result of which the villages were completely destroyed and burnt. Only in Malibeyli about 50 people were killed, wounded and taken as hostages.

In those days Azerbaijani forces couldn’t burst through to help the population of Khojaly, and there was also no ability to take away the dead bodies. At the same time special groups of Armenians in white camouflage cloaks using helicopters searched the people in the forests, groups of people who came out the forest were shot or taken as hostages and subjected to tortures.

On February, 28 the group of local journalists could reach the place of massacre of Azerbaijanis by two helicopters. Awful sight shocked all – the field was covered by dead bodies. Despite the convoy of the second helicopter they could take only 4 dead bodies because of firing of the helicopters by Armenian militants. On March, 1 when the group of the foreign and local journalists could come to this place, the sight that they saw was more terrible. The dead bodies were mutilated. Many of them had the bullet wounds to head and this showed that the wounded people were finished. After medical checkup of dead bodies it was determined that they were scalped, their ears and other organs were cut off, the eyes were put out, their extremities were chopped off, they have numerous of gun wounds, many of them pressed by hard equipment.

Those days foreign newspapers wrote:

“Crual L’Eveneman” magazine (Paris), March 25, 1992:

“Armenians attacked Khojaly district. The whole world witnessed the disfigured dead bodies. Thousands people are reported killed”.

“Sunday Times” newspaper (London), March 1, 1992:
“Armenian soldiers annihilated hundred of families”.

“Financial times” newspaper (London), March 9, 1992:

“…Armenains shot down the column of refugees, fled to Aghdam. The Azerbaijani side counted up about 1200 dead bodies…

…The cameraman from Lebanon confirmed that the rich dashnak community of his country sends weapon and people to Karabakh”.

“Times” newspaper (London), March 4, 1992:

“Many people were mutilated; only head remained of one little girl”.

“Izvestiya” newspaper (Moscow), March 4, 1992:

“…Camcoder showed the kids with the cut off ears. An old woman had cut half of her face skin sliced off. Men were scalped…”

“Financial Times”, March 14, 1992: “General Polyakov said 103 Armenian servicemen from regiment No 366 stayed in Upper Garabagh”.

“Le Monde” newspaper (Paris), March 14, 1992:

“…The foreign journalists in Aghdam saw the women and three scalped children with the pulled off nails among the killed people. This is not “Azerbaijani propaganda”, but reality”

“Izvestiya” newspaper, March 13, 1992:

“Major Leonid Kravets: “I saw about hundred dead bodies on the hill. One little boy was missing his head. Everywhere were the dead bodies of women, children, and elders killed with the particular brutality”.

“Valer actuel” magazine (Paris), March 14, 1992: “…in this “autonomous region” Armenian armed forces and Middle East mercenaries have the most modern military equipment, including the helicopters. ASALA has military bases and ammunition depots in Syria and Lebanon. Armenians annihilated Azerbaijanis of Upper Garabagh, implemented bloody massacre in more than 800 Moslem villages”.

Journalist of british TV company “Funt man news” R. Patrick who visited the palce of tragedy: “Crime in Khojaly can not be justified in public opinion”.

From the report of “Memorial” Human Rights Watch Center

"Khojaly"

…Since autumn of 1991 Khojaly has been practically blocked by Armenian armed formations and after withdrawal of internal troops from Upper Garabagh, full blockade of Khojaly was imposed. Beginning from January, 1992 electrical energy transfer to Khojaly was stopped. Part of inhabitants left blocked city, however, despite insistent requests of head of executive power of Khojaly city E.Mamedov, total evacuation of peaceful population was not organized.

On February, 25 Armenian armed formations began assault of Khojaly.

Participants of assault

…Units of Artsakh National Liberation Army participated in the assault using armored equipment - armored troop-carriers, combat infantry cars and tanks.

Course of assault

Artillery firing of Khojaly began about 11 p.m. on February, 25. Barracks located in housing estate and outposts were destroyed first of all. Entering of infantry units into the city took place from 1 a.m. till 4 a.m. in the morning on February, 26.

…The last resistance was broken by 7 a.m. in the morning.

…As a result of firing of the city unknown number of peaceful inhabitants was killed on the territory of Khojaly during the assault.

The “free corridor” for population leaving

…60 people fled from Khojaly during the city assault were questioned by “Memorial” observers in Aghdam and Baku. Nobody knew about existence of “free corridor”. …These refugees proceeded along the “free corridor” situated on the territory adjoined to Aghdam district of Azerbaijan were fired, that resulted in death of many people.

Fate of the inhabitants who stayed in the city

After the occupation of the city by Armenian armed formations about 300 peaceful inhabitants including 86 Mesheti Turks were in the city.

… According to information received from both sides over 700 captive inhabitants of Khojaly took as hostages in the city and on the way to Aghdam were passed to Azerbaijani side by March, 23 1992. Among them were mainly women and children.

Fate of property of Khojaly inhabitants

Inhabitants of Khojaly who could flee had no possibility to take with them even the most necessary part of their property. The inhabitants who were taken as captives by members of Armenian armed formations also had no possibility to take the part of their property.

Observers from “Memorial” Human Rights Watch Center became witnesses of active unlimited marauding in the occupied city. The property left by Khojaly inhabitants got out from the city by inhabitants of Hankendi («Stepanakert») and neighboring settlements. The names of new owners were written on the gates of the most of houses.

Estimation of findings

Mass violence against peaceful population of Khojaly city took place during implementation the of military operation on the occupation of the city.

…The majority of Khojaly inhabitants were not informed about existence of the “free corridor”.

…Mass murders of peaceful inhabitants in the zone of the “free corridor” and adjacent territory can not be justified by any circumstances.

…Servicemen of infantry guards regiment No 366 belonged to Commonwealth of Independent States troops have participated in Khojaly assault.

…“Memorial” Human Rights Watch Center establishes that actions of Armenian armed forces of Upper Garabagh towards Khojaly peaceful inhabitants during the assault of Khojaly city roughly violate Geneva conventions as well as the following articles of Human Rights Declaration (adopted by UN General Assembly on December, 10 1948):

Article 2, declaring that “every person must have all rights and all freedoms, declared by this declaration without any distinction of…language, religion, national…origin, … or any other position”;

Article 3, admitting rights of every person to life, freedom and personal immunity;

Article 5, forbidding brutal, inhuman or humiliate treatment of person;

Article 9, forbidding arbitrary arrests, detention or expatriation;

Article 17, declaring right of every person to have property and forbidding to deprive arbitrary the person of his property.

Actions of armed formations roughly violated Declaration on protection of women and children in emergency and during armed conflicts (declared by UN General Assembly on December, 14 1974)".

366 motorized infantry regiment

It is necessary to note the part in Khojaly tragedy of infantry guards regiment No 366 billeted in Hankendi. This regiment repeatedly engaged in firing of Azerbaijani villages, Shusha and Khojaly cities. Evidence of deserters of this regiment points to these facts and allows us to imagine moral picture and mutual relations among the personnel of the regiment. Clear evidence of engaging of regiment No 366 in Khojaly events is rash withdrawal of this regiment from Hankendi that points to intention to conceal vestiges of this tragedy.

Moral degradation of the officers of regiment No 366 reached such a level that infantry guards regiment failed to implement itself withdrawal of troops allegedly because of interference of local residents. Forces of landing division located in Ganja city was involved in implementation of this operation. However, before commandos arrived, 103 people of personnel of the regiment, who were mainly Armenians clearly admitting their guilty in the outrage refused to obey the order and remained in Karabakh. According to criminal agreement of the high command of the regiment and because of inactivity of other higher commanders who were responsible for troop’s withdrawal, part of arms of regiment including armored equipment was transferred to Armenians, factually, to commit the further crimes, to continue separatist actions against Azerbaijan. This is clear fact of participation of the regiment No 366 in implementation of Khojaly tragedy!

They are charged…

Armenian armed formations and personnel of infantry guards regiment No 366 participated in firing of the Azerbaijani settlements are the main culprits of vandalism acts implemented in Khojaly city. Actions of Armenians and their accomplices participated in Khojaly tragedy are rough violation of human rights, cynical neglect of international legal acts – Geneva convention, Universal declaration of human rights, International pact on civil and political rights, International pact on economic, social and cultural rights, Declaration on child rights, Declaration on protection of women and children in emergency and during armed conflicts and other facts of international law.

Political and military leadership of Azerbaijan also is guilty for this tragedy. Ayaz Mutallibov, president and commander-in-chief of Armed Forces of Azerbaijan being guarantor of territorial integrity, security of the country and its citizens, have not taken sufficient measures to prevent tragic events in Karabakh including Khojaly events. As top official of the republic he didn’t provide protection of constitutional order, territorial integrity of the republic, rights and freedoms of citizens. Even after the tragedy, leadership of the republic frightened of reaction of the people was afraid to inform bitter truth and concealed information about the scale of massacre implemented by Armenian armed formations.

The history will not forget

Milli Majlis (Parliament) of Azerbaijan declared February, 26 as the “Day of Khojaly genocide”. Every year at 5 p.m. on February, 26 people of Azerbaijan reveres memory of Khojaly victims by minute of silence. Khojaly inhabitants became refugees and took temporary refuge in 48 districts in Azerbaijan are waiting fair solving of Upper Garabagh conflict, end of aggression of Armenia against Azerbaijan, restoration of territorial integrity of the republic. They appeal to the peoples of the world, states and international organizations to protect the truth and justice, condemn facts of terrorism, ethnic cleaning implemented in Khojaly.

Culprits of Khojaly tragedy, its orginizers and executors must get deserved punishment. There is no and can not be crime without punishment. XXth century witnessed many bloody pages which are the history of genocide and ethnic cleaning. Khojaly is one of the most terrible tragedies among them. Everybody who implicated in this terrible crime now has responsibility just before his conscience, but the day will come and they will answer for all before court of history.

History remembers everything.

Saturday, 26 February 2000
LIQUIDATION OF KHOJALY WAS AN ACTION TO SCARE
However its masterminders shouldn't be found [only] in Yerevan

February 26, 2000 at 17-00 Azerbaijan will keep a minute of silence for those victims of Hodjaly tragedy. The meetings will be hold again, monument devoted to victims will be open in Naftalan, a number of flowers will be laid at memorials in Baku. Eight consequent years we are asking ourselves the same question: whether only the eternal "ethnic" enmity between Armenians and azeris s the reason for Khojaly tragedy? Many noticed that Khojaly tragedy happened in the anniversary of so called Sumgait pogroms. The hatred to all Tirkic ethnoses, the statements of central Moscow newspapers and Armenian " spiritual leaders " that pogroms of Azeris in Armenia and Karabakh could be "to explained" by revenge for Sumgait (before Sumgait they revenged for "genocide of 1915" and the whole world considered it as terrorism) and the conviction of Armenia military advantage played its role. State advisor on international relations Idayat Orudjev reminded at press-conference that Khojaly had an important strategic position: there was an airport, roads connecting Aghdam-Shusha and Hankendi-Askeran. Besides there are no doubts, that Khojaly inhabitants punishment was an deterrence action to Shusha population and neighbor regions in Karabakh. Khojaly tragedy was not the first one and won't be the last punishment of civil Azerbaijan population. However, Armenian armed formations that hid earlier all traces of their atrocities allowed this time to take pictures that shocked all Azerbaijan. The thing is that organizers of mass punishment have underestimated the impression on all world community. Probably, having practically unconditional support of world community, those in Armenia just could not imagine that the balance of sympathies can be changed not for the benefit of Yerevan. They also did not expect that USA State Department will declare Khojaly destruction as the largest tragedy of 1992. Probably, they didn't foresee that Azerbaijan already had own information channels, not controlled by Moscow. Overdue attempt to present the thing that Azeris itself bear the responsibility for Khojaly (!)? failed. However, the negative result hardly can prove the absence of such goal. The thing is whether masterminders of this tragedy were only in? Azerbaijan is not going to ignore a role of the 366-th regiment in Khojaly tragedy. 366-th regiment that took an active part in inhabitants punishment tested new weapon and that was not an unexpected thing for political leadership in Russia and CIS, let alone the militaries.

However, observers missed one circumstance. Khojaly tragedy took place in 25-26 February night, 1992, two months after signing documents in Belovezhskaya Pusha on USSR collapse. That was a specific time in Russia history. Romantic moods of August 1991 gradually faded down. However, USSR collapse was accepted by society quieter, than, for example, Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic joining NATO or Belgrade bombardments. The talks about reform of new union was common. Therefore Belovezhskaya Pusha agreements were perceived as a Union reform. Russian political leadership that all new independent republics will soon ask to be allowed to come back. Just on the eve of tragedy politicians tried to solve the destiny of former Soviet Army left ownerless. There were two variants: to have own armed forces or to participate in creation of the uniform CIS armed forces. And bloody punishment of Khojaly inhabitants had to demonstrate the "opponents" in Baku the destiny of Azerbaijan in case of refusal to cooperate with Russia. Taking into account that 200 years of Russia domination in Transcaucasia is 200 years of the systematic extension of the territories, occupied by Armenians at the expense of Azerbaijan territories one can conclude that seizure of important strategic city and deterrence action to cause the outcome of azeris from those territories that Armenia claim to be own ones, look like appropriate long-term strategy of Moscow. Therefore, there can be no doubt that the customers of Khojaly Genocide were in Armenia.

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