130) Media Coverage of the Azeri Massacres by Armenians

 

 

This is only a smattering of the reports that were compiled in the March 15, 2001 issue of The Turkish Times...there were many more, but you'll get the idea. How easy it is to forget that Armenia was the aggressor in its sneak, "Pearl Harbor" like attack against Azerbaijan. The latter-day ethnic cleansing tactics of the Armenians provide an important glimpse of how Armenians behaved during the final phase of The Ottoman Empire.

 

These are followed by the story of an Armenian scholar who does not approve of his peoples' aggression against Azerbaijan; and a letter by William Schaap that appeared in The New York Times: In Azerbaijan, Armenia Is the Aggressor... along with another peek at Armenian aggression, by Sam Weems.

 

Next, we see the After-Effects upon the Azerbaijaini refugees in 2003... followed by a report by Professor Hovannisian making it clear that, no, the Armenians were the victims.  It is vital that the poor, helpless Armenians are always perceived as the victims, perpetuated in large part by their multi-billion dollar genocide industry, so that the Armenians may more easily get away with the crimes they have been committing. This time, however, parts of the world are not as easily fooled... Great Britain (bottom of page) steps forward as the first European nation to commemorate the victims of Armenian atrocities, in Azerbaijan. Further heartbreaking reports on the Khodjaly massacres follow.

  
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it"

 

Santayana
Armenians not criticized for and not reminded of their exterminating ways during World Wars I and II certainly "repeated" themselves... and Western nations that have turned a blind eye to the Armenians' atrocious behavior during the WWI era and WWII... and continue to turn a blind eye in contemporary times... bear some of the responsibility.

 

March 15, 2001, The Turkish Times

 

 

The Ethnic Cleansing of Azeris in Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh and the Occupied Azerbajjan Territories

 

Newsweek
November 29, 1993

 

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...

 

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 Araks river into
Iran -- and looting and torching vacant villages in their wake.

 

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 Kubatli 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 organisation said about 250,000 Azeris have been displaced so far this year and about 1 million since the massacre began in 1988.

 

 

 

The Sunday Times,
March 1,1992

 

By Thomas Goltz, Agdam,
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 shooting, shooting, shooting,’ echoed Rasia Aslanova, who arrived in Agdam 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 Agdam had an ear sliced off.

 

The survivors said 2000 others, some of whom had fled separately, were still missing in the gruelling terrain; many could perish from their wounds or the cold.

 

By late yesterday, 479 deaths had been registered at the morgue in Agdam’s 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.

 

Agdam 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 Agdam. On Friday night rockets fell on the city which has a population of 150,000, destroying several buildings and killing one person.

 

 

 

BBC1 Morning News
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.

 

Channel 4 News 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.

 

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 Nagorno-Karabagh 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 Agdam, we took a look at the bodies the civilian helicopter had picked up. Two old men a small girl were covered with blood, their limbs contorted by the cold and rigor mortis. They had been shot.

 

Boston Sunday Globe
21 November1993

 

by Jon Auerbach
Globe Correspondent

 

CHAKHARLI, Azerbaijan—The truckloads of scared and lost chilthen, 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 thre 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 Karabakh 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 are living? Some of them are living right in the mud.

 

Azizova, like thousands of others, escaped by fleeing across the Arax 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.

 

The Age, Melbourne 6 March 1992

 

By Helen WOMACK -
Agdam, Azerbaijan, Thursday

 

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

 

Refugees from the enclave town of Khojaly, sheltering in the Azeri border town of Agdam, 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 Agdam late on Tuesday. I also saw women and children with bullet wounds in a makeshift hospital in a string of railway carriages.

 

Khojaly, an Azeri settlement in the enclave mostly populated by Armenians, had a population of about 6000. Mr. Rashid Mamedov, Commander of Police in Agdam, said only about 500 escaped to his town. So where are the rest? Some might have been taken prisoner, he said, or fled. Many bodies were still lying in the mountains because the Azeris were short 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 realised they could not hope to defend themselves, and fled into the forests. In the small hours, the massacre started.

 

Mr. Nasiru, 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 28 February 1992

 

Nagorno-Karabagh Victims Buried in Azerbajjani 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 Agdam’s hospital include many with multiple stab wounds.�

 

 

 

The Washington Times
3 March 1992

 

Massacre Reports Horrify Azerbajjan

 

“Azeri officials who returned fn the scene to this town about nine miles away brought back three dead children, the backsof 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 Agdam, some with their faces apparently scratched with knives or their eyes gouged out.�

 

 

Ms. Churukyan, I have seen dozens and dozens of documents and color photos of how you Armenians treated unarmed civilians, men-women, young and old when your fellow Armenians attacked Azerbaijan. These countless photos prove that no civilized and compassionate man could have ever done to another human being what your dear Armenians did to innocent unarmed Azeris. Here is an incomplete list from what I remember of some of the pictures. They were so revolting to watch that I came close to losing the content of my stomach more then once.

 

(a) Old men, old women, and children with their ears cut off before Armenians massacred them. (I also remember seeing similar photos of where you Armenians cut off Muslim ears during the World War I years.)

 

(b) Young teenage boys who had their penis cut off and stuck into their mouth before they were shot at point blank range in the head. (I have also seen such photos where Armenians did exactly the same thing during World War I to young Muslim boys as well in Yerevan, (Erivan) whose population was 45% Muslim at one time.

 

(c) Old men and old women who had their throats cut from ear to ear by Armenians. (I saw such photos of Muslims who were massacred in the same way by your people in the city of Erzurum during World War I)

 

(d) Young children-both boys and girls under 5 years of age that had their heads chopped off by Armenians. (I also remember seeing similar shots where your ancestors did exactly the same thing to Muslim children during World War I, claiming at the same time that Turks were committing a
genocide on them.)

 

To do such horrible things to fellow human beings, generation after generation all in the name of Jesus Christ was a great sin, I believe. But, turning around and in conjuration with the lies of Christian missionaries and the perfidious falsifications of the dishonest male secretary of the U.S. Ambassador in Istanbul, one Aram Andonian, to claim and pretend that Turks were doing those atrocities on the Armenians would be doubling the commission of that very sin. Hatred is a terrible thing, Ms. Churukyan and you Armenians are wallowing in it. It is your bread and butter. . You would rather write a nasty letter to me, whining, crying, wringing your hands and moaning about what horrible things the terrible Turks had done to your rebellious ancestors in 1915 rather than accepting the real truth. This is plain nonsense and it is time for you Armenians to grow up. Do you plan on spending the rest of your lives just hating Turks? Can't you find anything more constructive to do for yourselves?

 

Professor Mahmut Ozan
Excerpted from TESTIMONIES OF SURVIVORS AND EYEWITNESSES TO GENOCIDE AND CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

 

Robert Arakelov

 

Robert Arakelov, the Armenian scholar living in Baku condemns Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan; the author of two books on the Armenian occupation, Robert Karoyevi Arakelov was born in 1937, in Baku.

 
In Azerbaijan, Armenia Is the Aggressor 

 

The New York Times, June 9, 1994

To the Editor:

 

“Azerbaijan, Potentially Rich, Is Impoverished by Warfare� (front page, June 2) unfortunately perpetuates a myth central to the dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia regarding Nagorno-Karabakh: “In 1923 Stalin made the region of Nagorno-Karabakh part of Azerbaijan, despite the fact that most of its population was Armenian.� This is not true.

 

While the majority of Nagorno-Karabakh’s inhabitants have been ethnic Armenians — at least since the end of the last Russian-Persian War in 1828 — the territory has been part of Azerbaijan for hundreds of years. It remained part of Azerbaijan after each Russian-Persian War in the 18th and 19th centurIes. It remained so during the 1918 British occupation, in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 (at which the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh signed an agreement accepting Azeri jurisdictIon) and when the two nations became Soviet Republics in 1920.

 

What Stalin did in the 1920’s was refuse Armenian requests to transfer Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan to Armenia, not the same as giving Armenian territory to Azerbaijan because Nagorno-Karabakh was never part of Armenia. A United States Committee for Refugees report notes that Stalin “retained the lines of the map that separated Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenia� and “appeared to want to maintain the territorial status quo in Nagorno-Karabakh.�

 

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan is extremely complicated, epitomizing the contradiction between two principles of international law: self-determination and territorial integrity. However, it is indisputable that Armenia has violated the prohibition of the United Nations Charter against “the use of force -against the territorial integrity... of any state,� for which the Security Council has condemned Armenia numerous times.

 

WILLIAM H. SCHAAP
Managing Director
Institute for Media Analysis New York, June 2, 1994

 

IV- Admit or deny the $1 billion plus dollars the Russians gave Armenia in military hardware to make a sneak attack on Muslim Azerbaijan? How do you explain the fact that after your tiny Armenia obtained the more than $1 billion dollars in military assistance and your pitiful little state stole more than 20% of a neighbor's lands by armed force you drove more than one million poor Muslims from their homes. You Armenians call this a "holy war" and didn't pay these Muslims one penny in compensation. What kind of Christians are you to commit such acts of terror? Christ would never approve of such conduct and you know it!

 

Thereafter you Armenians did the following to gain big brother's protection from the Muslims after your surprise attack stealing their lands: How do you explain what your kinsmen in Armenia did as to the following?

 

-Invited the Russians into your tiny state to build two army bases and today they station their troops there?

 

-Invited the Russians to come in and build two military air bases. Today there are 24 Russian MIG jet fighter aircraft there?

 

-Invited the Russians to bring in a large number of their surface to air missile batteries and they are there today?

 

-The fact Armenians and Iranians are fronting business firms in Armenia for the Russians that sell equipment and technology to Iran that can be used to build weapons of mass destruction in clear violation of United States law?

 

Since you Armenians love the Russians so much why should American taxpayers (like me) give your tiny state one more cent of our tax dollars in foreign aid? We have given you more than $1.5 billion of our dollars over the past eleven years already. Isn't it past time to let your fellow traveler Russian blood brothers keep up Armenia? I have the documented proof of this fact from an official United States congressional study report. What do you say about that?

 

Samuel Weems, responding to Armenian Hate Mail
 

A Guestbook Writer Offers Concise Historical Pointers:

 

From: Trojan
Date: 10/18/99

 

 

Comments
You guys have absolutely no clue about the history of the region. What you say is what you read in the articles of the same kind of "history-lovers". You guys have never studied in the world archives, you have never used specific historical methodologies and techniques, and you simply don't know the subject. Believe me. All you are arguing for is what you would like it to be, but not what is in reality. History is an exact subject. It always leaves evidences, which are... guess what? yes, Historical sources.

 

I will just brief you some facts that are indisputable and are the HISTORY.

 

- Armenians have not lived in Transcaucasia for the centuries. It is a myth. The first massive Armenian immigration to the Erivan, Nakhichevan and Karabakh Khanates started in 1828 and it was encouraged by the Russian Tsarist government. The Russian Ambassador to Iran, Alexander Griboedov, had described the resettlement of the Iranian Armenians in the above mentioned lands in his memoirs. Even after the first massive arrival of the Armenians to Transcaucasia, the original Muslem population (mainly Azeris) remained the majority in Erivan, Karabakh and Nakhichevan.

 

- There still exists the monument in Nagorno Karabakh which comemorates the arrival of the first immigrants to Nagorno Karabakh. It was erected in 1978 in Leninavan (Mardakert region of Nagorno Karabakh) to mark the 150th anniversary of the Armenian immigration. Until recently, there was a script on the monument, but after the outbreak of the conflict, Armenians had erased the script.

 

- All pre-1828 Christian buildings in Nagorno Karabakh are Albanian (don't confuse the Caucasian Albanians with the European Albanians). Albanians were the only indigineous population of Nagorno Karabakh, and they were assimilated into the Azeri ethnos in the Middle Ages, long before the Armenian immigration. Therefore, only the modern Azeris can be considered to be the descendants of the Caucasian Albanians (the fact accepted by the world historical scholarship).

 

- Only after the Crimean War, 1853-55, when the second massive immigration of the Armenians from Turkey took place, did the Armenians outnumber the Azeris in Transcaucasia. The purpose of Russia's promotion of the Armenian immigration was to create a Christian province in the South which was to serve as a stronghold for further Russian penetration of Iran and the Ottoman Empire.

 

- Armenian immigration continued in the 1890s after the disastorous rebellion of the Armenians in Anatolia in 1894-95.

 

- There was no so-called "Armenian genocide" in 1915. The Ottoman government ordered the resettlement (even not the deportation, since it was the resettlement within the same country) of the Armenian population from Eastern Anatolia to Syria because they started massacres of the Turks and Kurds on the eve of the Russian advance. Armenians in all 6 villayets were in minority. The goal of the Dashnaktsutsiun leaders was to provoke unrest in Anatolia, cause sympathy of the Entente and to acquire a statehood after the defeat of Turkey. More than 2.5 million Turks and Kurds were killed by the Armenian rebels in 1914-18, while around 600.000 Armenians suffered during the resettlement. "Genocide" is the state policy of extermination of the nation. There was obviously no such a policy adopted by the Ottoman government in 1915, and what it ordered was the reaction to the Armenian violence towards Turkish and Kurdish civilians.

 

- Stalin never "granted" Karabakh to Azerbaijan. In 1921, the decision was made to "leave" Karabakh within, and not to "transfer" to, Azerbaijan. If you look at the Protocol of the Kavbuero Meeting of 5th July, 1921, (every historian nowadays can order the document from the former Party Archive in Moscow) you will read exactly the word "leave". So, when you "leave" something somewhere, it obviously implies that it was there before. Masterly manipulating with the words, Armenians pursue the aim to justify their territorial claims to Azerbaijan. In addition, in 1921 Stalin did not have enough power to "grant" territories or to take such kind of important decisions. He was an ordinary minister (narkom), and his power was very limited. Contemporary advocates of the Armenian Cause use Stalin's name, known for his brutal dictatorship, to justify their territorial intentions.

 

- More than 400 geographical names in modern Armenia were renamed from Turkic to Armenian.

 

- The first violence in the 1980s took place in late 1987, when the Armenians expelled 4.000 Azeris from Kafan, Masis and Goris. Azeri refugees were the first in the conflict. They were sent to Sumgait, where only 3 months later the tragedy broke out. It is the undisputable fact that two ethnic Armenians (Grigorian and Oganov) were arrested in Sumgait for killing at least 6 Armenians. Armenians are responsible for the first violence in the conflict, which is the expulsion of the Azeris in 1987.

 

- The first vicitms in the conflict were Azeris - two guys killed by Armenians few days before the Sumgait tragedy in Askeran.

 

- No single bullet had fallen on the Armenian soil since the beginning of the conflict. The war took place only on the territory of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is the victim, Armenia is the aggressor.

 

These are only few facts. :)

 

THE AFTER-EFFECTS

 

NEW YEAR CHILL FOR AZERI REFUGEES
IWPR'S CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE, No. 161, January 9, 2003
Institute for War & Peace Reporting
NEW YEAR CHILL FOR AZERI REFUGEES
Hundreds of thousands of refugees hit hard by
Azerbaijan's bitterest winter weather for decades.

 

By Leila Amirova in Baku
.....................................
"On December 31 our lights went out and we saw in the New Year in total darkness," Samaya Mamedova, who lives with other refugee families in the Yasamal neighbourhood of Baku, told IWPR. Their only entertainment over the festive period was to hear the president's New Year's speech of congratulations on a radio brought in by their neighbours - though it's unlikely that many of them were in the mood to celebrate as temperatures plunged to as a low as minus 15 degrees for the first time since 1948.

 

The freezing weather made life difficult for most Azeris, with most
roads closed and frozen power lines caused heating breakdowns, especially in the south of the country. But hundreds of thousands of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), mostly victims of the conflict with Armenia in the early 1990s, found themselves in a much more desperate situation.

 

According to official statistics, there are at present 779,352 registered refugees in Azerbaijan. Many of them are still living in makeshift accommodation, such as tents, train carriages and student hostels. They were almost entirely unprotected from the snow, which lay almost one metre deep. Clay walls were quickly soaked wet and roofs made of iron sheeting were no defence against the cold. Repeated power cuts meant that electricity could not be used for heating. Most refugees cannot afford to buy firewood and the 30 litres of fuel that the state gives each family every month lasts less than two weeks.

 

Mamedova works in a nearby bakery and earns 200,000 manats (about 40 US dollars) a month. After her husband died at the beginning of the Nagorny Karabakh war ten years ago, she has had to bring up her children alone. "The pension the state pays out for the loss of a breadwinner doesn't even cover the cost of food," she said. "I try and do everything I can to make sure my kids are no different from other kids, but I don't always
manage. We were offered tickets to a children's (New Year) celebration for 10,000 manats (2 dollars) each, but I've got three kids and that's too expensive for us."

 

The bad weather - which has begun to improve in the last few days - led to a dramatic rise in illnesses in places where refugees are densely packed together. There were even some cases of frostbite. This IWPR correspondent met Gurban Kerimov at a tuberculosis clinic in Baku. He had brought his 17-year old daughter from the town of Barda. "We live in a clay shack and it's just as cold inside the house as on the street," Kurbanov said. "My daughter was diagnosed as having TB a month ago, but we couldn't find the money to get her treatment. But in December her condition got worse, so we had to bring her here to the clinic. I got the money together collecting money from all over the camp." Kerimov, who mainly supports his family by growing vegetables, said the winter had already hit him hard. "It's difficult to get by when you haven't got anything to sell. You have to go to Baku and find temporary work," he said. According to Farman Abdullayev, head of the Azerbaijani branch of the World Health Organisation,
around 15,000 people suffer from tuberculosis in Azerbaijan, around half of whom are refugees. "The main cause is their poor living conditions, stress and continual under-nourishment," he said.

 

A United Nations Development Programme report on Azerbaijan, published last November 28, highlights the critical conditions most refugees live in. Their consumption of dairy products, fruit and vegetables is well below a healthy level, every third child is under-nourished, almost a quarter of children regularly suffer from diarrhea, and just under a third have recorded cases of dystrophy while almost half have anaemia. The UNDP report also points out that there is insufficient medicine and equipment in the camps to treat these problems and the IDPs cannot afford to buy them themselves.

 

Faced with the extra crisis caused by the cold weather, Azerbaijan's State Refugees Committee says it set up a special emergency headquarters to deal with the new problems. "The State Committee is doing everything it can. In the last two weeks, we've replaced burnt out transformers in the Beilagan, Agdam and Geranboi regions of Azerbaijan. There, the situation is
generally under control," Gabil Abilov, an official with the committee told IWPR. Abilov conceded, however, that in the Bilyasuvar region in central Azerbaijan, IDPs remained "in the most difficult position", although he pointed out that new homes were being built for them. But most displaced families got no special state help this New Year. A state refugee official
admitted, "No plans were made for additional supply of provisions."

 

"At New Year, we weren't drinking champagne or cutting cakes, and our kids have only seen Father Christmas on television," said Kerimov.

 

Even international organisations were modest in their charity. Just
over a year ago, several humanitarian organisations and oil companies gave many refugee families food parcels and held special New Year concerts. This year, the only real help was a present from the All-China Women's Federation, which sent 470 warm coats to the refugees of the Narimanov region.

 

Leila Amirova is a freelance journalist based in Baku

Historical Memory and Armenian-Azerbaijani Relations 

 

Dr. Richard G. Hovannisian

 

The swirl of events and measures and countermeasures beginning in 1988 led in September 1991 to the declaration of the separate Republic of Mountainous Karabagh (Artsakh), inclusive of the Shahumian district. The unilateral declaration, following Azerbaijan’s withdrawal from the USSR, was justified in conformity with the USSR’s constitutional regulations according to which any autonomous formation within a republic’s jurisdiction could determine its own future if the republic opted to secede from the Soviet Union. On its part, the Baku government responded in November 1991 by dissolving the Nagorno-Karabakh Oblast (autonomous region) and declaring that it was no different from any other part of Azerbaijan proper. Following a referendum in December 1991 in which nearly 100 percent of the more than 82 percent of the registered voters cast ballots in favor of independence, the legislature formally proclaimed the independence of the Republic in January 1992. As a reply, the Azerbaijani heavy artillery and missile launchers unleashed a continuous bombardment from the commanding heights of Shushi, and for a time it seemed that the inhabitants of the capital, Stepanakert (Azerbaijani: Khankend), and the surrounding villages were doomed. But the Armenians showed surprising resilience, and in May they fought their way up the mountainside and took possession of Shushi. The crisis in Karabagh contributed to the downfall of Azerbaijan’s last Communist head of state, Ayaz Mutalibov, and the elevation of Popular Front leader Abulfaz Elchibey, who promised upon his election in mid-1992 that Azerbaijan would restore control over Shushi and the rest of Karabagh within two months. The following Azerbaijani offensive was initially encouraging, as the entire Shahumian district and northern Karabagh were occupied in a single sweeping operation. Once again, however, Stepanakert held out, and in 1993 the Armenians regained most of the territory in the north and struck boldly into the strategic Kelbajar district, which was separating Karabagh from the eastern border of Armenia along Lake Sevan. Many observers believe that this could not have been achieved without some outside support.

 

 Oh, so Azerbaijan was the aggressor in this conflict, after all. Thanks for setting the record straight, Professor Hovannisian.
 
U.K. GOVERNMENT COMMEMORATES KHODJALY MASSACRE 

 

Vatan Society
Press Release May 3, 2003

 

Britain has become the first European state to officially and publicly acknowledge and commemorate victims of the 1992 massacre at Khodjaly.  Some 800 Azerbaijani civilians were murdered when Armenian forces overran the Azeri- populated town of Khodjaly in Nagorno-Karabakh.

 

In a letter to Vatan Society of 16 April, Britain's Foreign and
Commonwealth Office stated the following: What happened at Khodjaly stands out as an appalling tragedy in a list of many that occurred during the course of the war. We extend our deepest sympathies to the families of the victims and our assurance that their suffering will not be forgotten.

 

The Foreign Office stressed that UK is deeply aware of the horrific incidents that took place during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and of the terrible human cost to both sides . The statement came in response to Vatan Society's Khodjaly Appeal issued on February 26, 2003 with the aim of raising the profile and seeking public acknowledgement for the tragic events in Karabagh 11 years ago, as well as to commemorate all civilian
victims of Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.

 

The Foreign Office letter stated:

 

We understand the strength of feeling about the terrible events that occurred and know that the suffering continues for the families of those who died and for the many thousands of people displaced from their homes The UK will continue to work for peace, security and mutual understanding in the region.

 

The statement also reiterated Britain s support of the OSCE Minsk Group's efforts to settle the Karabagh dispute. UK called on the governments of Azerbaijan and Armenia to look to the future and build a better relationship between their countries, to ensure that such atrocities never happen again.

 

Vatan Society welcomes the Foreign Office statement as an important step towards a responsible and unbiased international public debate on the Karabagh conflict, necessary if a peaceful and just settlement to the dispute is to be found.

Newspaper accounts regarding the Khodjaly massacres:

 

"Crual L'Eveneman" magazine (Paris), March 25, 1992: "The Armenians attacked Khojali district. The whole world became the witness of the disfigured dead bodies. Azeris speak about thousand killed people".

 

"Sunday Times" newspaper (London), March 1, 1992: "Armenian soldiers annihilated the hundred 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 sent the weapon and people to Karabakh".

 

"Times" newspaper (London), March 4, 1992: : "Many people were mutilated, and it was remained only the head of one little girl"

 

"Izvestiya" newspaper (Moscow), March 4, 1992: "Camcoder showed the kids with the cut off ears. One old woman were cut off the half of her face. The men were scalped."

 

"Financial Times", March 14, 1992: "General Polyakov said 103 Armenian servicemen from regiment No 366 stayed in Nagorni Karabakh".

 

"Le Mond" 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 without head. Everywhere were the dead bodies of women, children, elders killed with the particular brutality".

 

"Valer actuel" magazine (Paris), March 14, 1992: "On this 'autonomous region' Armenian armed forces together with the people who are natives of Near East have the most modern military equipment, including the helicopters. ASALA has military bases and ammunition depots in Syria and Lebanon. Armenians annihilated Azerbaijanis of Karabakh, implemented bloody massacre in more than 100 Moslem villages".

 

Journalist of British TV company "Funt man news" R. Patrick who visited the place of tragedy: "Crime in Khojali can not be justified in public opinion".

 

"Around 200 bodies were brought into Agdam in the space of four days. Scores of the corpses bore traces of profanation. Doctors on a hospital train in Agdam noted no less than four corpses that had been scalped and one that had been beheaded. ... and one case of live scalping". ("A tragedy whose perpetrators cannot be vindicated. A report by Memorial, the Moscow-based human rights group, on the massive violations of human rights committed in the taking of Khojaly on the night of 25/26 February 1992 by armed units", newspaper Svoboda, 12 June 1992.)"

 

"I had heard a lot about wars, about the cruelty of the Fascists, but the Armenians were worse, killing five- and six-year-old children, killing innocent civilians", said a French journalist, Jean-Yves Junet, who visited the scene of this mass murder of women, old people, children and defenders of Khojaly. (Khojaly - The Last Day, op. cit.)

 

"Some children were found with severed ears; the skin had been cut from the left side of an elderly woman's face; and men had been scalped." (In the words of the journalist Chingiz Mustafaev, Khojaly - The Last Day, Baku, Azerbaijan publishing house, 1992)

 

"A group of 19 members of the Nukhiyev family from the village of Gorazly in the Fizuli district of Azerbaijan was said to have been taken hostage by ethnic Armenian forces at around 5pm on 2 July 1993. They had gathered for a wedding. Seven members have been released in exchanges since then and one, Vagif Kutais ogly Nukhiyev, is said to have died five to six months ago. The remaining 11 family members - four women, two men and five children, all named above - are reported by their relatives to remain held as hostages on the premises of the hospital in Khankendi (known to the Armenians as Stepanakert). The five children still detained, all girls, are Sevda (born 1980), Leyla (born 1983), Matanat (born 1983), Arzu (born 1986) and Narmina (born 1989)." From the Amnesty International archives

 

Hmmmm... five of the sisters, some now adult women, have been "detained." Could there be Armenian "harems"?

 

The above newspaper accounts were compiled by an Azerbaijani organization called "Society for Democratic Reforms." A letter by Razi Nurullayev and Ogtay Gulaliyev included the information in a letter addressed to the Turkish Parliament, in the hopes of that governmental body recognizing the Khodjaly massacres as a genocide, pleading "This may be a great step in the way of recognition of the historic facts and making public the Armenian atrocity and brutality." A little over a year after the writing of this letter, at least Great Britain paid attention to this outrageous crime against humanity. (Do you think the French Parliament and U.S. Congress will be in a hurry to create a resolution, recognizing the Khodjaly massacres? Du-uuu-uhhhh.... the last paragraph is a telling one. This incident is cut and dried, whereas the "Armenian Genocide" is hotly debated. This incident is from modern times, whereas the "Armenian Genocide" is nearly a century old. Wha$$ goin' on?)

 

Here's the rest of what the letter had to say:

 

As known, the brutal holocaust was perpetrated by Armenian troops and Russia's 366 infantry regiment based in Khankandi, capital city of Upper Karabakh. Over 30 tanks and Armored Personnel Carriers were involved in the unequal battle with defenseless and unarmed population. They had been subjected to unseen torture in the world history.

 

In the said regiment 103 Armenian national armed from foot to head have participated in the massacre and later on in the investigation they have acknowledged it. We quote official statement: "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 (guilt) 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 troops 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 Khojali tragedy!"

 

2500 inhabitants of Khojaly left behind out of a population of 7 thousand people suffered from this unseen terror act. The gruesome statistics indicates that 613 people had been killed, of which 106 were women and 83 children; 1275 taken hostage, 150 went missing; 487 people became disabled and invalid, 76 of whom are teenage boys and girls; 8 families had been completely destroyed; 25 children had lost both of their parents, 130 children had lost one of their parents; and 56 people had been killed with extreme cruelty and torture. Sharing the fate of its population, the town of Khojaly had been completely destroyed as well....

 

The damage done to both state and private property estimated 5 billion rubles (according to the prices for 01.04.92)

 

This tragedy has been widely covered called genocide in the world press. Actions of Armenians and their accomplices participated in Khojali 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.

 

Dear Assembly Members!

 

It is very pity that the Khojaly Genocide has not given true legal and political estimations by world countries and international organizations. On the contrary some Parliaments of separate countries give a new birth to 80 years old so-called Armenian genocide of 1915 by Ottoman Empire ignoring the very new Genocide of late XX century committed against Azerbaijani people by Armenians. This should be considered as falsifications and distortion of the historic facts. Society for Democratic Reforms considers that The Republic of Turkey being fully aware of the said genocide should express official and political position in the Parliament to open a way to other countries to know the bare truth and tell it.

 

Turkish Parliament Speaker Omer Izgi had this to say, on a visit to Azerbaijan, regarding the Khodjaly Massacres (here spelled as "Xocali"):

 

[Reporter] You also said that the Xocali tragedy would be put up for debate in the Turkish Grand National Assembly. Can we expect the decision on Turkey's recognition of the Xocali tragedy to be taken in the near future?

 

[Omer Izgi] The situation faced by Azerbaijani Turks in Xocali is a real genocide according to international law. Because 613 people were killed there only because they were Azeris, not because they were at war. They killed them in order to exterminate them there. International law does not say that if a whole nation or half of it is destroyed, this is genocide. It says that the intention is what counts. That's to say if there is a decision to kill some people of a certain nationality, this is genocide.

 

What happened in Xocali is real genocide, according to the law. From this point of view, research is being conducted into the genocide carried out by the Armenians in Turkey. That is what I said today. My dear Azeri brothers said since you admit that the tragedy that happened in Xocali at the end of the 20th century was genocide, we would be happy and appreciate it if you adopted a decision criticizing this genocide more quickly.

 

BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Feb 9, 2002

 

Holdwater: I don't know about that. I look at the definition as how it's perceived by most, in terms of what the Nazis did to the Jews. The broadly based 1948 U.N. Convention does allow for an extermination attempt "in whole or in part," but I mostly reject arguments where "numbers don't matter," and where even one person's death can be called a "genocide." What I look for is "intent."

 

Did the orders to wipe out the Azeri civilians come from the top? That is a critical distinction. For example, during the World War I era, Armenian revolutionaries were wiping out Turks wherever they could, and were generally acting in a genocidal fashion... as there was no official state behind them, their actions could be construed as genocide. (The leaders must have been aware of their men's slaughtering methods, since the slaughtering pattern kept continuing for years... much more likely, the leaders must have set down these exterminating methods as policy.)

 

Realistically, we all know if the latter day Armenian soldiers were let loose upon further undefended Azeri towns, they would have behaved no less abominably, so it could be argued Khodjaly was part of a pattern of genocide, as well. However, now the Armenians were directed by their own state. Then the question becomes, did these mad dogs act on their own accord, or upon the instructions of their government? That's important, because genocide cannot be applied upon "loose cannon" troops committing massacres on their own ... otherwise, the USA could be accused of committing a "genocide," based on the incident of berserk American soldiers at My Lai ... which would be ridiculous. (The film documentary FAHRENHEIT 9/11 claims the USA polished off 4 million southeast Asians during that period. If that's a true statistic, then one might wonder otherwise.)

 

One has to be very careful with the application of the word genocide, especially since it has now become one of the most misused words around. Bernard Lewis reminds us of how easily "genocide" is thrown around these days, and tells us why the Ottoman Turks were not guilty of this high crime. There is much more to add to what he briefly sums up, but another important point to keep in mind is that the massacres committed upon the Armenians mostly occurred at the hands of their revengeful Moslem neighbors, reacting to what the Armenians had done to their families. Some of the irregular gendarmes and corrupt local officials also committed crimes, but here's the difference: some of these Turks soldiers were punished DURING THE WAR, twenty by EXECUTION. Moreover, the more professionally-behaving soldiers assigned to protect the Armenians DEFENDED the Armenians, and quite a few LOST THEIR LIVES by doing so. These actions totally turn the possibility that there was a government sponsored extermination policy on its ear... added to the fact that no hard and reliable evidence has ever been found, tying the Ottoman government to ordering genocide.

 

By contrast, you can bet any bottom dollar no Armenian soldiers during and right after World War I died, defending the lives of defenseless Turkish villagers... and it sure doesn't sound like any modern Armenian soldier lifted a bloody finger to help the defenseless Azeri villagers of Khodjali. Certainly not at the price of their lives.

 

Let's face it: this has been the Orthodox recipe for conquest since the Russians tweaked the method into perfection, with their conquests of Ottoman lands. Go off to purposely slaughter, scaring away the rest of the citizenry from their homes. The Armenians have become experts at this methodology since WWI, and the fruits of their labors from recent times are well in evidence; nearly a million Azeris are still refugees from their own homeland, much to the apathy of the hypocritical West.

 

 "Armenians have demolished and looted more than 700 Azerbaijani settlements"

 

TO: Rep. Frank Pallone
US House of Representatives
Washington, D.C.
January 29, 2003

 

 

Congressman Pallone:

 

The publicity given by the Armenian-American channels to your letters addressed to the President of Azerbaijan and dated January 8 and January 13 drove me to write you.

 

I have no illusions that you may want to consider reality, since I well understand the motivation behind your indiscriminate advocacy of the "Armenian cause", as well as your long-standing anti-Azerbaijani position, of which the two letters are yet another proof. Your bias is also confirmed by the fact that not even once have you mentioned in all these years the press-documented cases of Armenian massacres on Azerbaijani civilians, perpetrated throughout decades, like the bloodbath of Khojaly in February of 1992.

 

I realize and respect that a member of Congress can at times do things that are not quite in line with the policy of the US Administration. Yet, the approaches contained in your letters are outrageous. As if it is not enough that you’ve shown such a disrespect to the sovereignty of my nation by visiting portion of the country without consent of its Government, you have also done so in an attempt to legalize an obvious case of aggressive separatism.

 

While advocating the need to preserve and protect Armenian cultural heritage, you seem to consciously omit the fact that it was the Armenian side that demolished and looted more than 700 Azerbaijani settlements altogether, destroying a total of 4366 objects of social infrastructure, 1145 nurseries and kindergartens, 1831 cinemas, 982 libraries, 693 secondary schools, 652 medical units and hospitals, 44 temples and 31 mosques.

 

State Department’s 2002 Religious Freedom Report indicates that in the Armenian-occupied territories of Azerbaijan "those mosques that have not been destroyed are not functioning." Do you think that those were not precious to my people?

 

Or is it your position to argue that the cultural heritage of the Armenians is somehow more valuable to the mankind than that of Azerbaijanis and, as such, the only one worth protection?

 

Congressman:
 

The Pallone politician

 

It is not my point to trade accusations, but I sincerely wish to believe that a US law-maker should rise above petty considerations of ethnic politics which so far have done nothing but damage to the chances of the sides in the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict to get closer to a fair and lasting settlement. One has to realize that such a settlement can be reached only through restoring territorial integrity of my country.

 

I do not think that your continuous efforts to distort my Government’s position and attempts to hide Armenia’s unjustifiable actions behind democratic rhetoric can change anything about the fact that it is Armenia which committed armed aggression and still occupies, by force of arms, 20% of Azerbaijan. These hostile actions resulted in almost one million of refugees and IDPs in my country. This is the reality, which is recognized by the international community, including Government of the United States.

 

Sincerely,

 

Hafiz Pashayev
Ambassador
Republic of Azerbaijan
Washington, D.C.

 

 

Holdwater: Not incidentally, the last name of Frank Pallone, the U.S. Congressman firmly in the pockets of the Armenian-American lobby and community, rhymes with "baloney."

 

 
Treatment of Azerbaijani P.O.W.s 

 

 

 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH \ HELSINKI

 

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 organisation in the United States. We have
closely followed the Armenian massacre of the Azeri people in
Nagorno Karabakh, 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:

 

Rustam Ramazan-oglu Agaev, (b. ?), from Masalin District
Elman Mamed-oglu Akhmedov, b. 1961,from Yevlakh District
Elshan Hussein-oglu Akhmedov, b.1974, from Saatlin District
Bakhram AKIF-oglu Giiasov, b. 1972,from Siazan
FAIG Gabil-oglu Guliev, b.1969,from Baku
Enver Asker-oglu Jafarov, b.1972,from Sumgait
Eldar Shahbaba-oglu Mamedov, b.1966,from Baku
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,
Jeri Laber
Executive Director

 

TEL(212)972-8400,FAX(212)

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© Holdwater 

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