The tragedy of Khojaly: we need to remember not to repeat

Recently the media world-wide has been full of the colorful and scary word ‘genocide’. The Armenian diaspora is successfully working on the recognition of the ‘genocide of Armenian people’ by the international community, while the Adyg people promote the ‘Cherkess genocide’ problem. The tragic events of 26 February 1992 are less conspicuous – probably, because Khojaly is just a small Azerbaijani town. Maybe it seems to be a minor tragedy on the scale of world history. But it is still very important. Not only because it is one of the events that shaped the current tense situation in the Caucasus, but because innocent civilians who posed no military threat whatsoever were slaughtered by professional soldiers. 613 people were killed back then – women, children and the elderly alike. The fate of 150 people is still unknown.

There are not many of those who deny today the involvement of the Russian 366th Motor Rifle Regiment in the events on the side of Armenian forces. After the collapse of the USSR the ex-Red Army regiments who were left in conflict zones, such as Nagorno-Karabakh, earned their living by selling armaments and their services to regional powers. The operation against Khojaly, that stood at the crossroads of two major highways and had the only airport in Nagorno-Karabakh, was carefully planned. Military equipment and artillery, as well as the forces of the 366th Regiment, were drawn up to the town long before the attack.

The storm started at night. The 366th Regiment’s armed vehicles cordoned off the town from three sides; Armenian soldiers quickly broke all the resistance of Khojaly’s defenders. People tried to flee the town through a corridor left free of the cordon, but the soldiers opened fire on them. Those who escaped the shooting had to hide in a nearby forest, where some of them froze to death.

Journalists could reach the site only two days after. Here’s one report from an eyewitness: “I couldn’t believe my own eyes. I saw dead bodies lying on the ground, a whole field covered in the corpses of women, infants and children of all ages, elderly people… I saw an old women lying near a little girl in a blue coat, their hands and feet tied up with barbed wire. Both were shot in the head. I was too shocked even to remember to use my camera right away.” And there are dozens of such reports.

Those who committed this atrocity claim that militants covered up their retreat and ran with the civilian crowd, and they opened fire on Armenian pickets, causing return fire. It is still unclear, however, how this argument justifies the torture of civilians.

Five years ago the Parliament of Azerbaijan addressed international organizations and the world’s governments, asking them to recognize the Khojaly Tragedy as an act of genocide against the Azerbaijani people. Some countries and organizations have already done that. A month ago the members of the international PACE organization called on the international community to condemn the crimes against humanity committed in Khojaly and give an unequivocal legal assessment of this bloody massacre.