No matter how terrible it was to admit, such terrible social phenomena as national hatred and genocide exist in our time. A vivid example of this is the bloody Khojaly tragedy. It was a massacre perpetrated by the Armenian forces in the year nineteen ninety-two over the inhabitants of a small village located fourteen kilometers northeast of the city of Khankendi. That event is still in the memory of so many mourners, and every year the inhabitants of the Republic of Azerbaijan recall those terrifying days in order to honor the memory of the dead.
Khojaly massacre
The population of this settlement was very small, about seven thousand people. On a February night, from twenty-fifth to twenty-sixth, the completely unexpectedly armed Armenian army, with the support of the motorized rifle unit of the Russian Federation, treacherously attacked a peaceful city. At first the town was surrounded, and then without warning fire was fired on it from heavy military guns, the village was almost completely engulfed in flames. Those who survived the shelling were forced to leave their homes, all acquired property and flee. By five in the morning, the city belonged to the Armenians, or rather, those ruins that were burned down at the site of the village.
But the troubles of the Khojaly residents did not end there: they, who fled from the scene of the tragedy to the forest and mountains, were tracked down and tried to finish off. Not all survived. Young girls and women were captured, many of them were literally tortured to death. Men and children were mostly killed immediately. The Khojaly tragedy was a real shock for many enlightened contemporaries.
Scary bulletins
According to statistical reports, for Azerbaijan the Khojaly massacre ended with the following losses: six hundred and thirteen people were killed, one hundred and six women, sixty-three children and seventy old people. Fifty-six people were killed with particular cruelty. Some were deprived of limbs, skin was stripped from some corpses, and later the remains of people who were burnt alive were found. Some people had their eyes gouged out (even in infants), and women who were expecting a baby had openings on their stomachs with knives. The fate of one hundred and fifty people is still unknown.
After this tragedy in Khojaly, as many as eight families were completely destroyed, twenty-four babies were left completely orphaned, and one hundred and thirty children lost one parent.
Day of Remembrance
After that, a decree was issued by the President of the Republic that this mournful day in the history of the country be remembered as "Day of the Khojaly genocide and national mourning." This was later announced to all organizations of the international level. And since then, every year on this sad date, every resident of the Republic of Azerbaijan hears the president’s appeal to the people, and in memory of this tragedy stands a moment of silence.
"Memorial"
A human rights organization with that name later tried to figure out what was happening. She conducted a detailed study of the area where the tragedy unfolded in Khojaly, to restore those events. Most of the residents of the city immediately after the shelling started trying to get out of the encirclement in two main directions:
1. Along the banks of the river, which flowed within the city. As the Armenian representatives later assured this road, it was decided to provide residents with free access (but statistics show that there was no “free corridor” as such, people had to save their lives along the way).
2. Through the northern end of the settlement, there was a convenient retreat to the forest, in which many were going to hide from trouble. A minority has taken this route.
According to the latest reports, the statistics on counting the dead are not accurate; the real numbers, unfortunately, are many times higher. The Armenian representatives refused to provide their information and generally at least somehow comment on the situation.
According to the human rights organization Memorial, those who took the first waste route along the river were ruthlessly fired upon. According to Armenian representatives, this happened only due to the fact that people were armed. It is fair to say that there were actually armed people among the retreating. These are the defenders from the city garrison. But shelling them, too, is absolutely inhumane, they, according to eyewitnesses, did not show aggression at all, the Armenians fell into the civilian population, who only wanted one thing: to quickly escape from the invaders.
Memorial also tried to calculate how many people froze to death on this cold winter night. Many jumped out of their houses, dressed in haste, which was possible. After all, they ran away, abandoning everything, only wanting to save themselves and their children.
There were many who were captured. Later, they will return to their homeland, but very many - with lost health and a disturbed psyche. Most of the girls and children were captured. Returnees later said that many prisoners were shot. This event cannot be called otherwise than the Khojaly tragedy.
From the scene ...
Only two days later, using two helicopters, Russian and Azerbaijani reporters were able to get to this area. Their articles touched the soul of more than one generation. These brave people shared the freshest impressions, filled with horror and misunderstanding. Their helicopters were also fired, only four bodies were able to get out of this terrible battlefield.
The entire scale of the tragedy was visible from a bird's eye view, on the yellowed grass covered with a thin layer of snow, the bodies of the killed people lay entirely. There were a lot of them, and in this mass here and there lay the bodies of women, children and the elderly. What did these people suffer for? They did nothing wrong. After all, they tried to escape to the Azerbaijani border, as if surrendering, without showing any aggression.
Khojaly tragedy. Politics and Society
Around the world, newspapers wrote about the Khojaly massacre. But this event could not be called otherwise; defenseless and innocent people were not just shot, but brutally killed. The real crime against the person, the real genocide. Coming later to this place, the Western media shared their concerns about what had happened on all channels.
And in the Russian newspaper Izvestia, the Khojaly tragedy and its consequences were described in very scary details. Like living people who voluntarily decided to become hostages, exchanged for the bodies of the dead. But just what a sight it was! Relatives received corpses with cut off parts of the body, with skin removed, without eyes, etc.
International assessment
The UN, the Council of Europe and the OSCE were extremely critical of what had happened, recognizing the acts of the Armenian side as crimes against humanity. In many reports, the word "genocide" was spoken. The leaders of these organizations appealed through the media to the families of the victims with an expression of condolences.
But the most important thing is that even after so many years this tragedy has not been forgotten. Memorial Day and moments of silence remind all residents of the Republic that once their compatriots became victims of the war. The anniversary of the Khojaly tragedy took place not so long ago, and again with tears in their eyes the Azerbaijanis remembered that terrible February. And not only they, the whole world mourns along with the citizens of Azerbaijan.
The Khojaly tragedy is a tragedy of the twentieth century that the descendants of the dead will not forget for a long time.