Khojaly Massacre
Encyclopedia
The Khojaly Massacre was the killing of hundreds of ethnic Azerbaijani
civilians from the town of Khojaly
on 25–26 February 1992 by the Armenia
n and Russia
n armed forces during the Nagorno-Karabakh War
. According to the Azerbaijani side, as well as Memorial Human Rights Center
, Human Rights Watch
and other international observers, the massacre
was committed by the ethnic Armenia
n armed forces, reportedly with help of the Russia
n 366th Motor Rifle Regiment, apparently not acting on orders from the command. The official death toll provided by Azerbaijani authorities is 613 civilians, including 106 women and 83 children. The event became the largest massacre in the course of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Western governments and the western media refer to it as the Khojaly Massacre or Khojaly Tragedy. Azerbaijani and Turkish sources occasionally refer to the massacre as Khojaly Genocide and the Khojaly Tragedy . Armenian sources usually underestimate the massacre and mostly refers to it as the Battle of Khojaly (-Khojalui Paterazmum), Khojaly event (-Khojalui Iradardzut’yun) or sometimes Khojaly tragedy (-Khojalui Voghbergut’yan).
and the population exchanges between Armenia and Azerbaijan as well as Meskhetian Turk refugees leaving Central Asia and subsequently settling in the town, this grew to 6,000 by 1991.
The town of Khojaly
was located on the road that connected Shusha
, Stepanakert
and Agdam
and had the region's only airport. According to reports from Human Rights Watch
, Khojaly was used as a base for Azerbaijani forces shelling the city of Stepanakert, and in turn was shelled by Armenian forces.
During the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, both Armenians and Azerbaijanis became victims of pogroms and ethnic cleansing, which resulted in numerous casualties and displacement of large groups of people.
In October 1991, the Nagorno Karabakh forces
cut the road connecting Khojaly and Aghdam, so that the only way to reach the town was by a helicopter. The town was defended by local OMON
forces under the command of Alif Hajiyev
, which numbered about 160 or so lightly armed men. Prior to the attack, the town had been without electricity and gas for several months.
, the tragedy struck when “a large column of residents, accompanied by a few dozen retreating fighters, fled the city as it fell to Armenian forces. As they approached the border with Azerbaijan, they came across an Armenian military post and were cruelly fired upon”.
Armenian side officially claims that the killings occurred as a result of wartime military operations, and were in part caused by the prevention of the evacuation of town inhabitants by Azerbaijani forces. Armenian government officials asserted that the casualty count, though high, was due to the fact the fleeing civilians in Khojaly had mingled with the retreating defenders and when the Azeri troops shot back, Armenian forces fired upon them, killing both soldier and civilian alike. Helsinki Watch
itself concluded "that the militia, still in uniform, and some still carrying their guns, were interspersed with the masses of civilians." However, Human Rights Watch
and Memorial
, found this explanation of Armenian officials unconvincing, stating that the killing of civilians could not be justified under any circumstances. Human Rights Watch noted that “the attacking party [i.e., Karabakh Armenian forces] is still obliged to take precautionary measures to avoid or minimize civilian casualties. In particular, the party must suspend an attack if it becomes apparent that the attack may be expected to cause civilian casualties that are excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated."
The Armenian side refers to Ayaz Mutalibov's interview to claim that the massacre had been committed not by Armenian soldiers but by Azerbaijan Popular Front militants who allegedly shot their own civilians escaping through the corridor. In one of his interviews Mutalibov stated that the event could be a ploy by opposition to denigrate his government . In later interviews, however, Mutalibov would go on to condemn the Armenians for what he said was a blatant misinterpretation of his words.. Some believe that the Azerbaijani journalist Chingiz Mustafayev who recorded the Khojaly Massacre was killed very suspiciously while he was trying to gather information about the attack of the Azerbaijan Popular Front militants to their own civillians. Other theories proposed by the Armenian side were that Azeri Popular Front soldiers had massacred 100 Azeri and Armenian civilians and then proceeded to mix the bodies and lay blame upon the Armenians. This explanation however is widely disputed, among others, the executive director of Human Rights Watch
has stated that: “we place direct responsibility for the civilian deaths with Karabakh Armenian forces. Indeed, neither our report nor that of Memorial includes any evidence to support the argument that Azerbaijani forces obstructed the flight of, or fired on Azeri civilians”.
At the same time, some Armenian sources admitted the guilt of the Armenian side. According to Markar Melkonian
, the brother of the Armenian military leader Monte Melkonian
, "Khojaly had been a strategic goal, but it had also been an act of revenge." The date of the massacre in Khojaly had a special significance: it was the run-up to the fourth anniversary of the anti-Armenian
pogrom in the city of Sumgait
. Melkonian particularly mentions the role of the fighters of two Armenian military detachments called the Arabo and Aramo, who stabbed to death many Azeri civilians.
According to Serge Sarkisian, long-time Defense Minister and Chairman of Security Council of Armenia who is the current president of Armenia
, “A lot was exaggerated” in the casualties, and the fleeing Azerbaijanis had put up armed resistance. At the same time he stated: “Before Khojali, the Azerbaijanis thought that they were joking with us, they thought that the Armenians were people who could not raise their hand against the civilian population. We were able to break that [stereotype]. And that's what happened. And we should also take into account that amongst those boys were people who had fled from Baku and Sumgait".
The Azerbaijani journalist Eynulla Fatullayev
wrote one of in his articles that he met some refugees from Khojaly, temporarily settled in Naftalan, who said that the Armenian soldiers positioned behind the corridor had not opened fire on them. Some soldiers from the battalions of the National Front of Azerbaijan instead, for some reason, had led part of the refugees in the direction of the village of Nakhichevanik, which during that period had been under the control of the Armenians' Askeran battalion. The other group of refugees were hit by artillery volleys while they were reaching the Agdam Region.,
, who currently serves as a Minister of Defense of Armenia. Krasnaya Zvezda
newspaper reported that:
as "the largest massacre to date in the conflict" over Nagorno-Karabakh
. Memorial
, the Moscow-based human rights group, stated in their report that the mass killing of civilians in Khojaly could not be justified under any circumstances and that actions of Armenian militants were in gross violation of a number of basic international human rights conventions. Estimating the number of the civilians killed in the massacre, Human Rights Watch stated that "there are no exact figures for the number of Azeri civilians killed because Karabakh Armenian forces gained control of the area after the massacre". A 1993 report by Human Rights Watch
put the number of deaths at least 161, although later reports state the number of deaths as at least 200. According to Human Rights Watch, "while it is widely accepted that 200 Azeris were murdered, as many as 500-1,000 may have died".
In 2011, Hungarian
radical right party Jobbik stated that they will officially going to recognize Khojaly massacre if they become ruling party in the country.
A Written Declaration (No. 324), authored by Azerbaijan Popular Front member Gulamhuseyn Aliyev in 2001, was signed by 30 members of the PACE
, including members from Turkey
(12), Azerbaijan
(8), United Kingdom
(3), Albania
(2), Luxembourg
(1), Republic of Macedonia
(1), Poland
(1), Bulgaria
(1) and Norway
(1), condemning the massacre of the entire population of Khojaly and destruction of the city by Armenians.
In January 2010, the Parliamentary Union of the OIC Member States
(PUIC), composed of parliaments of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) members states, which includes Azerbaijan but not Armenia, recognised the Justice for Khojaly awareness campaign initiated on 8 May 2008 by Mrs. Leyla Aliyeva
, daughter of the president of the republic of Azerbaijan and General Coordinator of Islamic Conference Youth Forum for Dialogue (ICYF-DC), describing the 1992 event as a "mass massacre by Armenian forces of Azerbaijani civilians in the town of Khojaly", and called upon "all member parliaments to give proper recognition to this crime against humanity and support the Campaign on national and international levels. In response, the Armenian foreign minister Eduard Nalbandyan
said that OIC member-states would not recognize the Khojaly Massacre as a "genocide", and noted that no international or regional organization have made statements that were inconsistent with the Armenian approach to the Karabakh conflict.
On February 26, 2009, in congressional remarks, Congressman Ed Whitfield
(R-KY), solemnly recognized the 17th anniversary of the massacre at Khojaly, and honored the lives of those lost in this great tragedy. On February 25, 2010, in congressional remarks, Congressman Bill Shuster
(R-PA), co-chairman of the House Azerbaijani Caucus, called Khojaly a site of largest killing of Azerbaijani civilians.
On February 25, 2010, the Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Robert A. DeLeo
signed a citation, proposed by the state representative Ellen Story, offering "sincerest acknowledgment of the 18th commemoration of the Khojaly Massacre".
On March, 2010, head of Lidice municipality in Czech Republic
, Josef Klima, said that one of newly-constructed streets in Lidice
would be named Khojaly.
In February 2011, five members of the US House of Representatives, Steve Cohen (D-TN)
, Virginia Foxx (R-NC)
, Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX)
, Sue Myrick (R-NC) and Bill Shuster (R-PA)
, have issued Congressional statements remembering the victims of Khojaly massacre and condemning the crime.
On March 3, 2011, the Texas House of Representatives
passed a resolution 535 recognizing and commemorating victims of the Khojaly massacre.
, Turkey
, commemorating the Khojaly Massacre. Another memorial will be constructed in Budapest
, Hungary
.
In 2011, Turkish city Isparta
's municipality also approved proposal for a memorial to the victims of Khojaly massacre.The same year, another monument for the victims of Khojaly massacre unveiled near Gottfried Benn
library in Steglitz-Zehlendorf
borough of Berlin
.
Azerbaijani people
The Azerbaijanis are a Turkic-speaking people living mainly in northwestern Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan, as well as in the neighbourhood states, Georgia, Russia and formerly Armenia. Commonly referred to as Azeris or Azerbaijani Turks , they also live in a wider area from the Caucasus to...
civilians from the town of Khojaly
Khojali (city)
Khojali or Ivanyan , also, Ay-Khodzhaly, Khodgalou, Khodzhalv, Khodzhaly, Khojalu, and Khozhali, is a town in Nagorno Karabakh, located some 10 km northeast of its capital Stepanakert...
on 25–26 February 1992 by the Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
n and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n armed forces during the Nagorno-Karabakh War
Nagorno-Karabakh War
The Nagorno-Karabakh War was an armed conflict that took place from February 1988 to May 1994, in the small enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in southwestern Azerbaijan, between the majority ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh backed by the Republic of Armenia, and the Republic of Azerbaijan...
. According to the Azerbaijani side, as well as Memorial Human Rights Center
Memorial (society)
Memorial is an international historical and civil rights society that operates in a number of post-Soviet states. It focuses on recording and publicising the Soviet Union's totalitarian past, but also monitors human rights in post-Soviet states....
, Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
and other international observers, the massacre
Massacre
A massacre is an event with a heavy death toll.Massacre may also refer to:-Entertainment:*Massacre , a DC Comics villain*Massacre , a 1932 drama film starring Richard Barthelmess*Massacre, a 1956 Western starring Dane Clark...
was committed by the ethnic Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
n armed forces, reportedly with help of the Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n 366th Motor Rifle Regiment, apparently not acting on orders from the command. The official death toll provided by Azerbaijani authorities is 613 civilians, including 106 women and 83 children. The event became the largest massacre in the course of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Western governments and the western media refer to it as the Khojaly Massacre or Khojaly Tragedy. Azerbaijani and Turkish sources occasionally refer to the massacre as Khojaly Genocide and the Khojaly Tragedy . Armenian sources usually underestimate the massacre and mostly refers to it as the Battle of Khojaly (-Khojalui Paterazmum), Khojaly event (-Khojalui Iradardzut’yun) or sometimes Khojaly tragedy (-Khojalui Voghbergut’yan).
Background
In 1988 the town had about 2,000 inhabitants. Due to the Nagorno-Karabakh WarNagorno-Karabakh War
The Nagorno-Karabakh War was an armed conflict that took place from February 1988 to May 1994, in the small enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in southwestern Azerbaijan, between the majority ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh backed by the Republic of Armenia, and the Republic of Azerbaijan...
and the population exchanges between Armenia and Azerbaijan as well as Meskhetian Turk refugees leaving Central Asia and subsequently settling in the town, this grew to 6,000 by 1991.
The town of Khojaly
Khojali (city)
Khojali or Ivanyan , also, Ay-Khodzhaly, Khodgalou, Khodzhalv, Khodzhaly, Khojalu, and Khozhali, is a town in Nagorno Karabakh, located some 10 km northeast of its capital Stepanakert...
was located on the road that connected Shusha
Shusha
Shusha , also known as Shushi is a town in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh in the South Caucasus. It has been under the control of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic since its capture in 1992 during the Nagorno-Karabakh War...
, Stepanakert
Stepanakert
Stepanakert is the largest city and capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, a de facto independent republic, though is internationally recognized as a part of Azerbaijan...
and Agdam
Agdam
Agdam or Ağdam or Aghdam may refer to:*Agdam city, Azerbaijan*Agdam Rayon, Azerbaijan*Ağdam, Khojavend, Azerbaijan*Ağdam, Tovuz, Azerbaijan...
and had the region's only airport. According to reports from Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
, Khojaly was used as a base for Azerbaijani forces shelling the city of Stepanakert, and in turn was shelled by Armenian forces.
During the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, both Armenians and Azerbaijanis became victims of pogroms and ethnic cleansing, which resulted in numerous casualties and displacement of large groups of people.
In October 1991, the Nagorno Karabakh forces
Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army
The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Defense Army is the formal defense force of the unrecognized but de-facto independent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic...
cut the road connecting Khojaly and Aghdam, so that the only way to reach the town was by a helicopter. The town was defended by local OMON
OMON
OMOH is a generic name for the system of special units of militsiya within the Russian and earlier the Soviet MVD...
forces under the command of Alif Hajiyev
Alif Hajiyev
Alif Haciyev Latif oglu was an Azerbaijani officer, Commandant of Khojaly Airport and National Hero of Azerbaijan.-Early years:...
, which numbered about 160 or so lightly armed men. Prior to the attack, the town had been without electricity and gas for several months.
The massacre
According to Human Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
, the tragedy struck when “a large column of residents, accompanied by a few dozen retreating fighters, fled the city as it fell to Armenian forces. As they approached the border with Azerbaijan, they came across an Armenian military post and were cruelly fired upon”.
Armenian side officially claims that the killings occurred as a result of wartime military operations, and were in part caused by the prevention of the evacuation of town inhabitants by Azerbaijani forces. Armenian government officials asserted that the casualty count, though high, was due to the fact the fleeing civilians in Khojaly had mingled with the retreating defenders and when the Azeri troops shot back, Armenian forces fired upon them, killing both soldier and civilian alike. Helsinki Watch
Helsinki Watch
Helsinki Watch was a private American NGO devoted to monitoring Helsinki implementation throughout the Soviet bloc. It was created in 1978 to monitor compliance to the Helsinki Final Act...
itself concluded "that the militia, still in uniform, and some still carrying their guns, were interspersed with the masses of civilians." However, Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
and Memorial
Memorial (society)
Memorial is an international historical and civil rights society that operates in a number of post-Soviet states. It focuses on recording and publicising the Soviet Union's totalitarian past, but also monitors human rights in post-Soviet states....
, found this explanation of Armenian officials unconvincing, stating that the killing of civilians could not be justified under any circumstances. Human Rights Watch noted that “the attacking party [i.e., Karabakh Armenian forces] is still obliged to take precautionary measures to avoid or minimize civilian casualties. In particular, the party must suspend an attack if it becomes apparent that the attack may be expected to cause civilian casualties that are excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated."
The Armenian side refers to Ayaz Mutalibov's interview to claim that the massacre had been committed not by Armenian soldiers but by Azerbaijan Popular Front militants who allegedly shot their own civilians escaping through the corridor. In one of his interviews Mutalibov stated that the event could be a ploy by opposition to denigrate his government . In later interviews, however, Mutalibov would go on to condemn the Armenians for what he said was a blatant misinterpretation of his words.. Some believe that the Azerbaijani journalist Chingiz Mustafayev who recorded the Khojaly Massacre was killed very suspiciously while he was trying to gather information about the attack of the Azerbaijan Popular Front militants to their own civillians. Other theories proposed by the Armenian side were that Azeri Popular Front soldiers had massacred 100 Azeri and Armenian civilians and then proceeded to mix the bodies and lay blame upon the Armenians. This explanation however is widely disputed, among others, the executive director of Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
has stated that: “we place direct responsibility for the civilian deaths with Karabakh Armenian forces. Indeed, neither our report nor that of Memorial includes any evidence to support the argument that Azerbaijani forces obstructed the flight of, or fired on Azeri civilians”.
At the same time, some Armenian sources admitted the guilt of the Armenian side. According to Markar Melkonian
Markar Melkonian
Markar Melkonian is an Armenian-American writer and a solidarity worker, resident in the United States.Melkonian's book "My Brother's Road: An American's Fateful Journey to Armenia", details the life of his brother, Monte Melkonian, and his role in the struggle for Armenian independence in the...
, the brother of the Armenian military leader Monte Melkonian
Monte Melkonian
Monte Melkonian was a famed Armenian commander during Nagorno-Karabakh war. Melkonian had no prior service record in any country's army before being placed in command of an estimated 4,000 men in the war...
, "Khojaly had been a strategic goal, but it had also been an act of revenge." The date of the massacre in Khojaly had a special significance: it was the run-up to the fourth anniversary of the anti-Armenian
Anti-Armenianism
Armenophobia is the fear, dislike of, hatred or aversion to the Armenians, Republic of Armenia and the Armenian culture, which can range in expression from individual hatred to institutionalized persecution...
pogrom in the city of Sumgait
Sumgait Pogrom
The Sumgait pogrom was a pogrom that targeted the Armenian population of the seaside town of Sumgait in Soviet Azerbaijan during February 1988...
. Melkonian particularly mentions the role of the fighters of two Armenian military detachments called the Arabo and Aramo, who stabbed to death many Azeri civilians.
According to Serge Sarkisian, long-time Defense Minister and Chairman of Security Council of Armenia who is the current president of Armenia
President of Armenia
President of Armenia is the title of the head of state of Armenia since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.-Democratic Republic of Armenia :*Avetis Aharonyan *Avetik Sahakyan *Avetis Aharonyan -Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and Armenian...
, “A lot was exaggerated” in the casualties, and the fleeing Azerbaijanis had put up armed resistance. At the same time he stated: “Before Khojali, the Azerbaijanis thought that they were joking with us, they thought that the Armenians were people who could not raise their hand against the civilian population. We were able to break that [stereotype]. And that's what happened. And we should also take into account that amongst those boys were people who had fled from Baku and Sumgait".
The Azerbaijani journalist Eynulla Fatullayev
Eynulla Fatullayev
Eynulla Emin oglu Fatullayev is an Azerbaijani journalist and editor-in-chief of the independent Russian-language weekly Realny Azerbaijan and Azeri-language daily Gündəlik Azərbaycan newspapers. He was imprisoned for four years in Azerbaijan for his criticism of government's policies and for his...
wrote one of in his articles that he met some refugees from Khojaly, temporarily settled in Naftalan, who said that the Armenian soldiers positioned behind the corridor had not opened fire on them. Some soldiers from the battalions of the National Front of Azerbaijan instead, for some reason, had led part of the refugees in the direction of the village of Nakhichevanik, which during that period had been under the control of the Armenians' Askeran battalion. The other group of refugees were hit by artillery volleys while they were reaching the Agdam Region.,
The role of 366th regiment of CIS army
According to international observers, soldiers and officers of 366th regiment took part in the attack on Khojaly. Memorial called for investigation of the facts of participation of CIS soldiers in the military operations in the region and transfer of military equipment to the sides of the conflict. Soon after the massacre, in early March 1992, the regiment was withdrawn from Nagorno-Karabakh. Paratroopers evacuated the personnel of the regiment by helicopter, but over 100 soldiers and officers remained in Stepanakert and joined the Armenian forces, including the commander of the 2nd battalion major Seyran OhanyanSeyran Ohanyan
Seyran Ohanyan is the current Defence Minister of Armenia. He has held this position since April 14, 2008.-Biography:Ohanyan was born in the town of Shusha, then a part of the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, Azerbaijan SSR, Soviet Union...
, who currently serves as a Minister of Defense of Armenia. Krasnaya Zvezda
Krasnaya Zvezda
Krasnaya Zvezda is an official newspaper of Soviet and later Russian Ministry of Defence. It was founded on January 1, 1924. Today its official designation is "Central Organ of the Russian Ministry of Defence."...
newspaper reported that:
Recognition of the massacre
The Khojaly Massacre was described by Human Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
as "the largest massacre to date in the conflict" over Nagorno-Karabakh
Nagorno-Karabakh
Nagorno-Karabakh is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, lying between Lower Karabakh and Zangezur and covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains...
. Memorial
Memorial (society)
Memorial is an international historical and civil rights society that operates in a number of post-Soviet states. It focuses on recording and publicising the Soviet Union's totalitarian past, but also monitors human rights in post-Soviet states....
, the Moscow-based human rights group, stated in their report that the mass killing of civilians in Khojaly could not be justified under any circumstances and that actions of Armenian militants were in gross violation of a number of basic international human rights conventions. Estimating the number of the civilians killed in the massacre, Human Rights Watch stated that "there are no exact figures for the number of Azeri civilians killed because Karabakh Armenian forces gained control of the area after the massacre". A 1993 report by Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
put the number of deaths at least 161, although later reports state the number of deaths as at least 200. According to Human Rights Watch, "while it is widely accepted that 200 Azeris were murdered, as many as 500-1,000 may have died".
In 2011, Hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
radical right party Jobbik stated that they will officially going to recognize Khojaly massacre if they become ruling party in the country.
Remembrance
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe , which held its first session in Strasbourg on 10 August 1949, can be considered the oldest international parliamentary assembly with a pluralistic composition of democratically elected members of parliament established on the basis of an...
, including members from Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
(12), Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
(8), United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
(3), Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
(2), Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
(1), Republic of Macedonia
Republic of Macedonia
Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...
(1), Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
(1), Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
(1) and Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
(1), condemning the massacre of the entire population of Khojaly and destruction of the city by Armenians.
In January 2010, the Parliamentary Union of the OIC Member States
Parliamentary Union of the OIC Member States
Parliamentary Union of the OIC Member States is composed of parliaments of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference members states...
(PUIC), composed of parliaments of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) members states, which includes Azerbaijan but not Armenia, recognised the Justice for Khojaly awareness campaign initiated on 8 May 2008 by Mrs. Leyla Aliyeva
Leyla Aliyeva
Leyla Aliyeva is an Azerbaijani author, social activist, youth campaigner and environmentalist.- Heydar Aliyev Foundation :...
, daughter of the president of the republic of Azerbaijan and General Coordinator of Islamic Conference Youth Forum for Dialogue (ICYF-DC), describing the 1992 event as a "mass massacre by Armenian forces of Azerbaijani civilians in the town of Khojaly", and called upon "all member parliaments to give proper recognition to this crime against humanity and support the Campaign on national and international levels. In response, the Armenian foreign minister Eduard Nalbandyan
Eduard Nalbandyan
Eduard Nalbandyan is an Armenian diplomat. He is the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia since April 2008....
said that OIC member-states would not recognize the Khojaly Massacre as a "genocide", and noted that no international or regional organization have made statements that were inconsistent with the Armenian approach to the Karabakh conflict.
On February 26, 2009, in congressional remarks, Congressman Ed Whitfield
Ed Whitfield
Wayne Edward "Ed" Whitfield is the U.S. Representative of , serving since 1995. He is a member of the Republican Party.The district covers much of the western part of the state, including Hopkinsville, Paducah, Henderson and Kentucky's share of Fort Campbell.-Early life, education and...
(R-KY), solemnly recognized the 17th anniversary of the massacre at Khojaly, and honored the lives of those lost in this great tragedy. On February 25, 2010, in congressional remarks, Congressman Bill Shuster
Bill Shuster
William Shuster is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2001. He is a member of the Republican Party. He is a son of former Congressman Bud Shuster.-Early life, education and career:...
(R-PA), co-chairman of the House Azerbaijani Caucus, called Khojaly a site of largest killing of Azerbaijani civilians.
On February 25, 2010, the Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Robert A. DeLeo
Robert DeLeo (politician)
Robert A. DeLeo is an American politician from the state of Massachusetts. He is the father of two children, Robbie and Rachele....
signed a citation, proposed by the state representative Ellen Story, offering "sincerest acknowledgment of the 18th commemoration of the Khojaly Massacre".
On March, 2010, head of Lidice municipality in Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
, Josef Klima, said that one of newly-constructed streets in Lidice
Lidice
Lidice is a village in the Czech Republic just northwest of Prague. It is built on the site of a previous village of the same name which, as part of the Nazi Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, was on orders from Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, completely destroyed by German forces in reprisal...
would be named Khojaly.
In February 2011, five members of the US House of Representatives, Steve Cohen (D-TN)
Steve Cohen
Stephen Ira Cohen is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2007. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Tennessee's 9th district includes almost three-fourths of Memphis. Cohen is Tennessee's first Jewish congressman....
, Virginia Foxx (R-NC)
Virginia Foxx
Virginia Foxx is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2005. She is a member of the Republican Party. The district takes in much of the northwestern portion of the state and a portion of Winston-Salem....
, Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX)
Eddie Bernice Johnson
Eddie Bernice Johnson is a politician from the state of Texas, currently representing the state's in the United States House of Representatives. She is the first registered nurse elected to the US Congress....
, Sue Myrick (R-NC) and Bill Shuster (R-PA)
Bill Shuster
William Shuster is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2001. He is a member of the Republican Party. He is a son of former Congressman Bud Shuster.-Early life, education and career:...
, have issued Congressional statements remembering the victims of Khojaly massacre and condemning the crime.
On March 3, 2011, the Texas House of Representatives
Texas House of Representatives
The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the Texas Legislature. The House is composed of 150 members elected from single-member districts across the state. The average district has about 150,000 people. Representatives are elected to two-year terms with no term limits...
passed a resolution 535 recognizing and commemorating victims of the Khojaly massacre.
Memorials
There is a memorial in the Hague, the Netherlands, which was an initiative of Azerbaijani Diaspora and another one built in AnkaraAnkara
Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million....
, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, commemorating the Khojaly Massacre. Another memorial will be constructed in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
.
In 2011, Turkish city Isparta
Isparta
Isparta is a city in western Turkey and the provincial capital of the Isparta Province. The city's population is 222,556 and elevation from sea level is 1035 m. Another name of the city is "City of Roses"....
's municipality also approved proposal for a memorial to the victims of Khojaly massacre.The same year, another monument for the victims of Khojaly massacre unveiled near Gottfried Benn
Gottfried Benn
Gottfried Benn was a German essayist, novelist, and expressionist poet. A doctor of medicine, he became an early admirer, and later a critic, of the National Socialist revolution...
library in Steglitz-Zehlendorf
Steglitz-Zehlendorf
Steglitz-Zehlendorf is the sixth borough of Berlin, formed in Berlin's 2001 administrative reform by merging the former boroughs of Steglitz and Zehlendorf.-Demographics:...
borough of Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
.
Films
- 1993 – Fəryad (dir. Jeyhun Mirzayev)
- 1993 - Haray (dir. Oruj Gurbanov)
- 2012 – Valley of the Wolves: KarabakhValley of the Wolves: KarabakhValley of the Wolves: Karabakh is an up-coming 2012 spin-off film directed by Zübeyr Şaşmaz, which follows Polat Alemdar and his team as they go to Karabakh, Azerbaijan...
Music
- 1996 – Ya Qarabağ, Ya Ölüm (by DayirmanDayirmanDayirman is the first Azeri hip hop group. Based in Baku, Dayirman was founded in 1996 by four friends. The group's name is the Azeri word for "Windmill"...
) - 2010 – Justice for Khojaly (by DayirmanDayirmanDayirman is the first Azeri hip hop group. Based in Baku, Dayirman was founded in 1996 by four friends. The group's name is the Azeri word for "Windmill"...
featuring Toni BlackmanToni BlackmanToni Blackman is an American rapper, actress, writer and State Department Musical Ambassador.The first Hip Hop Cultural Envoy to travel with the State Department, Blackman served in Senegal, Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Botswana and Swaziland where she also delivered...
)
See also
- List of massacres in Azerbaijan
- Nagorno-Karabakh WarNagorno-Karabakh WarThe Nagorno-Karabakh War was an armed conflict that took place from February 1988 to May 1994, in the small enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in southwestern Azerbaijan, between the majority ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh backed by the Republic of Armenia, and the Republic of Azerbaijan...
- March DaysMarch DaysThe March Days, or March Events, refer to an inter-ethnic strife and massacres of up to 12,000 Azerbaijanis and other Muslims that took place between March 30 and April 2, 1918 in the city of Baku and adjacent areas of the Baku Governorate of Russian Empire.Facilitated by a political power struggle...
(1918) - Guba mass graveGuba mass graveGuba mass grave is an alleged mass grave of victims of mass killings of Azerbaijani, Jewish, Lezgi civilians by Armenian Dashnaks and Bolsheviks during the March days of 1918 in Guba, Azerbaijan.-Discovery:...
(1918) - Black JanuaryBlack JanuaryBlack January , also known as Black Saturday or the January Massacre, was a violent crackdown of the Azerbaijani independence movement in Baku on January 19–20, 1990, pursuant to a state of emergency during the dissolution of the Soviet Union....
(19-20/2/1990) - Malibeyli and Gushchular MassacreMalibeyli and Gushchular MassacreMalibeyli and Gushchular Massacre was the killing of over 15-50 ethnic Azerbaijani civilians by Armenian irregular armed units in a simultaneous attack on the villages of Malibeyli, Ashaghi Gushchular, Yukhari Gushchular of Shusha district of Azerbaijan on 10-12 February 1992 during the...
(10-12/2/1992) - Garadaghly MassacreGaradaghly MassacreGaradaghly Massacre , also known as Garadaghli Genocide, Garadaghli Massacre, Qaradaghli Massacre was the killing of 70-90 ethnic Azerbaijani civilians by Armenian troops in the village of Garadaghly on 17 February 1992 during the Nagorno-Karabakh War.-Overview:Garadaghly is a village in Khojavend...
(17/2/1992) - Agdaban massacreAgdaban massacreAgdaban massacre was the killing and forced displacement of Azerbaijani civilians by Armenian forces in the village of Agdaban on 8 April 1992 during the Nagorno-Karabakh War....
(8/4/1992)
External links
Non-partisan
- CNN International: Capturing war and revolution
- Letter of UN Human rights center
- Report of Memorial Human rights center (In Russian)
- Bloodshed in the Caucasus: escalation of the armed conflict in Nagorno Karabakh. Human Rights Watch, 1992. ISBN 1564320812, 9781564320810
- Thomas De Waal, Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War, NYU Press, 2004, ISBN 0-8147-1945-7. Chapter 11. August 1991 – May 1992: War Breaks Out. Online (In Russian): http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/russian/in_depth/newsid_4673000/4673953.stm
- Victoria Ivleva. The corpses of people killed during the Armenian attack in the streets of the settlement of Khojaly, Nagorno-Karabakh, February 1992. Photograph 1, Photograph 2
From an Azerbaijani perspective
- Letter to the UN from Azerbaijan condemning the events
- Justice for Khojaly, ICYF-DC campaign