.E×à (ğle="text-align: justify;">A man looks at photographs at an Adana exhibit featuring photos from the Khojali massacre, which took place on Feb. 25-26, 1992 and in which 613 Azerbaijanis were killed. Every year in late February the Azerbaijani nation commemorates the bloody tragedy known as the Khojaly genocide.
An unprecedented massacre of hundreds of defenseless inhabitants of the small town of Khojaly in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan became one of the most heinous crimes against the Azerbaijani people. On the night of Feb. 25, 1992, the Armenian armed forces with the help of Russian troops carried out the seizure of Khojaly and razed the town to the ground. Following the occupation of Khojaly, a total of 613 innocent Azerbaijanis, including 106 women and 83 children, were massacred by Armenian and Russian forces, which also annihilated whole families, captured 1,275 people, left 1,000 civilians maimed or crippled, with another 150 reported missing. The 366th Russian motorized infantry regiment was accused of being involved in the Khojaly massacre. Even though Russian officials denied the accusation, Russia's then ambassador to Turkey stated that soldiers who deserted might have taken part in some incidents.
Unsurprisingly, the tragedy in Khojaly strongly affected regional geopolitics. Regional powers such as Turkey, Iran and Russia expressed grave concern about further destabilization of the region. Moreover, in all three countries, Azerbaijani diasporas organized massive protests in which demonstrators demanded that their relevant governments intervene to stop bloodshed in the conflict-torn area. Each of the regional powers took steps in a different way. Turkey closed its borders and only imposed an economic blockade on Armenia after the wider public in the country severely criticized the government's policy. Iran undertook diplomatic measures in order to act as a mediator between Azerbaijanis and Armenians. In turn, Russia hurriedly dissolved the 366th regiment and withdrew some Russian military hardware from Nagorno-Karabakh. Most of the regiment's weaponry and equipment, however, were left to the local separatists in the conflict-ridden area.
In point of fact, the tragic event in Khojaly had sparked the exodus of Azerbaijanis from their historic lands. More than 15 years have passed and the world community is still oblivious to the suffering caused by the Armenian aggression against the Azerbaijani people. As a result of ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh and other territories occupied by Armenian troops, some 1 million people have been expelled from their homes and are forced to live in tent camps and railway wagons. Although Armenian officials have repeatedly denied their blame for the crimes committed against the population of Khojaly, the responsibility of the Armenian government is documented by numerous independent sources and eyewitnesses of this bloody tragedy. In response to misrepresentation by the Armenian side, the facts indicated by internationally renowned authors such as Thomas Goltz, Thomas de Waal, Holly Cartner and others confirm that the mass extermination of the Khojaly town civilians, including women, elderly and children, was ordered only because they were Azerbaijanis. In other words, the Khojaly town was chosen as a stage for further occupation and ethnic cleansing of Azerbaijani territories, thus striking terror in the hearts of blameless people and creating fear before the horrifying massacre.
Indeed, the Khojaly massacre was a pivotal event that turned the international media's attention to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Accordingly, in Newsweek under the title "Face of a Massacre" the Khojaly incident was described as killings of ordinary Azerbaijani civilians, particularly mentioning that many people were killed at close range while trying to flee and that some had their faces mutilated. In turn, The New York Times under the title "Massacre by Armenians" wrote about burned and scalped bodies of victims. International coverage on the Khojaly tragedy also included a number of other commentaries that appeared in The Sunday Times, The Washington Times, Time and so forth. Moreover, Human Rights Watch described the tragedy in Khojaly as "the largest massacre to date in the conflict." Clearly, the massacre of Khojaly set a pattern of ethnic cleansing methodically perpetrated by the Armenian troops. In light of this, on Jan. 25, 2005, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) overwhelmingly adopted a resolution specifically emphasizing that "considerable parts of Azerbaijan's territory are still occupied by the Armenian forces and separatist forces are still in control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region." This prestigious European organization also expressed grave concern that the military action between 1988 and 1994 as well as the widespread ethnic hostilities which preceded it "led to large-scale ethnic expulsion and the creation of mono-ethnic areas which resemble the terrible concept of ethnic cleansing." As is seen, PACE made a significant first step forward to help the world community discover more information about the factual reasons of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.
Quite obviously, the Khojaly tragedy is the biggest modern slaughter of innocent civilians in the Caucasus. And therefore, for the Azerbaijanis and other peoples inhabiting the region, the word "Khojaly" has become identical with pain, sorrow and brutality. Khojaly is the most tragic page in history of independent Azerbaijan and a vivid reminder of the painful consequences of Armenian aggression. As the Azerbaijanis worldwide commemorate the tragedy of Khojaly, they appeal today with hope to the international community to bring the Armenian government to the international penal tribunal to answer for the crime against humanity. On several occasions different state structures and nongovernmental organizations have urged international organizations to condemn the ongoing aggression against Azerbaijan and facilitate liberation of the territories occupied by Armenian troops. Great powers should know and remember that there will be no true, long-term, sustainable peace without justice and without respect of human dignity and freedoms. It is high time that the United Nations, the European Union as well as other principal powers and all the international organizations condemn the massacre of Khojaly -- the genocide of the innocent population of Khojaly which will be forever remembered by future generations of Azerbaijanis.
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*Dr. Elkhan Nuriyev is the director of the Center for Strategic Studies under the president of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Baku.
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