Khojaly tragedy. Anniversary of Khojaly tragedy

No matter how terrible it was to admit it, such terrible social phenomena as national hatred and genocide exist in our time. A vivid example of this is the bloody Khojaly tragedy. This was the massacre committed by the Armenian troops in the year nineteen ninety-two over the inhabitants of a small village located fourteen kilometers to the north-east 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 remember those horrible days with the goal of honoring the memory of the dead.

Khojaly Massacre

The number of this settlement was very small, about seven thousand people. February night, from the twenty-fifth to the twenty-sixth, an absolutely unexpectedly armed Armenian army with the support of the motorized rifle division of the Russian Federation treacherously attacked a peaceful city. At first the town was surrounded, and then, without warning, fire was opened from heavy military weapons, the village turned out to be almost completely enveloped in flames. Those who survived the shelling, were forced to leave their homes, all their property and flee. By five in the morning the city belonged to the Armenians, more precisely, those ruins that burned down on the site of the village.

But on this the troubles of the Khojaly people did not end: they escaped from the place of the tragedy into the forest and into the mountains, followed and tried to finish off. Not all have survived. Young girls and women were captured, many of them were literally tortured to death. Men and children were mostly killed immediately. Khojaly tragedy for many enlightened contemporaries was a real shock.

Scary reports

According to statistical reports, for Azerbaijan the Khojaly massacre resulted in the following losses: six hundred and thirteen people were killed, of which one hundred and six women, sixty-three children and seventy elderly. Fifty-six people were killed with particular cruelty. Some were deprived of limbs, some skin was torn off, later the remains of the people burned alive were found. Some people had eyes punctured (even in infancy), women waiting for a child, knifes had their stomachs ripped open. About the fate of one hundred and fifty people so far nothing is known.

After this tragedy in Khojaly, as many as eight families were completely destroyed, twenty-four children were left orphans, and one hundred and thirty children lost one parent.

Day of Remembrance

After that the decree of the President of the Republic came out that this mournful day in the history of the country be remembered as "Day of Khojaly genocide and national mourning". All organizations of the international level were notified about this later. And since then every year on this sad date, every resident of the Republic of Azerbaijan hears the appeal of the President to the people, and in memory of this tragedy stands a minute of silence.

"Memorial"

A human rights organization with this name later tried to understand what was happening. She conducted a detailed study of the area where the tragedy unfolded in Khojaly, to restore those events. Most of the city's residents immediately tried to get out of the encirclement in two main directions after the start of the bombardment:

1. Along the bank of the river, which flowed in the city. This road, as the Armenian representatives later assured, was decided to provide residents with a free exit (but from the statistics it is clear that there was no "free corridor" as such, people had to save their lives along this path).

2. Through the northern extremity of the settlement, there was a convenient retreat to the forest, in which many were going to hide from trouble. This way was used by the minority.

According to the most recent reports, the statistics of the counting of the dead are not accurate, the real numbers, unfortunately, are many times higher. The Armenian representatives refused to provide their information and in general, at least somehow comment on the situation.

As reported by the human rights organization Memorial, those who used the first waste path along the river were ruthlessly fired. According to Armenian representatives, this happened only because people were armed. It will be fair to note that there were actually armed people among the retreating. They are defenders from the city garrison. But it is also absolutely inhuman to shell them, according to eyewitnesses, they did not show aggression at all, the Armenians also fell into the peaceful population, which wanted only one thing: to hide from the invaders as soon as possible.

Also, Memorial tried to calculate how many people had frozen to death on this cold winter night. Many jumped out of their homes, dressed in a hurry, as was possible. They fled, throwing everything away, wanting only 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 broken psyche. In captivity were mostly girls and children. Returning later told that many prisoners were shot. This event can not be called otherwise, like the Khojaly tragedy.

From the scene ...

Only two days later, using two helicopters, Russian and Azerbaijani reporters were able to reach this area. Their articles have touched the soul for more than one generation. The most recent impressions, full of horror and misunderstanding, were shared with the whole world by these brave people. Their helicopters were also shelled, and only four bodies could be removed from this terrible battlefield.

From the height of the bird's flight, the scale of the tragedy was visible, on the yellowed grass covered with a thin layer of snow, the bodies of the dead 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 not do anything wrong. And they tried to run to the Azerbaijani border, as if surrendering, without showing any aggression.

Khojaly tragedy. Politics and Society

All over the world, newspapers wrote about the Khojaly massacre. But in another way this event can not be named, defenseless and innocent people were not just shot, but brutally murdered. A real crime against a person, a real genocide. Coming then to this place, the Western media shared their experiences about what had happened on all the channels.

And in the Russian newspaper "Izvestia" in rather terrible details the Khojaly tragedy and its consequences were described. As living people who voluntarily decided to become hostages, exchanged for the bodies of the dead. But just what a spectacle it was! Relatives received corpses with the cut off parts of a body, with the removed skin, without eyes, etc.

International Assessment

The UN, the Council of Europe and the OSCE have reacted with extreme condemnation to what happened, recognizing the acts of the Armenian side as crimes against humanity. In many reports, the word "genocide" was heard. The leaders of these organizations appealed through the mass media to the families of the victims with the expression of condolences.

But the most important thing is that even after so many years, this tragedy is not forgotten. Memorial Day and minutes of silence remind all residents of the Republic that once their compatriots were victims of war. The anniversary of the Khojaly tragedy took place not so long ago, and again with tears in eyes Azerbaijanians remembered that terrible February. And not only they, the whole world mourns along with the citizens of Azerbaijan.

Khojaly tragedy is a tragedy of the twentieth century, which the descendants of the dead will not forget for a long time.