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TurkishPAC mourns the victims of the Khojaly massacres. As various international organizations such as Memorial Human Rights Center and Human Rights Watch documented, between February 25th and 26th, 1992, the Armenian Armed Forces with the help of the Russian 366th Motor Rifle Regiment butchered 613 Azerbaijani civilians in cold blood, 106 of them women and 83 of them children. Armenian forces took hostage another 1275, torturing 56 to death; another 150 remain missing to date. Over 480 civilians were disabled through mutilation, 76 of them teenage boys and girls. Young girls were raped and sexually mutilated. Twenty-five children lost both their parents, while 130 children were left motherless or fatherless.
According to Human Rights Watch, the massacres occurred while Azeri villagers were fleeing as their town fell to invading Armenian forces. The Armenian invasion of western Azerbaijan continues to date, and has caused the displacement of 1.5 million Azeris, who are forced to live in tent-camps and railway carriages.
Human Rights Watch stated, "We place direct responsibility for the civilian deaths with Armenian forces. Indeed, neither our report nor that of Memorial includes any evidence to support the Armenian argument that Azerbaijani forces obstructed the flight of, or fired on Azeri civilians" (click here for the full report).
The Armenians not only massacred innocent civilians, but also attacked journalists trying to cover stories from the war zone. French journalist Jean Ive Yunet stated "We managed to fly by helicopter, we were taking photographs of everything we saw around Khojaly at a height of a bird's flight. However Armenians started shooting our helicopter and we couldn't manage to finish our job. That was a terrible scene. I heard a lot about wars, about cruelty of German fascists, but Armenians went beyond them, killing 5 or 6 year-old children, innocent people. "
Markar Melkonian, the brother of Armenian American terrorist and Armenian forces leader, Monte Melkonian, boasted, "Khojaly had been a strategic goal, but it had also been an act of revenge."
Serge Sarkisian, long-time Defense Minister and Chairman of Security Council of Armenia, proudly declared, "Before Khojaly, the Azerbaijanis thought that the Armenians were people who would not raise their hand against the civilian population. We were able to break that [stereotype]!"
Armenians continued their massacres later in Shusa and Lachin (May 1992), Kelbajar (April 1993), Agdere (June 1993), Agdam (July 1993), in Fizulu and
Djebrail (August 1993), Kubatly (September 1993), and Zangelan and
Goradiz (October 1993).
TurkishPAC condemns these heinous acts of the Armenian Republic and calls upon the United States and international community to hold Armenian leaders accountable for these crimes, as well as for the refugee crisis that continues to date as Armenian forces occupy western Azerbaijan.
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