Daily Times

Sir: February 25-26, 1992, the time when the Khojaly Massacre occurred, could be termed as one of the worst times in the history of Azerbaijan. It is an event that will go down in history as a brutal act of terrorism that has no parallel. Human history is replete with tragedies that have struck the defenceless civilian population in times of war and peace, but the massacre that took place in Khojaly sent shivers down the spine of the civilised world.

Khojaly, if one would like to know, is an Azerbaijani town strategically located on the Agdam-Shusha and Hankendi (Stepanakert)-Askeran roads in Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. In 1992, when the brutal massacre occurred, the population of the town was a little over 7,000 people. The Khojaly massacre was, in fact, a planned murder of innocent civilians (men, women and children) by the heartless Armenian forces. On the nights of February 25-26, 1992, Armenian forces invaded the Khojaly village.

This ill-fated village had been under siege since October 1991. On the tragic evening of February 25, the Armenian forces pounced on the village with heavy and incessant gunfire that engulfed the entire town on the morning of February 26. That was the time when the peaceful inhabitants of the terror-struck village fled the town in fear to save their lives. According to figures quoted in different segments of the media and other sources, roughly 2,500 civilians remaining in the village left their territory hoping to reach Agdam. It is believed that 613 out of these 2,500 fell victim to enemy fire.

The civilised world and different international human rights organisations condemned and continue to lambast the brutalities committed by the Armenian forces on the innocent civilians of Khojaly in the strongest terms. Human Rights Watch described the Khojaly massacre as “the largest massacre to have been committed to date in the conflict” over Nagorno-Karabakh. Memorial, the Moscow-based human rights group, stated in its report that the acts of the Armenian forces were in utter violation of a number of fundamental international human rights conventions. Estimating the number of the civilians killed in the massacre, Human Rights Watch stated: “There are no accurate figures for the number of Azeri civilians killed because Karabakh-Armenian forces gained control of the area after the massacre.”

A 1993 report of Human Rights Watch put the number of deaths at at least 161, although later reports state the number of deaths to be a minimum 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.” On February 2, 2012 the Mexican Senate passed a resolution that described the February 25-26, 1992 Khojaly massacre as an act of genocide. In the same year, the Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate of Pakistan also passed a resolution condemning the brutal massacre of innocent civilians in Khojaly. Several other countries of the world have followed suit. They have profoundly condemned the atrocities committed by the merciless Armenian forces on unarmed and innocent men, women and children in Khojaly. The time has come for the civilised world to raise its voice lucidly and forcefully to bring the culprits of the Khojaly massacre to book, and provide justice to those who have suffered miserably at the hands of the cruel Armenian militants for no rhyme or reason.

M. FAZAL ELAHI

Islamabad