No matter how awful it was to admit it, but such terrible social phenomenon of ethnic hatred and genocide there in our time.A striking example of this is the bloody Khojaly tragedy.It was a massacre perpetrated by Armenian forces in nineteen ninety-second year the residents of a small village, which is located fourteen kilometers north-east of the town of Khankendi.That event is still in the memory of many mourners, and residents of the Republic of Azerbaijan every year to remember those horrible days with the aim to honor the memory of the victims.
Khojaly massacre
number of the settlement was quite small, about seven thousand people.February night, the twenty-fifth to the 26th number, suddenly armed Armenian army with the support of the Russian motorized infantry division treacherously attacked the peaceful city.At first the town was surrounded, and then without warning on it opened fire from heavy guns of war, the village was almost completely enveloped in flames.Those who survived the shelling, were forced to leave their homes and all their possessions and property to run.As early as five in the morning the city belonged to the Armenians, more accurately, those ruins that were burning at the site of the village.
But the troubles were not over Khojaly: they, escaped from the scene of the tragedy in the forest and the mountains, hunted down and tried to finish.Survived not all.Young girls and women were taken prisoner, many of them were literally tortured to death.Men and children is mostly just killed.Khojaly tragedy to many enlightened contemporaries was a real shock.
Scary reports
According to statistical summaries, Azerbaijan Khojaly massacre ended with the following losses: six hundred thirteen people were killed, including one hundred and six women, sixty-three and seventy-old child.Fifty-six people were killed with special cruelty.Some have been deprived of course with some of the corpses were skinned, and later found the remains of burned people alive.Some people had their eyes put out (even for infants), women who are pregnant or knives were ripped open their bellies.The fate of a hundred and fifty people are still not known.
After this tragedy in Khojaly as many as eight families were fully destroyed, twenty-four were full of orphaned baby, and one hundred and thirty children lost one parent.
Memorial Day
After that President of the Republic issued a decree that to this sad day in the history of the country is remembered as the "Day of Khojaly genocide and of national mourning."This was later informed all international organizations.And since then, every year in this sad date of every citizen of the Republic of Azerbaijan to hear the President's address to the nation, and in memory of this tragedy stand a minute of silence.
«Memorial»
human rights organization with the same name later tried to understand what is happening.She has been a detailed study of the area where the unfolding tragedy in Khojaly, to recover those events.Most of the residents of the city immediately after the start of fire tried to get out of the environment in two main directions:
1. Along the banks of the river that flows in the city.This road was later assured the Armenian representatives, it was decided to provide residents departing for free (but the statistics shows that the "free corridor" as such was not, people have to save their lives, and in this way).
2. Through the northern tip of the settlement, there was a comfortable retreat to the forest where many, going to hide from the troubles.This way used the minority.
According to the latest bulletins, statistics counting the dead is not accurate, real numbers, unfortunately, many times higher.Armenian representatives have refused to provide their information and generally at least some way to comment on the situation.
According to human rights organization "Memorial", those who took advantage of the first Waste by the river, were mercilessly shelled.According to Armenian representatives, it was only by virtue of the fact that people were armed.It is fair to note that among the retreating armed men were in fact.This defense of the city garrison.But bombard them also absolutely inhumane, they are, according to witnesses, the aggression does not show, Armenians fell and the civilian population that wanted only one thing: to quickly hide from the invaders.
also "Memorial" tried to calculate how many people froze to death in the cold winter night.Many people rushed from their homes, dressed in a hurry, what was possible.Escapes because, abandoning everything, wanting only to save herself and her children.
There were many people who had been captured.Later, they will return home, but many people - the lost health and mental disorders.The prisoner appeared mostly women and children.Returning later told that many prisoners were shot.This event is not otherwise called as the Khojaly tragedy.
From the event ...
Just two days later, using two helicopters, Russian and Azerbaijani reporters were able to get to the area.Their articles have touched the soul of a generation.The most recent experiences, filled with horror and lack of understanding, and shared with the world, these brave people.Their helicopters also came under fire, managed to make this terrible battlefield only four bodies.
A bird's-eye could see, all the enormity of the tragedy in the yellowed grass, covered with a thin layer of snow, very often lay the bodies of dead people.There were so many, and in this mass here and there were the bodies of women, children and the elderly.What hurt these people?Nothing bad they did not.Yes, and in fact tried to flee to the Azerbaijani border, as if in surrender, showing no aggression.
Khojaly tragedy.Politics and Society
worldwide in the newspapers wrote about the Khojaly massacre.A different way this event is not called, the defenseless, and no innocent people were not only shot and brutally murdered.This crime against the person, a true genocide.Coming then to the place, the Western media shared their feelings about what happened on all channels.
A Russian newspaper "Izvestia" in a very terrible details were described Khojaly tragedy and its aftermath.As human beings, who volunteered to become a hostage exchanged for the dead bodies.But it was a sight!The relatives received the bodies with severed body parts with the removed skin, no eyes, and so on. D.
International Assessment
UN, Council of Europe and the OSCE, with the utmost conviction reacted to what happened, acknowledging the acts of the Armenian side of crimes against humanity.Many reports sounded the word "genocide."The leaders of these organizations appealed through the media to the families of the victims of condolences.
But most importantly, that even after so many years, this tragedy is not forgotten.Day of Memory and a minute of silence remind all residents of what was once their compatriots were victims of war.Anniversary of Khojaly tragedy was held not long ago, and again in tears Azerbaijanis remembered that terrible February.And not only they, the whole world grieves equally with citizens of Azerbaijan.
Khojaly tragedy - the tragedy of the twentieth century, which for a long time do not forget the descendants of the victims.
