Khojali (Xocalı) massacre happened in 1992 when I was 16...I remember shock of ordinary people in Baku about how cruel people could be and how close, geographically, that cruelty was to Baku (although it would be enough to remember Black January of 1990)...
Khojali is/was a small town in Daglig Garabag (Nagorno Karabag) area of Azerbaijan that is currently occupied. This small little known town surrounded by mountains became an obstacle on occupant army's way and without thinking twice the army decided to "walk over" the population of the village thus clearing the obstacle i.e. village...I assume "strategy" was also to show to enemy i.e. Azerbaijan how determined the occupant can be etc etc...
Some people that survived came to Baku...That year my father and his team were helping out with food to 27 families that found refuge in one of the hostels in Baku...Dad was not talking about this with us children but I remember him coming home gloomy and tired after another visit to hostel and talking with mom in the kitchen...about destroyed lives, children that are left without parents, horror stories that he was hearing from people that made it...
17 years have passed...those children must have grown up by now...those kind of children/people exist in every war zone, people that have to pay the price with their lives, with lives of their children...people that become toys in hands of politicians and/or people full of endless hatred...
Each year on February 25 and 26 Azerbaijani people remember the victims and hostilities that took place in Khojali. Allah rəhmət eləsin...May they rest in peace…
Khojali is/was a small town in Daglig Garabag (Nagorno Karabag) area of Azerbaijan that is currently occupied. This small little known town surrounded by mountains became an obstacle on occupant army's way and without thinking twice the army decided to "walk over" the population of the village thus clearing the obstacle i.e. village...I assume "strategy" was also to show to enemy i.e. Azerbaijan how determined the occupant can be etc etc...
Some people that survived came to Baku...That year my father and his team were helping out with food to 27 families that found refuge in one of the hostels in Baku...Dad was not talking about this with us children but I remember him coming home gloomy and tired after another visit to hostel and talking with mom in the kitchen...about destroyed lives, children that are left without parents, horror stories that he was hearing from people that made it...
17 years have passed...those children must have grown up by now...those kind of children/people exist in every war zone, people that have to pay the price with their lives, with lives of their children...people that become toys in hands of politicians and/or people full of endless hatred...
Each year on February 25 and 26 Azerbaijani people remember the victims and hostilities that took place in Khojali. Allah rəhmət eləsin...May they rest in peace…
12 comments:
what a powerful story to tell. thanks for sharing
And conviniently you forget that your army did did the same things against Armenians. Ever heard of the village of Maraghar?
Andreas B!
Is there anything so cruel like war in this world? No!!!
I think we all agree with it!
There is one implacable fact - 1/5 of Azerbaijan's territory is occupied! By who?
Why there was not anyone tried for his territorial ambitions and unleashing the war?!
Who will answer now to Armenian and Azerbaijan mothers?
I'm Azeri and my name is Sevinje.
I hope it's not a crime?
I live in Moscow. I have friends and acquaintances of different nations including yours...
But if everyone of us is more just to each other this world will be more peaceful.
Good luck to everyone!
(I don't have any blogs so I wrore it as Anonymous - if there is such a question)
Andreas,
Ayten didn't say they didn't not that she has to say they did either. In fact, in a number of posts she decries all attacks on innocent civilians.
Meanwhile, year after year Armenians engage in a depressing denial of what happened in Khodjali.
Indeed, the way she has marked the anniversary of Khodjali is sensitive and without resorting to propaganda, something few Armenian bloggers can do.
Basically, she is remembering the dead and she has every right to. However, I find your comment quite aggressive when we should be making sure such events never take place again.
Ayten, moving post and one that truly commemorated the victims of Khodjali without resorting to words of hate and calls for similar revenge.
Shame on Aliev and Mutalibov who was engaged in this massacres
Pigh!
Every person who respect himself has to be responsible for his own words. So be polite here with us and explain your words - how just Aliev or Mutalibov did this massacres?
But if you have only hostility - then there is no need in it.
Be respectful to someone's grief - we are all here mothers, daughters, sons, brothers, fathers...
I'm the same Sevinje from the comment above.
Sevinij
http://realarmenia.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/azerbaijan-people-withness-on-khojaly-events/
Pigh,
What to say?
is this a truth or not? how to know it? There is information from every side - yours from Armenian source and another one from the opposite.
what to do with it? don't know. it's difficult to BELIEVE in information from this site (for me personally) cause of having the occupied territory and more than 1 mln refugees in Azerbaijan.
As I see now you are serious person and you are taking this argumentation with dignity. I appreciate it.
I think on this stage all we can do - to let the Khojaly victims to rest in peace and not to loathe each other. Try to live.
Best wishes to everyone.
Sevinje.
Ayten, such a moving post. I still remember that day too...May those innocent people live in peace.
For me it's not even a question about Armenian responsibility for the massacre. Indeed, Karabakh Armenians have privately told me so. Meanwhile:
At the same time, some Armenian sources admitted the guilt of the Armenian side. According to Markar Melkonian, the brother of the Armenian military leader Monte Melkonian, “Khojaly had been a strategic goal, but it had also been an act of revenge.” The date of the massacre in Khojaly had a special significance: it was the run-up to the fourth anniversary of the anti-Armenian pogrom in the city of Sumgait. Melkonian particularly mentions the role of the fighters of two Armenian military detachments called the Arabo and Aramo, who stabbed to death many Azeri civilians.[13]
According to Serge Sarkisian, long-time Defense Minister and Chairman of Security Council of Armenia who is the current president of Armenia, “A lot was exaggerated” in the casualties, and the fleeing Azerbaijanis had put up armed resistance. At the same time he stated: “Before Khojali, the Azerbaijanis thought that they were joking with us, they thought that the Armenians were people who could not raise their hand against the civilian population. We were able to break that [stereotype]. And that’s what happened. And we should also take into account that amongst those boys were people who had fled from Baku and Sumgait”.[6]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khojaly_Massacre
I say again, a moving and thoughtful post to actually remember the victims and not to exploit them.
We should all be humbled and vow never to let such events happen again.
Onnik
If you do not possess all information do not please refer to such "reliable sources" as "someone told you".
Just three days before all cows and ships were replaced from Khojaly. tEN DAYS BEFORE ALL INHABITANTS WERE WARNED ABOUT ARMENIAN MILITARY OPERATION>
rEAD ONCE MORE mUTALIBOV INTERVIEW BEFORE MAKING SUCH WRONG CLAIMS
Sevinje.
I agree with you.
Let's do not make propaganda on the bodies of killed people.\
let the Khojaly, SUmgait, Baku, Maragha victims to rest in peace
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