"Vagif Khachaturyan, a participant in the bloody massacre in Meshali, threatened to kill us if we did not leave the village," Vali Valiyev, a resident of the Meshali village of the Khojaly district, who currently lives in Goranboy with his family, told Report's Western bureau.
According to him, the hatred of Khachaturyan and his family members towards Azerbaijanis by nationality could be felt even before the events in Meshali.
The villager shared his memories of the bloody events:
“On the morning of December 22, 1991, Alyosha (he doesn’t remember his last name - ed.) and Vagif Khachaturyan drove into the village in a GAZ-53 truck loaded with weapons, distributed weapons to the Armenians who had gathered there and shelled the civilians of the village. During the shelling, Vagif, Shurik, Narik and Armaris shouted: "Get out of the village, otherwise we will kill you."
Valiyev notes that he knew the Armenians, who gathered there, since they were residents of the village of Badara, neighboring Meshali: "The GAZ-53 driver Alyosha and other Armenians set up a post between our villages and did not let us pass. Therefore, we had to walk six kilometers bypassing the village of Badara. They could not hide their hatred for us long before the war. Vagif Khachaturyan's brother was a bus driver in Khankandi, he did not allow Azerbaijanis to get on the bus, they always traveled standing, only Armenians could sit there.
The villager emphasized that at that time Khachaturyan and others mercilessly killed old people, young people, children and women in the middle of the street:
"Residents of the village of Kosalar, as well as soldiers, came to our aid. We pushed the enemy back. Russian soldiers came to their aid, they gave the Armenians weapons. After the occupation of Khojaly, we were forced to flee the village. I traveled there to take out the corpses of Azerbaijanis killed during the Khojaly genocide. We were given civilian clothes to carry out the corpses, and there I once again became convinced of the cruelty of the Armenians."
I would like to thank our government, our soldiers and law enforcement officers for the detention of Khachaturyan, who was involved in the massacre in Meshali. I am sure all those guilty of killing civilians will be punished," Vali Valiyev added.