Utro.Ru: Khojaly massacre: 30 years have passed since the Azerbaijani people's tragedy  

Utro.ru online publication has published an article on the 30th anniversary of the Khojaly genocide, Report informs.

The article reads:

"There are many tragic pages in the history of the post-Soviet space about the terrible cruelty committed by one nation against another. The Khojaly massacre is one of them. February 26 marks the 30th anniversary of the bloody events of the First Karabakh War. Hundreds of Khojaly residents, including women and children, were killed, injured or missing during the incident that took place in 1992.

"The USSR had just collapsed, and there were chaos and confusion in the territory, which turned into a massacre of peoples in some regions. During this period, the situation in the whole Caucasus flared up: in 1988, the Karabakh war began due to Armenia's territorial claims to Azerbaijan.

"On the night of February 25-26, 1992, the Armenian military occupied the city of Khojaly, inhabited by Azerbaijanis. It was completely under siege. Telephone communication electricity, heat and water were cut off. The shooting started at 11:00 pm, the infantry entered the city at 1:00 am, and the defenders' resistance was suppressed at 7:00 am.

"Armenian sources claimed that city residents were allegedly warned about the impending attack but that the evacuation of civilians did not take place. According to human rights activists, no statement about the eviction of people can justify the massacre of civilians who refused to leave their homes and apartments at the occupiers' request.

"The fact of the massacre in Khojaly was reflected in the report of international organizations (HRW, Memorial, etc.) and recognized by many parliaments around the world. Writers such as Thomas de Waal ("Black Garden") and Yuri Romanov described the horrors of this tragedy in their books.

"According to human rights activists, during the four days after the collapse of the city, about 200 bodies were brought to neighbouring Aghdam alone, including 13 children and 51 women. Most of them were shot, and some were killed by blunt force trauma. In addition, the bodies of the dead were insulted. Facts of scalping were recorded. A girl only had the head.

"The Khojaly tragedy was remembered with terrible numbers: 613 people, including those who froze at winter night (63 children, 106 women, 70 older people) and 8 families were completely destroyed. Among the 487 wounded are 76 children, and another 150 are missing. 5,379 people were forced to leave their homes.

"So far, no one in Armenia has been convicted of killing civilians. In addition, the fact of the massacre is not mentioned, and sometimes the country's leadership even justifies the incident. "