Witness of Meshali massacre: 'They killed 5 members of our family, Khachatryan took my brother hostage'

"Armenians brutally killed five members of our family in the village of Meshali, Azerbaijan's Khojaly district, on December 22, 1991," Zamina Aliyeva, a witness of the Meshali massacre, said in an interview with Report's Western bureau.

According to her, three members of the family were burned alive by the Armenians.

“Five out of nine members of our family, father, mother, two sisters and a brother, were brutally murdered by Armenians. They burned my 53-year-old father, 45-year-old mother and 17-year-old sister alive, killed my fifteen-year-old sister by shooting her in the heart and then fired 7-8 bullets at her lifeless body.

My brother was a police officer. He fell victim to a sniper's bullet. The younger brother, Barat, was wounded and taken hostage by Vagif Khachatryan, who tied his hands and put him in the cargo compartment of the car. On the way, he jumped out of the car with his hands tied. Luckily, he managed to escape," she said.

Aliyeva notes that she was very happy to learn about the arrest of war criminal Vagif Khachatryan, who killed 25 Azerbaijani civilians.

"I was very happy when I learned from the press that Vagif Khachatryan had been detained. The capture and prosecution of those involved in the bloodshed of our civilians in Meshali is a consolation for us. We believe that other criminals will also be duly punished," she added.

War criminal Vagif Khachatryan was detained at the Lachin border checkpoint and brought to the investigation.