Witnesses: Vagif Khachatryan - one of organizers of genocide in Meshali

Vagif Khachatryan is one of the organizers of the genocide committed against the residents of Meshali, Valiaddin Salmanov, who at one time carried food to the village of Meshali, said in an interview with Report.

Salmanov said that together with Khachatryan he worked at the car depot in Khankandi: “Together with Vagif we worked at the car depot No. 2717, located in Khankandi. We were truck drivers. He started working there before me. Vagif Khachatryan later became the driver of Maxim Mirzoyan, the car depot director.

They did not allow us to take food to our village. They blocked our way in the village of Badara. Vagif Khachatryan personally feuded with us.”

According to Salmanov, at that time the Armenians were blocking the entrance and the exit from the village: “We, together with the district police officers, were taking flour and other food products to the village. Later, this was also not allowed. They made the situation even more complicated. A few days before the attack on the village, Vagif Khachatryan drove a GAZ-53 truck around the village of Meshali and recorded the coordinates. He was clarifying the ways of attack. He was one of those who planned the crime against the residents of the village of Meshali. I must also say that the conditions for this attack were created by the Russian military, who served there at that time. Two of these servicemen told our soldiers who were on duty in Meshali that the Armenians would attack us. That is, they knew about this attack, but did not prevent it. Just the other way round, they armed Armenian bandits and fought on their side. I was in Khojaly the day the Armenians attacked Meshali, and then I learned about this tragedy. Vagif Khachatryan and his associates will be brought to account.”

Ziyaddin Salmanov, the brother of Valiaddin Salmanov, who once served as a policeman in the village, said that the Armenians repeatedly shelled his village: “We knew that danger could arise at any moment. Therefore, a volunteer self-defense battalion of the village of Meshali was created. I also fought in this battalion. The armed detachment that attacked the village of Meshali was led by headmaster of the Badara village school, Benik Gasparyan, Armanik, Ilya and Vagif Khachatryans. All of them had a hand in the atrocities committed in Meshali.”

He said that the Armenians planned to attack Meshali after they completely surrounded the village: "Most of the villagers managed to leave the village. On the one hand, we were fighting the enemy, and on the other hand, we were trying to save civilians. But, unfortunately, we couldn't protect everyone. We were both outnumbered and poorly armed. They attacked the village in a crowd."

The witness stressed that Armenian bandits brutally killed civilians in Meshali: “They killed an old man named Ganimat by emptying the entire machine gun magazine into his head. An elderly woman with long hair named Goncha was burned alive. When we got there, we saw that the woman was completely burned. Vagif Khachatryan tied the hands of two teenagers and an elderly woman, placed them in the cargo compartment of the car and took them away as hostages. One of them was the brother of a martyr who fought with me. Later we learned that though he was injured and his hands were tied, he was able to get out of the car and escape. The detention and involvement of Vagif Khachatryan in the investigation is a consolation for us. Those who committed a massacre of civilians in Meshali deserve the most severe punishment."

Vagif Khachatryan, as part of the Armenian military formations, committed a massacre of Azerbaijanis in the village of Meshali in the Khojaly district on December 22, 1991.

As a result of the massacre, 25 Azerbaijanis were killed, 14 wounded, and 358 Azerbaijanis became refugees. A decision was made to bring Khachatryan Vagif Cherkezovich to justice under articles 103 (genocide) and 107 (deportation or forced resettlement of the population) of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The court chose preventive measure in the form of arrest against him, and it was within the framework of this criminal case that on July 29, he was detained by the servicemen of the State Border Service at the Lachin border checkpoint of the Azerbaijani-Armenian state border while trying to travel to Armenia for treatment through the mediation of the International Committee of the Red Cross.