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ARMENIAN EMBASSY IN US COUNTERS AZERI LIES
[ Part 2.2: "Attached Text" ]
Monday, March 3rd, 2014
The Armenian Embassy in Washington, DC.
WASHINGTON-The Armenian embassy in Washington, DC, issued a statement
on Monday calling attention to Azerbaijani efforts to spread
misinformation about the Khojaly events that took place during the
Kharabakh War, voicing concern that this propaganda campaign attempts
to divert attention away from Baku’s responsibility over the
numerous pogroms and massacres that led to the Karabakh War. The full
statement is below.
***
Azerbaijani lobbying and propaganda continues to mislead the
international community and the Azerbaijani people by falsifying the
history of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the facts surrounding
the Khojaly events in particular.
By distorting the Khojaly events, the Azerbaijani regime attempts to
escape responsibility for the Armenian massacres in Sumgait (February,
1988), Kirovabad (November, 1988), Baku (January, 1990), Maragha
(April 1992) and against its own population in Khojaly.
Azerbaijan strives to portray itself as a victim, attempting to
thereby prepare a moral ground both domestically and internationally
to unleash another war against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijan continues to reject international appeals, including
from the European Court of Human Rights, to openly debate the events
in Khojaly. In that regard one can only ask why all those who have
expressed points of views differing from Baku’s official version
of the events have been either killed, like journalist Mustafaev,
or imprisoned like journalist Fatullayev, or politically persecuted
like Ayaz Mutalibov, the first president of Azerbaijan.
In reality, the village of Khojaly was one of the Azerbaijani
army’s strongholds in the heart of Nagorno-Karabakh which
for many months, as Human Rights Watch put it, “pounded the
capital of Nagorno Karabakh, Stepanakert, and other Armenian towns
and villages with shells and grenades. The indiscriminate shelling
and sniper shooting killed or maimed hundreds of civilians, destroyed
homes, hospitals and other objects that are not legitimate military
targets, and generally terrorized the civilian population.”
In this regard, suppressing the Azerbaijani army’s fire had
become a matter of survival for the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.
As Azerbaijani journalist Eynulla Fatullayev stated, “And even
several days prior to the attack, the Armenians had been continuously
warning the population about the planned operation through loudspeakers
and suggesting that the civilians abandon the town and escape from
the encirclement through a humanitarian corridor.
According to Khojaly refugees’ own words, they had used this
corridor and, indeed, the Armenian soldiers positioned behind the
corridor had not opened fire on them.”
However, Fatullayev continues, “… part of the
Khojaly inhabitants had been fired upon by our own [Azerbaijani
troops]… Whether it was done intentionally or not is to be
determined by investigators … [They were killed] not by [some]
mysterious [shooters], but by provocateurs from the National Front
of Azerbaijan’s battalions … [The corpses] had been
mutilated by our own …”
Ayaz Mutalibov, then the president of Azerbaijan, blamed his political
opponents for the killings in Khojaly. He stated in an interview with
Russia’s Nezavisimaya Gazetta in 1992 that “…the
corridor, by which people could escape, had nonetheless been left by
the Armenians. So, why did they have to open fire? Especially in the
area around Aghdam, where there was sufficient force at that time
to get help to the people. As the Khojaly inhabitants, who narrowly
escaped, say, it was all organized in order to have grounds for my
resignation. Some forces functioned for the effort to discredit the
president.”
The fact that Khojaly inhabitants fell victim to fierce domestic
political fighting for power in Azerbaijan was confirmed also by then
Chairman of Azerbaijan’s Supreme Council Karayev, his successor
Mamedov, Azerbaijani Human Rights Activist Yunusov, and others.
According to a 1992 report by the Azeri newspaper Bilik-Dunyasi
Agency, Heydar Aliyev, then a presidential hopeful in Azerbaijan,
stated, “…the bloodshed will profit us. We should not
interfere in the course of events.”
Mr. Fatullayev, the Chief Editor of the Azerbaijani newspaper Realny
Azerbaijan spent many years in prison for alleged defamation of the
inhabitants of Khojaly. He appealed to the European court of Human
Rights, which ruled that the Azerbaijani government shall immediately
release Fatullayev. He was eventually released in 2011 and shortly
after confirmed to Radio Liberty that he has not changed his views
on the Khojaly events and that he held “Azerbaijani fighters,
not Armenians, responsible for the 1992 killings” of Khojaly
inhabitants.
Baku’s aggressive rhetoric and distortion of history, backed by
the acquisition of billions of dollars of offensive weaponry, bears
a serious threat to the security and stability of the whole region
and should therefore be adequately countered by the international
community.
Embassy of the Republic of Armenia to the United States of America
http://asbarez.com/120136/armenian-embassy-in-us-counters-azeri-lies/
[ Part 2.2: "Attached Text" ]
Monday, March 3rd, 2014
The Armenian Embassy in Washington, DC.
WASHINGTON-The Armenian embassy in Washington, DC, issued a statement
on Monday calling attention to Azerbaijani efforts to spread
misinformation about the Khojaly events that took place during the
Kharabakh War, voicing concern that this propaganda campaign attempts
to divert attention away from Baku’s responsibility over the
numerous pogroms and massacres that led to the Karabakh War. The full
statement is below.
***
Azerbaijani lobbying and propaganda continues to mislead the
international community and the Azerbaijani people by falsifying the
history of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the facts surrounding
the Khojaly events in particular.
By distorting the Khojaly events, the Azerbaijani regime attempts to
escape responsibility for the Armenian massacres in Sumgait (February,
1988), Kirovabad (November, 1988), Baku (January, 1990), Maragha
(April 1992) and against its own population in Khojaly.
Azerbaijan strives to portray itself as a victim, attempting to
thereby prepare a moral ground both domestically and internationally
to unleash another war against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijan continues to reject international appeals, including
from the European Court of Human Rights, to openly debate the events
in Khojaly. In that regard one can only ask why all those who have
expressed points of views differing from Baku’s official version
of the events have been either killed, like journalist Mustafaev,
or imprisoned like journalist Fatullayev, or politically persecuted
like Ayaz Mutalibov, the first president of Azerbaijan.
In reality, the village of Khojaly was one of the Azerbaijani
army’s strongholds in the heart of Nagorno-Karabakh which
for many months, as Human Rights Watch put it, “pounded the
capital of Nagorno Karabakh, Stepanakert, and other Armenian towns
and villages with shells and grenades. The indiscriminate shelling
and sniper shooting killed or maimed hundreds of civilians, destroyed
homes, hospitals and other objects that are not legitimate military
targets, and generally terrorized the civilian population.”
In this regard, suppressing the Azerbaijani army’s fire had
become a matter of survival for the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.
As Azerbaijani journalist Eynulla Fatullayev stated, “And even
several days prior to the attack, the Armenians had been continuously
warning the population about the planned operation through loudspeakers
and suggesting that the civilians abandon the town and escape from
the encirclement through a humanitarian corridor.
According to Khojaly refugees’ own words, they had used this
corridor and, indeed, the Armenian soldiers positioned behind the
corridor had not opened fire on them.”
However, Fatullayev continues, “… part of the
Khojaly inhabitants had been fired upon by our own [Azerbaijani
troops]… Whether it was done intentionally or not is to be
determined by investigators … [They were killed] not by [some]
mysterious [shooters], but by provocateurs from the National Front
of Azerbaijan’s battalions … [The corpses] had been
mutilated by our own …”
Ayaz Mutalibov, then the president of Azerbaijan, blamed his political
opponents for the killings in Khojaly. He stated in an interview with
Russia’s Nezavisimaya Gazetta in 1992 that “…the
corridor, by which people could escape, had nonetheless been left by
the Armenians. So, why did they have to open fire? Especially in the
area around Aghdam, where there was sufficient force at that time
to get help to the people. As the Khojaly inhabitants, who narrowly
escaped, say, it was all organized in order to have grounds for my
resignation. Some forces functioned for the effort to discredit the
president.”
The fact that Khojaly inhabitants fell victim to fierce domestic
political fighting for power in Azerbaijan was confirmed also by then
Chairman of Azerbaijan’s Supreme Council Karayev, his successor
Mamedov, Azerbaijani Human Rights Activist Yunusov, and others.
According to a 1992 report by the Azeri newspaper Bilik-Dunyasi
Agency, Heydar Aliyev, then a presidential hopeful in Azerbaijan,
stated, “…the bloodshed will profit us. We should not
interfere in the course of events.”
Mr. Fatullayev, the Chief Editor of the Azerbaijani newspaper Realny
Azerbaijan spent many years in prison for alleged defamation of the
inhabitants of Khojaly. He appealed to the European court of Human
Rights, which ruled that the Azerbaijani government shall immediately
release Fatullayev. He was eventually released in 2011 and shortly
after confirmed to Radio Liberty that he has not changed his views
on the Khojaly events and that he held “Azerbaijani fighters,
not Armenians, responsible for the 1992 killings” of Khojaly
inhabitants.
Baku’s aggressive rhetoric and distortion of history, backed by
the acquisition of billions of dollars of offensive weaponry, bears
a serious threat to the security and stability of the whole region
and should therefore be adequately countered by the international
community.
Embassy of the Republic of Armenia to the United States of America
http://asbarez.com/120136/armenian-embassy-in-us-counters-azeri-lies/