Marking the 32nd Anniversary of Khojaly (Azerbaijan) Genocide of 1992.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, in Oct. 1991, Khojaly, a district located in the mountainous Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, home to some 7,000 people, was completely surrounded by Armenia’s armed forces. On the night of Feb. 25-26, following massive artillery bombardment, Armenia’s military together with former USSR’s 366th Motorized Infantry Regiment occupied Khojaly.

According to the Justice for Khojaly, of 7,000 Khojaly residents, 5,379 were deported and 613 people, including 63 children, 106 women and 70 elderly citizens, were murdered by the Armenian occupation forces. Besides, 1,275 residents were taken hostage and tortured, 487 were injured, while the fate of 150 captives, including 68 women and 26 children remains unknown. The actions of the Armenian armed forces tore families apart. Eight families were completely wiped out, 130 children lost one parent and 25 children lost both parents.

Today is 32^nd anniversary of Genocide of Khojaly by Arminian, yet, awaits the justice. International community have to bring the war criminals to justice and punish them for heinous crimes against humanity. People of Pakistan stands with Azerbaijani brothers and sisters and mark the day. Pray for the people who lost their lives and urge justice from the International community.

The main factor was the special hatred and political attacks on Azerbaijani Turks and Muslims in Western and Armenian society. It was witnessed the massacres committed by Armenian-Dashnak bandits against Azerbaijani Turks, and the support demonstrated to them by their patrons in the West in these crimes. Historical tragedies that started against Azerbaijani Turks in the twentieth century continue today. The Azerbaijani pogroms in 1905-1907, 1914-1916, 1918-1920, 1948-1953 and 1988 are vivid examples of Armenian fascism and cruelty.

The invasion policy of the Armenian state and their desire to create a new state first emerged among Armenians who lived in Turkiye and then spread to the South Caucasus. Throughout history, Armenians found patrons in Europe and America, relying on the Christian factor, and through these patrons, they continued their dirty occupation policy.

The genocide conceived by the Armenians can be called a plan of the West (France) to divide Turkiye. Even the French clergyman Tuchin expressed his opinion at a conference organized in the “L’Œuvre d’Orient” society in February 1916 and said: “It all started with a plan by Armenian revolutionaries to kill Muslims, [and] it is impossible to believe the rumors [about Turks] spread by Armenians.”

The Dashnaktsutyun Party, founded in Tbilisi in 1890, intended and intends to build political and economic dominance through uprisings and riots. The party’s order to its member’s states: “Shoot the Turk under any circumstances and anywhere.” The goal of the party is to create a great Armenia. After the Armenian intention to create a great Armenian state in Turkiye failed in the 19th century, the Armenians continued this policy against the Azerbaijani Turks in the South Caucasus.

At the first Garabagh War, which took place in 1991-1994, it was obvious that Armenians committed crimes against civilians with the help of their patrons. The Genocide committed by the Armenians against the inhabitants of Khojaly on the night of February 26, 1992, is a crime not only against the Azerbaijani Turks, but also against the entire humankind. During this Genocide, 2300 civilians were taken hostage and brutally killed. After this bloody genocide, in 1992, Russian writer Yuri Pompeyev published a documentary essay in St. Petersburg entitled “Garabagh in Blood” and fully explained and exposed the hypocrisy of Armenians in the essay.

According to international sources in the first Garabagh War, 16,000 Azerbaijani civilians were killed. A total of 800 people went missing in action. Every year February 26 is marked in Azerbaijan as the day of the Khojaly genocide.

Zori Balayan, a fictional hero of Armenia, wrote about his crimes in his books. In his book called Revival of Our Souls, he describes how he unskinned an Azerbaijani child (girl) and watched her die. It is contrary to the 1959 UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child. Calling an executioner like Zori Balayan (maniac) a hero of the nation is a manifestation of how Armenian mentality.

Three decades, after these atrocities, Azerbaijan regained its sovereignty through a 44-day war. Despite the end of the conflict, Armenia does not give up its evil intentions, and the Armenian lobby based in Europe and America propagates slander and aggressive policies against Azerbaijani Turks. This aggression is directed not only against the Turks but against all Muslims as well.

At present, the aggressive policy promoted by the Armenian lobby coincides with the interests of the West. We can see this in the speeches of the newly elected Dutch Prime Minister Geert Wilders. He calls Muslims scum on earth and promises to expel Muslims from the Netherlands from the moment he takes office. The newly elected Dutch PM from out of the blue was previously tried and then acquitted on charges of inciting hatred against Muslims. The reason for Wilders’ accusation was to compare Islam to fascism and the Koran to Adolf Hitler’s book Mein Kampf. The fact that Wilders was acquitted in court of the above charges is a reflection of how the judicial system works in Europe. No one can call this freedom of speech because these words insult separate religious and racial choices in a country governed under the slogan of democracy.

Undoubtedly, the policy pursued by Wilders can also be seen as the influence of the powerful Armenian lobby in Europe. It is also an indicator that the goals of the West and the Armenian lobby coincide. It should be noted that Europe’s “multiculturalist” policy violates the rights of Azerbaijani Turks and Muslims, and this will create serious problems in European society in the future.

Below, is referred to New York Times old article for readers to understand the historic facts more deeply and thoroughly:-

The New York Times Archives

See the article in its original context from March 3, 1992, Section A, Page 3Buy Reprints

About the Archive

This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.

Fresh evidence emerged today of a massacre of civilians by Armenian militants in Nagorno-Karabakh, a predominantly Armenian enclave of Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijani press agency Azeriform reported renewed Armenian missile fire on the Azerbaijani-populated town of Shusha on Sunday night. It said several people had been wounded in another attack, on the settlement of Venjali, early today.

The republic of Armenia reiterated denials that its militants had killed 1,000 people in the Azerbaijani-populated town of Khojaly last week and had massacred men, women and children fleeing the carnage across snow-covered mountain passes.

But dozens of bodies scattered over the area lent credence to Azerbaijani reports of a massacre. Scalping Reported

Azerbaijani officials and journalists who flew briefly to the region by helicopter brought back three dead children with the backs of their heads blown off. They said shooting by Armenians had prevented them from retrieving more bodies.

“Women and children had been scalped,” said Assad Faradzhev, an aide to Nagorno-Karabakh’s Azerbaijani Governor. “When we began to pick up bodies, they began firing at us.”

The Azerbaijani militia chief in Agdam, Rashid Mamedov, said: “The bodies are lying there like flocks of sheep. Even the fascists did nothing like this.”

Near Agdam on the outskirts of Nagorno-Karabakh, a Reuters photographer, Frederique Lengaigne, said she had seen two trucks filled with Azerbaijani bodies.

“In the first one I counted 35, and it looked as though there were almost as many in the second,” she said. “Some had their heads cut off, and many had been burned. They were all men, and a few had been wearing khaki uniforms.”

Ethnic violence and economic crisis threaten to tear apart the Commonwealth of Independent States, created by 11 former Soviet republics in December. The commonwealth has been powerless in the face of the ethnic hatred rekindled in the age-old dispute between Christian Armenia and Muslim Azerbaijan.

The 366th Motorized Infantry Regiment, the last frail buffer separating the two warring ethnic groups,started its withdrawal, the Itar-Tass press agency said. The two sides made no attempt to interfere, the news service said.

Four years of fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh have killed 1,500 to 2,000 people. The last week’s fighting has been the most savage yet.

The 366th Regiment, based in Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, has been caught at the center of fighting in which at least three of its soldiers were killed late last month.

Pak-Azari Brotherhood

Pakistan and Azerbaijan have very good and friendly relations. These relations are established on our past historical traditions. It is no coincidence that Pakistan is one of the first states to recognize the independence of Azerbaijan. And Pakistan is the only country who do not recognize Armenia. In the recent years, very good cooperation have been established in many dimensions, including Trade, Economy, Tourism, Culture, Defense, Agriculture, Education, etc., between two brotherly nations.

Senior leadership of two countries pay mutual visits and strengthen this bond further. Both nations support each other’s core interests and stand with each other on all critical moments. Both are struggling to promote peace, security, and developments of the whole region.

Economic Cooperation:

In autumn 1995, the two countries signed an agreement on cooperation in the field of trade and economy and a protocol on the establishment of a joint commission at the state level. The meetings of the commission mentioned above are held every 2 years in the capital cities of both countries.

• In 2005, a branch of the National Bank of Pakistan was opened in Baku.
• The XIII Summit of Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) took place on March 1, 2017, in Islamabad. The President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev also attended the Summit. At the meeting, the Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan – Mohammad Nawaz Sharif and the President of Azerbaijan – Ilham Aliyev came to a mutual agreement to import products of the military-industrial complex of Pakistan into Azerbaijan. Issues related to the defense industry and economy were also discussed.
• In November 2017, the Pakistani Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the city of Karachi announced the desire of entrepreneurs to make a contribution into a free economic zone (FEZ) in the Azerbaijani village of Alyat. The main attention will be paid to the development of the pharmaceutical field.
• Since late 2017, the IRP has been negotiating with Azerbaijan noting the importance of the “North-South” transport corridor for future. This corridor can become a link in the railway transport of Azerbaijan, Iran and the Russian Federation.
• The average bilateral trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Pakistan was US$7.3 million during the second half of 2018. However, both states have the intention to increase this number further in the next five years based on recently signed agreements. Due to Azerbaijan’s huge energy capacity (oil and gas) Pakistani side as an oil importing country considers Azerbaijan as an important trade partner. For achieving a further increase in trade, a special working group has been established between the Ministry of Economy of Azerbaijan and the Ministry of Trade of Pakistan on the development of bilateral investment cooperation. It is estimated that over the last decade, the Pakistani side has invested around US$4.2 million in the economy of Azerbaijan. Additionally, in the future, Pakistan could get upper hand in Azerbaijani domestic market by exporting sports goods, leather industry, pharmaceutical, energy, production of lightweight agriculture equipment. According to statistics, trade turnover from January to June 2018 amounted to US$5.82 million. Furthermore, there are approximately more than 250 companies realizing transactions worth $4.2 million between Azerbaijan and Pakistan. In 2018, the total trade turnover between the mentioned countries was calculated 36 percent more than last year’s statistics.
• According to the bilateral agreement between energy ministries of both Pakistan and Azerbaijan (dated February 2017), Azerbaijan will export the number of oil and gas products, including furnace oil, petrol, diesel, and liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Pakistan.
• During 2017, the total transactions between these two countries were estimated to be worth $7.34 million (which was 26.55 percent more compared to the same period of 2016). $5.7 million out of the total number was accounted for imports of Pakistani products by Azerbaijan according to the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan.
• The statistics of the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan indicate that the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Pakistan amounted to $8.34 million between January and September 2018. Compared to the same period of 2017, there was an overall 22.46 percent increase. In those transactions, the Pakistani side seemed to have a current account surplus while Azerbaijan had a deficit in that manner.
• The Pakistani government has also an agreement with Azerbaijan (on June 20, 2016) which aims to import electricity, crude and refined oil products, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Azerbaijan.

Author: Prof. Engr. Zamir Ahmed Awan, Founding Chair GSRRA, Sinologist, Diplomat, Editor, Analyst, Consultant, Advisor, and Non-Resident Fellow of CCG. (E-mail: awanzamir@yahoo.com).