Consulate General of Azerbaijan

Los Angeles

Armenia's War Crime in Khojaly: 18 Years Later

February 26, 2010

Contact: Elman Abdullayev

Eighteen years ago on this date the people of Azerbaijan witnessed what the Human Rights Watch later called the largest massacre to date in the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Armenian soldiers backed by Russia's 366th motorized infantry regiment attacked the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly brutally murdering over 600 civilians, including women and children. Hundreds more were wounded; some are still missing.

As the Western media documented details of the gruesome massacre such as scalping and other forms of mutilation, the Armenian soldiers institutionalized the pattern of extermination and ethnic cleansing of the Azerbaijani civilian population.

That pattern has since become an integral part of the Armenian policy in the region. Serzh Sarkisian, the Armenian President-Elect as of last week, stated: “before Khojali, the Azerbaijanis thought that they were joking with us, they thought that the Armenians were people who could not raise their hand against the civilian population. We were able to break that [stereotype].” (Thomas De Waal. Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War, NYU Press, 2004).

The continuous Armenian occupation of 20% of Azerbaijan's internationally-recognized territory and the lingering displacement of a million Azerbaijani civilians illustrates both the vision and the character of Armenia's current leaders.

Recognition of the Khojaly massacre as a crime against humanity is a debt owed to the memory of those perished and a necessity for building long-term peace for the Azerbaijanis and Armenians alike.

This year, the Azerbaijani-American community along with millions of Azerbaijanis and friends of Azerbaijan around the world commemorated the memory of those perished in Khojaly. Events took place in New York, Houston, Washington, DC, Berkeley, CA, Los Angeles and Salt Lake City, UT and well as in neighboring Canada and Mexico.
Several members of US Congress joined their Azerbaijani-American constituents by issuing Khojaly remembrance statements.

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