For making more clear these historical facts, it can be said that the essence of the problem is the arming the migrated Armenians and encouraging them to make ethnic cleansing. Armenian`s grabbing the places they became to live as minority is the “natural” result of these purposes.
All racist discourses positioned at the center of expansionist policies are similar to each other. Namely, we can say that the dream of “Greater Armenia” in line with the Armenian racist discourses is identical with the racist discourses of Nazi Germany.
For this reason, we can describe the Armenian racist discourses, which manifest as occupation and ethnic cleansing, as the Armenian Lebensraum.
On February 26, 1992, in the city of Khojaly of the Republic of Azerbaijan, 613 innocent civilians, including 106 women, 63 children, 70 elderly people, were brutally murdered by Armenian armed forces. 1,275 civilians were taken hostage and 150 are missing to this day.
487 people were disabled and 76 of them were children. 8 families were completely destroyed. 25 children lost both parents, 130 children lost one parent. 56 of the murdered people were burned alive.
All this happened before the eyes of the “modern” world. There is no need for a special scientific research to learn all these recent historical facts.
The alive witnesses of the massacre, the press and media evidences, the confessional statements of the perpetrators reveal everything clearly.
The important thing to know is that the Khojaly Genocide was not the first massacre committed by Armenian nationalists, nor was it the last. State terror, ethnic cleansing and occupation were the most important "necessary steps" for the realization of the Armenian Lebensraum.
In fact, the whole world saw that Armenia did not hesitate to massacre Azerbaijani civilians in 2020, during the 44-Day Patriotic War, when the Azerbaijani Armed Forces ended the occupation of Armenia.
Armenia attacked civilian settlements of Azerbaijan, located far from the war zone, with rockets, causing the death of more than 100 innocent civilians. These were just a few examples of Armenian state terrorism.
In the city of Khojaly, there was no heavy military technology and military units belonging to Azerbaijan.
There were only lightly armed civilian defence groups for their own defence.
But Armenian armed forces attacked Khojaly with heavy motorized military technologies and carried out the brutal massacre. Here we clearly see the disproportionate use of force and the aim of ethnic cleansing.
In this context, this confessional statement of Serzh Sargsyan, who served as the President of Armenia between 2008-2018 and took part in the Khojaly massacre in 1992, is of great importance: “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]. And that’s what happened... I have absolutely no regrets, since such upheavals are necessary, even if thousands have to die” (Thomas de Waal, Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War, New York and London, 2003, p. 172)
Another book with similar murder confessions belongs to Markar Melkonian, brother of international terrorist Monte Melkonian, who took part in the Khojaly massacre. (Markar Melkonian, My Brother’s Road: An American’s Fateful Journey to Armenia, London and New York, 2005, pp. 213-214).
In its judgment of 22 April 2010, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) determined the massacre of the Azerbaijani civilian population of the Khojaly city to be “acts of particular gravity which may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity”.
As a result of the official investigation in Azerbaijan, the following elements of the crime of genocide were identified with respect to the attacks on the civilian population in Khojaly in accordance with international law, in particular the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide: the Actus Reus consisting of killing and causing serious bodily or mental harm; the existence of a protected group being targeted by the authors of criminal conduct; and the specific genocidal intent to annihilate, in whole or in part, a group distinguished on racial, ethnic, national or religious grounds.
According to the findings of the investigation, the following requirements are met for the purpose of sustaining charges of genocide with regard to crimes committed in Khojaly: clear and convincing proof of intent to destroy a group in whole or in part; the fact that the destruction that took place in Khojaly was “significant” enough to affect the defined group as a whole; and the crime committed within a specific geographic locality.
In the light of these facts, the following important question arises: Why can the high-ranking Armenian political and military officials who committed the Khojaly massacre continue their lives freely and comfortably even though they are known and confess their murders without hesitation?!
The Khojaly massacre has been recognized in the parliaments of many countries of the world and those responsible for this murder have been condemned. But this is not enough for justice to be served.
Because all political and military officials, especially Armenia's 2nd President Robert Kocharyan and 3rd President Serzh Sargsyan, who carried out the blatant murder, are still laughing contemptuously at justice.
It is very important that these and similar crimes against humanity are not forgotten and that those who perpetrate these crimes receive the punishment they deserve.
Because otherwise, the perpetrators of the murder may be encouraged. This means new murders. World civilization does not deserve this shame...
* Dr Elsevar Salmanov is the Consul-First Secretary of the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan
** The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of Astro AWANI.
