Azernews.Az

Friday March 29 2024

Deserted houses of Garadaghli

19 February 2016 13:06 (UTC+04:00)
Deserted houses of Garadaghli

By Nazrin Gadimova

Looking at the Nagorno-Karabakh images taken from outer space one gets stuck in the great number of forests covering this land.

Closer eye at pictures makes available the images of certain villages. These are not ordinary villages and the scene is terrifying. From space, the destroyed houses without roofs look like lifeless skeletons.

Such villages are numerous in Nagorno-Karabakh, an ancient and internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijani land which Armenia keeps under occupation despite international calls to withdraw.

These areas look like ghosts still remembering the bloody and devastating war, that killed over 20,000 Azerbaijanis.

Garadaghli is one of these villages located in the Khohavend region.

Twenty-four years ago, on February 17, 1992, the Armenian armed forces captured Garadaghli. This large village was a great obstacle for the Armenian invaders to unite its front lines and to cut off Nagorno-Karabakh from the rest of Azerbaijan. Moreover, an important road connecting Khankendi and Khojavend passed through Garadaghli.

The village was completely destroyed during the armed operations. Armenian military murdered in brutal ways, tortured and took hostages innocent unarmed people, including women and children here. They killed nearly 80 of 117 captivated villagers, while six went missing.

After the capture, the Armenian gangs looted and destroyed the village. The Armenian armed forces committed a war crime and a brutal genocide against the Garadaghli residents.

At the moment, those villagers who managed to survive the Garadaghli tragedy, live a refugee life in different parts of Azerbaijan.

Destroyed, roofless, gloomy houses are waiting for their true owners to return back to their lands. Then the houses will get a roof and porch, there will be fruit trees, and children will run around in the yard.

But now the houses are empty and sinister shadows fall to the ground through the knocked-out windows...

--

Nazrin Gadimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @NazrinGadimova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

Loading...
Latest See more