Azerbaijani Consulate General in Los Angeles produces film about Khojaly genocide
By Vafa Ismayilova
Azerbaijan's Consulate General in Los Angeles has produced a short film dedicated to the Khojaly genocide of 1992, Azertag has reported.
The film mentions that on February 26, 1992, Armenian troops attacked Azerbaijan’s Khojaly town and brutally murdered 613 civilians, including children, women and the elderly.
Details of film about Khojaly
The film presents a quote from Armenia’s ex-president Serzh Sargsyan, who was then in command of Armenian forces in Khojaly, and who bragged about teaching Azerbaijanis a lesson with this horrific genocidal massacre: “Before Khojaly, 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.”
The film also quotes the book authored by Markar Melkonian, the brother of the California-born Armenian terrorist Monte Melkonian, describing the cruelty of Armenian soldiers at Khojaly: "The fighters unsheathed the knives... and began stabbing… Monte crunched over the grass where women and girls lay scattered like broken dolls."
It is noted in the flim that the Human Rights Watch described Khojaly as "the largest massacre in the conflict" between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The film highlights that in the early 1990s, Armenia invaded and ethnically cleansed 20 percent of Azerbaijan, forcibly displacing 800,000 Azerbaijanis from their ancestral lands. Stressing the fact that the UN Security Council condemned the invasion of Azerbaijan in 1993, the film shows the video of a UN Security Council statement read by Madeleine Albright, the then U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. In her capacity as the President of the Security Council, Albright demanded the “immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of occupying forces” from all occupied territories of Azerbaijan.
It is also mentioned that as of today 17 countries and over 20 U.S. states have condemned the Khojaly genocide.
The film states that in 2020, Azerbaijan liberated its lands from occupation and restored its territorial integrity. Similarly to Khojaly, during last fall’s war Armenia targeted civilians again, killing 100 Azerbaijani civilians, including 12 children, and wounding over 400. It concludes by noting that the perpetrators of both the Khojaly genocide and the latest war crimes are still at large.
The film has also been translated by Azerbaijan’s relevant embassies into several languages, including Albanian, Chinese, Farsi, German, Greek, Spanish, Turkish and others. It can be watched here: https://youtu.be/vDAvkTcafLc
U.S. TV program about Khojaly
Azertag said in a different report that a TV program dedicated to the Khojaly genocide was aired on February 23 as part of the show “The Contreras Report: International Edition” by the well-known American journalist Raoul Lowery Contreras.
Contreras has authored books titled “Murder in the Mountains: War Crime in Khojaly and the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict” and “The Armenian Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy”, both published in California. He also published many articles on Azerbaijan and the region.
In the program, the journalist states that in February 1992, Armenian troops attacked the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly and brutally killed 613 Azerbaijani civilians, including children, women and elderly. The author notes how the survivors of the Khojaly genocide were subjected to unimaginable torture by their Armenian captors.
Contreras underlines that Khojaly massacre is an act of genocide and a crime against humanity.
The author talks about the books written by Western journalists, which highlight what happened that night in Khojaly. Contreras also gives quotes from the book authored by the brother of Monte Melkonian, a California-born Armenian terrorist, who was in Khojaly during those fateful days, as well as Armenia’s former President Serzh Sargsyan’s interview, and stresses how Armenian leaders shamelessly admitted the atrocities committed by Armenia in Khojaly.
Contreras notes that perpetrators of Khojaly genocide have not been prosecuted to this date and are still at large. He says that many of them are hailed as national heroes in Armenia and have held or continue to hold high-ranking positions in the government.
At the end, the author presents testimonies by two female survivors of Khojaly.
Justice for Khojaly
Azerbaijan has begun the collection of signatures for a petition within the framework of the international campaign Justice for Khojaly, initiated by Heydar Aliyev Foundation Vice-President Leyla Aliyeva. The goal of the campaign is the recognition of the Khojaly genocide and bringing to justice those who had committed it. The petition is addressed to international organizations, international courts and foreign ministries of various countries.
The international campaign Justice for Khojaly calls on everyone to sign a petition in the name of establishing historical justice, in order to avoid the repetition of such crimes against humanity! Below is the link for signing the specified petition.
http://justiceforkhojaly.org/petition
The genocide was committed on the night of February 25 to 26 in Khojaly by units of the Armenian armed forces, Armenian terrorist groups in Nagorno-Karabakh and personnel of the former Soviet army's 366th motorized rifle regiment deployed in Khankandi, Azerbaijan.
A total of 613 peaceful Azerbaijanis were killed, including 63 children, 106 women and 70 elderly people. At the same time, 487 civilians were seriously injured and 1,275 people were taken hostage. The fate of 150 hostages, including 68 women and 26 children, is still unknown. During the genocide, 56 people were killed with special cruelty, people's heads were peeled off, various limbs were cut off, their eyes were removed, and pregnant women's bellies were pierced with bayonets. As a result, eight families were completely destroyed, 25 children lost both parents and 130 children lost one parent.
--
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
