Azernews.Az

By Vafa Ismayilova

August 28 marks the 29th anniversary of Armenia's another genocide against Azerbaijani civilians in Goranboy region's Balligaya village.

On August 28, 1992, the Armenians exterminated 24 members of seven families from Lachin region in Balligaya’s Gulustan forest in one night. At five o'clock in the morning, a sabotage group of the Armenian armed forces of 9-12 people shelled a tent where Azerbaijanis were staying. As a result, 24 people were killed and nine injured.

The tragedy in Khojavand region's Garadaghli village was the result of the genocide policy that Armenians has been pursuing. On February 26, 1992, the Khojali (Khojaly) genocide was committed.

Azerbaijani civilian Vazir Humbatov, who lost six children and his wife in Balligaya said that after the occupation of Lachin on May 17, 1992, the last families who lived in high-mountain villages began to leave. The men, among whom was Vazir Humbatov, went to Barda region to find temotarory refuge. When they returned, they saw the aftermath of the massacre committed by Armenian soldiers. The tent in which his family lived was burned down. He collected the remains of his wife and six children in the ashes and buried them at the cemetery in the village of Gulluja, Aghdam region.

For 29 years, he could not visit the grave in which his wife and children are buried, and he visited it for the first time this year.

The man expressed his gratitude to the Azerbaijani army and Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev for this opportunity. He noted that the Azerbaijani army avenged the death of his relatives.

On the night of the Balligaya tragedy, Sahib and Binnat Mehdiyev were in the Ganja city hospital. When they returned, six of their family members were no longer alive.

Yunis Mehdiyev also survived the tragedy in Balligaya. On that night, four members of his family - a 67-year-old mother, a 39-year-old brother, wife and a 36-year-old sister - became victims of Armenian atrocities. Only his brother's three children survived.

Three of the genocide victims - Abdulla Abdullayev (born in 1934), his children - Farman and Saadat are buried in the cemetery in Barda's Garademirchi village.

In 2020, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said in its statement that the Balligaya massacre of 1992 is one of the series of massacres committed by the Armenian armed forces in Garadaghli village of Khojavand region, Khojaly city, and Aghdaban village of Kalbajar region to destroy the Azerbaijani population of Karabakh.

The ministry reminded that as a result of the massacre in Balligaya, 24 Azerbaijani civilians, including 6 minors, as well as a 6-month-old baby and a 93-year-old woman were brutally killed. The bodies of some of the victims, most of them being children, women, and the elderly were burned.

Azerbaijan strongly condemned Armenia's "purposeful and ongoing policy based on genocide, a crime against humanity, racial discrimination and ethnic cleansing against the Azerbaijani people".

The ministry stressed the importance to put an end to impunity for all war crimes and crimes against humanity, including acts of ethnic cleansing and genocide perpetrated during the Armenian military aggression against Azerbaijan, and to restore justice to the victims of those crimes.

The ministry described as a gross violation of human rights and international humanitarian law the acts of war, as well as crimes against humanity and genocide acts committed by Armenia against Azerbaijan.

“We remind that in addition to the responsibilities of the Republic of Armenia for its activities contrary to the international law, certain acts committed in the context of armed conflict are considered international criminal acts in accordance with the customs and treaty norms of international criminal law, and therefore the persons involved in commissioning of these acts, and those who associated with them and assisted them, are also individually responsible,” the ministry said.

Furthermore, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry reiterated Baku’s commitment to take the necessary steps, using all opportunities and national mechanisms established by national legislation and international law, to provide an adequate legal assessment of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against its civilian population, and bring the perpetrators to justice.

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