Baku urges int'l trial of Aghdaban genocide perpetrators
By Sabina Mammadli
Azerbaijani Human Rights Commissioner Sabina Aliyeva has urged international organizations and states to take decisive action to bring the perpetrators of the Aghdaban genocide to justice and to recognize the massacre as genocide and a crime against humanity.
In a statement commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Aghdaban genocide, Aliyeva stated that thousands of innocent civilians have been killed and massively exterminated as a result of Armenia's genocide and ethnic cleansing policies against Azerbaijanis throughout history.
She pointed out that one of Armenia's multiple crimes against humanity was committed in Kalbajar region's Aghdaban village on the night of April 7 to 8, 1992. She added that village residents were tortured, civilians were massacred in large numbers, and the elderly, children, and women were burned alive.
Furthermore, Aliyeva emphasized that the village's historical, cultural, and religious sites were destroyed as examples of human civilization. Works related to Azerbaijan's cultural heritage, such as the manuscripts of poet Aghdabanli Gurban and one of the masters of classical ashug poetry Dada Shamshir, were destroyed.
Aliyeva stated that this act of genocide, as well as the vandalism committed by Armenians against cultural heritage in Kalbajar region village of Aghdaban, resulted in a serious violation of international human rights documents.
It should be mentioned that in the 20th century, Armenians perpetrated systematic crimes and atrocities against Azerbaijanis to break the spirit of the nation and annihilate the Azerbaijani people of Nagorno-Karabakh. The Khojaly genocide is regarded as the culmination of Armenian mass murders.
Some 613 Azerbaijanis, including 63 children, 106 women and 70 elders were brutally murdered on the ground of national identity in Khojaly in 1992.
This heinous act was preceded by a slew of others. Armenians set fire to around 20 buildings in the Baghanis-Ayrim village of Gazakh region, killing eight Azerbaijanis. A family of five, including a 39-day-old newborn, were all burnt alive.
Between June and December 1991, Armenian troops murdered 12 and wounded 15 Azerbaijanis in Khojavand region's Garadaghli and Asgaran region's Meshali villages.
Armenian military detachments bombed buses on the Shusha-Jamilli, Aghdam-Khojavand, and Aghdam-Garadaghli routes in August and September of the same year, killing 17 Azerbaijanis and injuring over 90 others.
In October and November 1991, Armenians burned, destroyed, and plundered over 30 settlements in the mountainous area of Karabakh, including Tugh, Imarat-Garvand, Sirkhavand, Meshali, Jamilli, Umudlu, Garadaghli, Karkijahan, and other significant villages.
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