Azerbaijan conducts legal investigation on Armenia’s crimes
By Sara Rajabova
The Prosecutor's Office and other law enforcement bodies of Azerbaijan have conducted investigation on separate criminal cases regarding serious crimes committed by the Armenian armed forces in Nagorno-Karabakh and other Azerbaijani occupied territories since 1988.
Deputy Prosecutor General and military prosecutor, Lieutenant-General of Justice Khanlar Veliyev told the local media.
Veliyev said as a result of Armenia's aggressions thousands of Azerbaijani citizens have become martyrs, more than 50,000 people have become injured and disabled, and 900 settlements, 100,000 houses, more than 600 educational and 250 medical establishments, and hundreds of industrial and agricultural enterprises and factories were destroyed, more than 17,000 square kilometers of the country (20 percent) have been occupied, and up to one million Azerbaijanis have become refugees and IDPs.
Under the decision of Prosecutor General of Azerbaijan Zakir Garalov, the military prosecutor was entrusted to implement the procedural guidance on criminal cases.
Valiyev noted that a single investigative operational plan was developed in four areas: the genocide committed against Azerbaijanis by the Armenian armed forces, Armenia's illegal armed groups in Nagorno-Karabakh and the 366th regiment of the Soviet Army, torturing the Azerbaijani citizens who were taken hostage by the above-mentioned entities, financing, organization, and conduct of terror against Azerbaijan and its citizens by the Armenian special service organizations, and determining the damage to Azerbaijan and its citizens by the above-mentioned entities.
Valiyev said the criminal actions of the Armenian armed forces were referred to crimes against peace and humanity, indicated in the 16th section of the Criminal Code, which entered into force on October 1, 2000.
In this regard, a special investigation department was established under the "State Program on Modernization of Activity of the Prosecutor's Office of Azerbaijan for 2009-2011", approved by the presidential order.
"About 15,000 investigative works have been carried out since the procedural management of the preliminary investigation over the criminal case was entrusted to the Military Prosecutor's Office. About 9,000 people were questioned as witnesses and victims, more than 3,000 people were recognized as victims, and about 200 people were defined as legal heirs of victims. The result of more than 900 forensic-medical and other examinations were obtained, more than 400 decisions on holding particular investigative acts in another territory were adopted, about 500 investigative activities related to inspection were held, and about 2,000 requests were sent to various organizations," Valiyev said.
Valiyev also said it was proved that 39 people (18 soldiers of the 366th regiment, eight employees of the department of internal affairs in Khankendi and Askaran, five people who held other positions and eight civilians) had participated in committing the Khojaly genocide.
Valiyev stressed that the organizers and perpetrators of the Khojaly genocide, which became a symbol of violence and impunity in the twentieth century, should receive condign punishment.
He emphasized that the crime could not remain unpunished and the perpetrators should be brought to justice for their crimes against humanity.
The Armenian armed forces, supported by the ex-Soviet 366th regiment, occupied and ruined the town of Khojali by heavy artillery shelling on February 26, 1992.
As many as 613 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed in the massacre, and a total of 1,000 people were disabled. Eight families were exterminated, 25 children lost both parents, and 130 children lost one parent.
Moreover, 1,275 innocent people were taken hostage, and the fate of 150 of them remains unknown.
Civilians were shot at close range, scalped, and burned alive. Some had their eyes gouged out and others were beheaded.
The legislative bodies of many countries have adopted resolutions recognizing the crime committed by the Armenians against the peaceful people of Khojali as genocide.
The parliaments of Pakistan, Mexico, Colombia, Romania, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, and Jordan, and the legislative bodies of about 20 states of the Unites States including Texas, New Mexico, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Western Virginia, New Jersey, and Tennessee have adopted relevant documents.
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) adopted a final Cairo Communiqué in February 2013 at a summit held in Egypt's capital, calling the Khojaly tragedy as genocide against humanity.
The Communiqué also calls on the international community to recognize the genocide.