Garakent tragedy turns 17

Later there appeared a list: Osman Mirzoyev, Ismen Gaibov, Mohammed Asadov, Tofik Ismaylov, Vagif Cafarov, Veli Mamedov, Aly Mustafayev...

This is a list of passengers of the air force helicopter Mi-8, knocked down by a heat-seeking missile near Garakent village on November 20 of 1991. Those, who will later be called "the prominent state figures of Azerbaijan" and those, to whom we bound the hopes for success in the just launched Karabakh war on November 19 and for the collapse of information blockade...

First, there appeared an official version: the helicopter crashed into a rock in the fog. The fact that he was knocked down was admitted several days later. It took us several years to eliminate all doubts and state that the missile, which knocked down Mi-8, was launched from Armenian positions. But there are too many "white spots" in the history of the last flight of Mi-8. It is still unclear why the helicopter with the state secretary, minister of internal affairs, general prosecutor, press secretary of the president and many others on board was not accompanied by "a fire support helicopter" and why all of them were in the same helicopter - it contradicts to all possible rules of security.

It is unclear how Armenian militants managed to get information about the exact route of flight, which only representatives of the command of Soviet troops had in Karabakh! It is unclear where they got a specialist, who can treat heat-seeking missiles. The source of the missile is also unclear - at that time the most popular weapon in Karabakh were hail guns and Alazan missiles. And it is far more unclear how could a tape in the black boxes of the Mi-8 helicopter burn off. The most possible explanation: a specialist arrived on the spot before the inspectors and power representatives and got rid the tape.

Understanding came later. Autumn of 1991 was a "time of great hopes" in the post-Soviet area. After August most people were confident that know everything will improve, while the bitter heritage of the former USSR will sank in oblivion. At that time, on the wave of post-August euphoria, there appeared a "Zheleznovodsk initiative" on reconciliation in the Karabakh - the same, according to which a cultural autonomy would be granted to Karabakh within Azerbaijan. A peacekeeping mission of Russia and Kazakhstan was launched in Karabakh and most people consider that it has more chances for execution than many further peaceful initiatives. This was not profitable either for apologists of the Armenian expansionism and those, who again attempted to "tie" Azerbaijan and Armenia to Moscow by using Karabakh and those, who attempted to earn on arms trade... At that time, it was necessary to frustrate the "Zheleznovodsk initiative" and the conflict resolution...

Yes, this is true. But there was another thing in this case, the very law of terrorism: when the target and the victims become prominent figures. Those, whose death will be painful for all. And those, whose "termination" will have a real impact on the development of events. It so happened, either deliberately or not, that they were on the board of the helicopter, which did not land on November 20 of 1991.

No one will ever learn how would events in Karabakh develop, if the missile did not reach the target. And the most tragic is that nothing could be different, as we could not imagine whom we were having a war with, being confident that we face not professional terrorists, trained in Lebanon and Syria, but local Karabakh Armenians, who listen to the nonsense of Balayan and people, similar to him. We believed in the guarantees, received from Russian "militants" without analyzing the interests of Moscow in Karabakh or its historical priorities. And the most terrible thing is that we seem not to understand it even now.

May them all rest in peace!

NURANI - Ekho newspaper archive