Azerbaijan seeks int'l justice for Garadaghli killings

By Azernews

By Sabina Mammadli

Human Rights Commissioner Sabina Aliyeva has urged the international community to give legal assessment to Armenia's aggression and ethnic cleansing policy against Azerbaijanis, including the genocide in Garadaghli village.

In her appeal to international agencies on the 30th anniversary of the tragedy in Garadaghli village committed by Armenia against the Azerbaijani civilians, Aliyeva said: "Those who committed this crime against peace and humanity must be brought to the international legal responsibility."

Aliyeva recalled that the Armenian armed forces committed genocide against the civilians in Garadaghli village of Azerbaijan’s Khojavand region on February 17, 1992. As a result of this bloody crime, Garadaghli village was occupied and burned, 118 civilians were taken hostage and 68 of them were brutally killed.

In 2020, a counter-offensive operation was launched to prevent another military aggression against Azerbaijan and to ensure the security of the civilian population. Azerbaijani territories occupied by Armenia for nearly 30 years were liberated in a short time, and the violated rights of compatriots were restored.

As a result of the war crimes committed by Armenia against Azerbaijan during these military operations, more than 100 civilians, including more than 10 children were killed, more than 450 people were wounded, 12,000 civilian objects, including more than 3,410 houses, 120 multifloored apartments, 512 civilian infrastructure, including apartment buildings and numerous schools, hospitals, and kindergartens, as well as our historic, religious, and cultural monuments were destroyed or severely damaged, she added.

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.