Turks, Azerbaijans and friends of Azerbaijan commemorate Armenian Khojaly genocide victims in Fort Lauderdale - by RM

The Florida Turkish Center in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday evening, March 1, 2014 commemorated the cruel Armenian genocide of innocent Azerbaijan civilians at Khojaly..

Following an introduction by Mrs Tohfa Eminova,  President of the Florida Azerbaijan Association, Mr Samir Bejanov, Political Officer of the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan  in Washington DC, provided the audience with a comprehensive report illustrated with slides and a video presentation of the actual sequence of events surrounding the Khojaly genocide. 

Mrs. Tohfa Eminova - (photo MB)

On February 25-26, 1992, Armenian occupation forces together with the 366th infantry regiment of Soviet troops stationed in Khankendi committed an act of genocide against the population of the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly.

Some 613 people were killed, 487 people were injured. Some 1275 residents were taken hostages. Most of them did not return from captivity. Their fate still remains unknown.

The Khojaly genocide is considered a crime not only against Azerbaijani people, but also against humanity, since it is fully consistent with the Convention on Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted on December 9, 1948.

According to this Convention, any crime against people based on their ethnicity is called genocide. And in Khojaly people were killed just because they were Azerbaijanis.

Mr. Samir Bejanov (photo MB)

Following the establishment of the Soviet rule in Armenia in late 1920, the Armenians were presented with a real opportunity to fulfill their age-old dream of creating an Armenian State on the territories of other nations. 

During the 70-years of Soviet rule, the Armenians succeeded in expanding their territory at the expense of Azerbaijan and using every possible means to expel the Azerbaijanis from their lands. 

Also during this period, the policy to expel the Azerbaijanis from their lands was implemented systematically and methodically. 

In 1920 the Armenians declared Zangezur and a number of other Azerbaijani lands to be part of the territory of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1923 they managed to secure the status of an autonomous province for the mountainous part of Karabakh within Azerbaijan. Consequently this created an artificial entity within the territory of Azerbaijan, while the Azerbaijani population living in the territory of Armenia at that time were not given similar rights. 

The current stage of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan may be regarded as having formally begun on 20 February 1988, when the Soviet of the People’s Deputies of the Nagorny Karabakh Autonomous Province adopted a decision to petition the Supreme Soviets of the Azerbaijan SSR and the Armenian SSR for the transfer of the province from the former to the latter.

 Florida Turkish American Association members (photo MB)

Before the adoption of this decision, basically at the end of 1987, the Azerbaijanis became subject of attacks in Khankendi (during the Soviet/Russian  period ) and this
resulted in a flood of Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced persons.

On 22 February 1988 near the settlement of Askeran on the Khankendi-Aghdam highway, the Armenians opened fire on a peaceful demonstration by the Azerbaijanis protesting against the above-mentioned decision of the Soviet People’s Deputies of the Nagorny Karabakh Autonomous Province. As a consequence two Azerbaijani youths lost their lives, becoming the first victims of the conflict.

In 1991 central law-enforcement agencies of the then USSR apprehended dozens of the Armenian armed groups that operated outside Nagorny Karabakh. As a result, the Chaykend village of the Khanlar district of Azerbaijan was turned by the Armenian armed groups into a criminal hub from which they bombed and shelled surrounding villages and roads, terrorizing the local Azerbaijani population. From 1989 to 1991, in Chaykend and adjacent areas 54 people fell victim to the Armenian armed groups. In 1992 Azerbaijan regained its control over the Goranboy district.

At the end of 1991 and the beginning of 1992 the conflict turned into a military phase. Taking advantage of the political instability as a result of the dissolution of the Soviet Union and internal squabbles in Azerbaijan, Armenia initiated by giving external military assistance to combat operations in Nagorny Karabakh.

In February 1992, an unprecedented massacre was committed against the Azerbaijani population in the town of Khojaly. This bloody tragedy, which became known as the Khojaly genocide, involved the extermination or capture of thousands of Azerbaijanis as their town was razed to the ground.

During that fatal night of 25 to 26 February 1992 the Armenian armed forces, with the help of the infantry guards regiment No. 366 from the former USSR implemented the seizure of Khojaly - a small town situated in the small Nagorny Karabakh region of the Republic of Azerbaijan with a population  of 23,757, and cruelly decimated them. 

The large number of question from the audience during the question and answer period, following Mr. Bejanov's presentation, showed how much much the talk had impressed the audience. 

Given the present invasion of Russian troops into the Crimea area of Ukraine, the Fort Lauderdale Turkish Center presentation also provided  an actual insight as to Russian historical political strategies concerning their former territories. and spheres of influence    

The informative event at the Florida Turkish Center in Fort Lauderdale was concluded with Azerbaijan food and refreshments.

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