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Defense army of the Artsakh Republic (Nagorno Karabakh Republic) shot down an Azerbaijani ORBITER type drone detected flying over the eastern direction of the Line of Contact between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan on Saturday at around 12:15.
According to the release, issued by the Defense Army, frontline units of Karabakh Army ‘’continue to watchfully control the Artsakh air and land borders and resort to preventive measures upon necessity.’
Embassy of Armenia in Syria published an article in the influential Arab newspaper Al-Watan presenting Azerbaijan’s manipulations and falsifications about Aghdam events.
It is noted that in early 1992, Azerbaijan used Khlojaly in order to fire Karabakh’s capital Stepanakert. As a result, houses, schools, hospitals, and buildings of state institutions were destroyed. The Azerbaijani authorities turned Khojlay into a firing point closing access to Karabakh’s only airport, through which the population was provided with food and medicine.
Moreover, Azerbaijan used Khojaly as a firing point for shelling the nearby Armenian-populated villages. Therefore, the neutralization of Khojaly’s firing point by the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Defense Army forces was a justified measure from the point of view of saving the civilians.
Following the start of the military operation on the neutralization of the firing point, the civilian population used the humanitarian corridor left by the Armenian side in order to move to Aghdam, which was under Azerbaijan’s control at that time. However, the population faced bloody events there.
Therefore, the authors emphasize that it is obvious that the Azerbaijani authorities failed the evacuation of the civilian population from the settlement and that they are responsible for the death of hundreds of people in Aghdam.
“Since then, Baku adopted the strategy of falsifying all the facts and materials of that humanitarian catastrophe and disseminating hatred and horror towards the Armenians among the representatives of the international community,” the article reads.
Falsifying photos is one of Azerbaijan’s most common methods. The authorities use photos of the Kosovo War, victims of 1983 earthquake in Turkey, poor children in Afghanistan, as well as corpses of Hamas militants in Palestine presenting them as Azerbaijanis, who were killed by the Armenians.
“We all have to work on raising the awareness of the international community in order to expose Azerbaijan’s lies. The aim of the active propaganda of ‘Khojaly events’ is to distract the international community’s attention from the pogroms of the Armenians in Sumgait, Baku, Kirovabad, and other Azerbaijani settlements, ethnic cleansing of the Armenians in 28 villages, as well as tragic events in Maragha,” the authors note.
They also highlight that the Azerbaijani side tries to distort Armenia’s international image speculating on the memory of the civilians, who became victims to internal political intrigues and struggle for power in Azerbaijan.
The real perpetrator of the tragedy is Azerbaijan’s Popular Front led by Abulfaz Elchibey. He became the country’s president after the Aghdam events and started to speculate on those events in order to get rid of the former president, Ayaz Mutallibov.
Therefore, Azerbaijan’s political and military leadership is responsible for the death of the civilians in Aghdam.
“The Azerbaijani side cannot answer to simple questions yet. Why the corpses of the victims were found near Aghdam, which was under the control of the Azerbaijani forces? Why there was no organized evacuation of the civilian population despite the Armenians’ warnings on the adio?” the authors wonder.
It is also noted that in subsequent years, the civil rights activists and journalists, who attempted to reveal the truth, were either arrested under the pretext of collaborating with the Security Services of Armenia or died under unclear circumstances. That is why nobody dares to demand that the authorities reveal the truth.
Summing up, the authors note that Azerbaijan continues to disseminate intolerance and armenophobia in the society, and that politics makes the dialogue difficult between the two nations.
On February 26, 1992, during the Karabakh war, around 200 to 300 people (according to Human Rights Watch, and 600 according to the version propagated by Azerbaijan) were killed in unknown circumstances near the city of Aghdam. They were deliberately withheld by the Azerbaijani authorities in the midst of the military actions. The authorities of Azerbaijan intentionally kept the population in the village for months by force and did not evacuate them in order to use them as human shields later as the village was one of the firing points for shooting at the blockaded Stepanakert (among five others).
The residents of Khojaly, coming out through the humanitarian corridor the self-defense forces of the NKR had left open, freely passed more than 10 km and reached the Aghdam city controlled by the Azerbaijani troops. Later, dead bodies of the villagers were foundnot far from the positions of Azerbaijani troops. The exact death toll remains unknown as the official Baku publishes data contradicting each other. Parliamentary Commission investigating the tragic death of the civilians at Aghdam city was dissolved by the order of Heydar Aliyev, the investigative materials are kept secret.
“Today, on February 27, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry finally published the names of the dead occurred in the no-man’s land as result of the Azerbaijani attack at Artsakh military posts on February 25, at the same time rushing to blame the Armenian side for obstructing the recovery of the dead allegedly through putting forward new demands,” Defense Ministry of the Artsakh Republic reports, reacting to Azerbaijani allegations.
The Ministry reminds that according to the reached arrangement between the sides on February 25 under mediation of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chaiman-in-Office, the recovery of the dead from the no-man’s land was planned to take place on Sunday facilitated by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). However, the recovery of the bodies of the Azerbaijani servicemen didn’t take place due Azerbaijani side, since it violated the initial arrangement obtained during the negotiations.
Azerbaijani journalist Chingiz Mustafayev known for his shooting of military action in the region of the Karabakh conflict was one of those, who told the truth about Khojaly events. Mustafayev taped corpses of Khojaly residents found near the Azerbaijani positions not far from Aghdam in March 1992 and made public the information about the real perpetrators of Khojaly tragedy.
“On February 28 (1992), when I got there, I asked permission to cross over to the other side and see how the tragedy had happened. I was told that there were bodies only in Khojaly, talks had been held with the Armenians, and the bodies had been exchanged and brought back. Khojaly residents told me that the corpses were near pig farms, and that there were also people left alive. Khojaly residents went there on foot and hid there,” Mustafayev said.
Upon hearing that, the journalist asked them to provide him with a helicopter, a car, or let him go there on foot. They again told him that it was impossible to get there: everyone was massacred; Armenians were allegedly keeping the place under fire, and so on.
“On February 29, while flying by military helicopter to the same place from the village Umudlu, we flew over that side at my request. I saw with my own eyes that I had already passed through that place. The pig farm was 10 kilometers away from Khojaly. More than 50 bodies were scattered seven hundred meters away from our post near Derebeyi. The fact that I saw 10 of our citizens walking among the corpses on the shots taken from above is still a mystery causing shiver. Those people in military uniforms were from Aghdam. I have those shots – they are calmly walking among the corpses. I am still told that there were no bodies, no one could get there, as there were Armenians there and so on. However, when we finally got off the helicopter, three of the helicopters immediately returned to Aghdam allegedly ‘forgetting’ us there. Those 10, having walked there on foot, left on foot,” the journalist emphasized.
According to him, his group was shooting there for 45 minutes. The place was 25 meters away from the road to Nakhichevanik. Cars of Armenians passed through the road twice. They noticed the journalist and his group, who then walked back to Aghdam.
“I still cannot understand why the corpses 6-7 hundred meters away from our posts, among which 10 our people were freely walking, were not taken away. Corpses had been exchanged and brought back from Khojaly provided there were negotiations.
As you see, allegedly, it was a ‘trap’: the Armenians kill our people. It was not allowed to go there also because the Armenians were killing people there,” Mustafayev said.
As for the committee created for the investigation of the events, the journalist noted that he had suspicions about its work.
According to him, the committee was going to show that it worked. However, the committee would be included in the Committee investigating the January tragedy, the helicopter tragedy, and all the tragedies in general, and the investigation would last at least 5-6 years. It was unknown, when it would end.
Forces responsible for those tragedies are preparing something new day by day.
Chingiz Mustafayev was killed on June 15, 1992. He was posthumously awarded the National Hero of Azerbaijan title for his shootings of the military action in the region of the Karabakh conflict. Chingiz Mustafayev is primarily known for his taping of the Khojaly residents’ corpses found near the Azerbaijani positions not far from Aghdam in January 1992. He videotaped those corpses on March 2, 1992. When Mustafayev told Azerbaijan’s former president Ayaz Mutallibov that the bodies’ positions and the corpses’ injuries were not compatible with the initial inspection, the president told him “not to say a single word about it, otherwise, he would be killed.”
The Documentary “The Besieged” telling about the sufferings of the Stepanakert residents under Azerbaijani blockade in the winter months of 1992 was premiered today in Yerevan. The film has been produced by the the Public Relations and Information Center affiliated with the President’s Office and is authored by political scientists Armen Minasyan and Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan.
The 40-minute length documentary features archive footages, witness accounts and memories of the Stepanakert residents, who were trapped by Azerbaijanis forces with all essential supplies, including water, electricity, food and medicines virtually cut off.
“There is no word about war in the documentary, which only highlights human stories and witness accounts. We decided to feature the ordinary humans with their rights – first of all – to life, since they were often forgotten in the turmoil of the war,” Armen Minasyan told in his remarks before the screening.
In his words one of the reasons for the film production was the growing Azerbaijani speculations over Khojaly events. “We decided to cover those events, given the direct linkage between them and the Stepanakert siege to spread light on all the nuances of the prehistory that preceded those events and the need to liberate the settlements,” Minasyan said, adding the ultimate goal of the film is to present both the domestic and international community the causes and the prehistory of the conflict around Nagorno Karabakh.
The co-author of the documentary Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan, who lived in Stepanakert at that time, stressed that the film attempts to show the Azerbaijani long-practiced policy continues to these days.
“The matter is especially about Azerbaijani policy aimed at eliminating the Armenian population, which actually failed in 1991-92 due to the breaking of the Stepanakert siege. However, the risk and the permanent threat has always persisted for the Armenian population. The film is aimed at revealing Azerbaijani anti-Armenian policy through from a new perspective,” Melik-Shahnazaryan said, adding the documentary might serve a factual ground for researchers studying the conflict.
It was noted that the film will be translated into several languages to make it reach as large audience as possible.
To remind, the siege of the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Region started in Autumn 1989, when Azerbaijan blockaded railroad lines to Armenia, while roads passing near the Azerbaijani settlements became extremely dangerous. As a response to the calls by Karabakh people for reunification with Armenia, the residents of Stepanakert were trapped by Azerbaijanis in a blockade with all essential supplies, including water, electricity, food and medicines virtually cut off.
It was in these conditions of the total blockade that since September 2 1991 Azerbaijan additionally subjected adjacent settlements of Stepanakert to shelling and bombardments, including the airdrome near the Azerbaijani Khojaly village at a time when atrocities against Armenians were widespread.
To silence the Azerbaijani intensive and constant shelling, break the imposed blockade and save the starving the city population from annihilation, Armenian self-defense forces were compelled to get reorganized in late February, 2012 and liberate the Khojalu village (Ivanyan), while the Lachin (Berdzor) corridor was ultimately opened in May 18.
Two Azerbaijani reporters – Chingiz Mustafayev and Eynulla Fatulayev – who objectively documented and voiced the accurate record of the historical events had different fates. Mustafayev was killed months after the operation while Fatulayev after serving his four-year imprisonment, was later freed and established a news portal committed to intensive praising and glorification of Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev.
YEREVAN. – Armenian News-NEWS.am has prepared a video material for English language readers summarizing the developments on the contact line between the Azerbaijani and NKR armed forces on the night of February 25.
The NKR Defence Army has released the footage of the Azerbaijani aggression.
The statement issued by Karabakh Defense Army said the Azerbaijani side made two offensive attempts at 3am and 4 am on February 25 in the southeastern (Martakert) and eastern (Akna) directions of the line of contact by using mining neutralization system and special equipment.
Vanguard units of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) Defense Army, however, detected the advancement and drove them back to their starting positions while causing them casualties. Consequently, the Azerbaijani side suffered losses. Several bodies are in the neutral zone. The Defense Army has not suffered casualties. According to Karabakh army, movement of troops and equipment was noticed in the eastern direction of the line of contact.
According to the data gathered from relevant services of the Artsakh Defense Army, the casualties of the Azerbaijani side include the head of the 181st intelligence brigade of the Azerbaijani armed forces, Major Abdulayev, commander of the brigade’s intelligence company, Senior Lieutenant Ashimli Shakhlar, intelligence officer Adihusseinov, and two other servicemen, one of whom was a sapper.
Senor Hasratyan, Spokesman for the Defense Army of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), commented on Azerbaijan-disseminated misinformation in a Facebook message.
According to the Azerbaijani reports, on February 25, the Azerbaijani forces downed an Armenian drone and destroyed an Armenian weapon emplacement and, by the end of the day, allegedly shelled the frontline and adjacent territories.
The message reads:
“After suffering losses last night near Akna and Martuni, given the fact that fives bodies are in the neutral territory, the Azerbaijani side was supposed to draw conclusions and refrain from escalating the situation.
“Or rather, by tradition, Azerbaijan not only continues misinforming its public by claiming that, on February 25, the Azerbaijani forces downed an Armenian drone and destroyed an Armenian weapon emplacement and, by the end of the day, allegedly shelled the frontline and adjacent territories, using weapons and artillery, and fired over 100 shots at the frontline of the Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent territories.
“After that, it is logical that we are dealing with an enemy that is not only cut off reality, but also one that has no respect for the bodies of his own soldiers.”
Spokesman of the Defense Ministry of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR) Senor Hasratyan has made the following post on his Facebook page: “Initiating another provocative action overnight, the Azerbaijani forces hurried up to put the blame on the Armenian side.
Whereas, the ordinary citizens of Azerbaijan and in particular those citizens whose sons ended up as casualties and at the moment their bodies are scattered in the neutral zone between the two opposing troops due to the order given by their brainless commanders, must eventually realize that this is nothing more than a result of the stupid policy run by Aliyevs and Hasanovs,” reads the post.
Source Panorama.am
“It is already for several days that the military-political leadership of Azerbaijan escalates the frontline situation and spreads disinformation. After suffering losses overnight, the Azerbaijani leadership again tries to mislead its own society and the international community by talking about the ‘offensive actions’ by the Armenian side.
The Armenian side remains adhered to the ceasefire regime and calls on the Azerbaijani authorities to refrain from taking steps aimed at the further escalation of the frontline situation. The military-political leadership of Azerbaijan will bear the entire responsibility of the consequences of the escalation in the frontline situation,” the Press Service of the NKR Defense Ministry reports in a released statement.
The report reminds that overnight February 24-25, the Azerbaijani forces committed regular offensive attacks towards the frontline troops of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic and were thrown back suffering losses.
Azerbaijan’s armed forces intensively violated the ceasefire along the Line of Contact overnight, releasing 1,600 gunshots against Armenian defense troops from heavy weapons.
In the eastern and north-eastern directions of the frontline, the adversary shot fire from the 88mm divisional gun D-44, and mine-launchers of different calibers.
In a press release, Nagorno-Karabakh’s Ministry of Defense says the advance military units of its Defense Army took preventive action to suppress the attacks. Azerbaijan’s military reported one loss in the wake of the skirmishes.
The situation on the frontline is under the Armenian defense forces’ full control.
The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Central Electoral Commission (NKR/Artsakh CEC) on Tuesday published the preliminary results—as of 3am—of Monday’s constitutional referendum in the country.
Accordingly, a total of 79,428 NKR citizens from the 103,793 citizens that are eligible to vote have cast ballots, and this makes up 76.44 percent of the total number of eligible voters.
The number of ballots cast in favor of the proposed constitutional amendments is 69,540, or 87.6 percent of the total vote.
The number of ballots cast against is 7,686, or 9.7 percent of the total vote.
And the number of invalid ballots is 2,202, or 2.8 percent of the total vote.
The NKR on Monday conducted a constitutional referendum.
The respective constitutional amendments envision a transition from a semi-presidential to a presidential system of government in Artsakh.