Baku, February 19, AZERTAC

The Jerusalem Post has published an article by a political analyst Arye Gut headlined: "The bloody massacre in Azerbaijani Garadaghli village is a real manifestation of modern Armenian terrorism".

The article says: "The Holocaust is a terrible and unbearable tragedy in the memory of the Jewihsh people. It is a pain, humuliation, brutality and extermination of the Jewish people by the brutal and frantic fascist regime. Representatives of the Jewish nation, which experienced such a terrible tragedy as the Holocaust, always sympathize with the tragedies of other peoples who survived the same blows of fate.

One of unexamined in depth pages of the history of Azerbaijan is the genocidal events perpetuated in the villages and regions resided by Azerbaijanis in the course of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, stirred up again. During these events, the Armenian occupants have destroyed many historical monuments, along with extermination of a number of local Azerbaijani population. In modern history, events similar to the Garadagly tragedy happened in different parts of the world and the international community is well aware of them.

For example, in July 1995, ethnic Serbian nationalists mass murdered more than 10 thousand Muslim population of the Bosnian town of Srebrenica aged between 17-70, people had been buried lively in mass graves. Mass murders have been perpetuated against Muslims in 13 settlements of Bosnia in this period. More than 200 thousand innocent people have been murdered, thousands wounded and 2 million became refugees as a result of these events. Although United Nations, European Parliament and other international organizations recognized at least Srebrenica genocide, one of the 13 genocides that took place in the 13 Bosnian settlements, they prefer to keep silence numerous genocides perpetuated against Azerbaijanis by Armenians."

"On November 28, 1985, the prominent Armenian terrorist, the leader of Armenian terrorist organization ASALA (Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia) Monte Melkonian was sentenced to 6-years imprisonment in France. He had released from prison in 1990, after that he immediately went to Armenia and in order to pursue its terror activities was sent to Nagorno-Karabakh. It should be noted that the professional terrorist Melkonyan, who was one of the leaders of the Armenian terrorist organization ASALA, committed dozens of terrorist acts that led to the death of Turkish diplomats around the world. Melkonyan fought for many years in various "hot spots", in particular against Israel in Lebanon, in the Bekaa Valley and was elusive for the Israeli special services. During the occupation of the Hajavand district of the Republic of Azerbaijan, he was the commander of an Armenian terrorist group.

On February, 1992, under the leadership of Monte Melkonian, Armenian armed forces, and specially trained in Lebanon terrorist units "Arabo" and "Aramo" simultaneously attacked to the encircled from all sides Garadaghly village of Khojavand district of Azerbaijan Republic. Investigations reveal that the soldiers and officers of 366th Russian regiment also took part in the occupation of Garadaghly. Armenian troops of mercenaries Aramo, Arabo and Avo (Monte Melkonian), relying on the fire support of the 366th Motorized Rifle Regiment, stationed in Khankandi, occupied the strategically important village Garadaghli on February 17, 1992 and after the week they commited act of genocide in Khojaly.," the article says.

"In the battles for Garadagly killed 145 people, 54 of whom were killed in one day. In general, in the fight against the Armenian mercenaries there have been killed 154 people (15 women and 13 children) in Khojavend. The men of the local defense battalion fought to the last round, have shown unprecedented heroism, however, left without assistance, were surrounded.

After nine days, the Armenian detachments of Arabo have commited act of genocide of the peaceful population of Khojaly, in which Monte Melkonyan, Serzh Sargsyan-the current president of Armenia, Seyran Ohanyan-the former defense minister of Armenia and other Armenian thugs have taken part. These criminals killed 613 people, among them many women, children, the elderly and the civilian population, over 1000 people became disabled for the rest of their lives. On the night of the tragedy 1,275 civilians were taken prisoners, the fate of 150 of them is still unknown."

"The brother of Monte Melkonian, Markar Melkonian in his book "My Brother's Road: An American's Fateful Journey to Armenia" writes: "Nine years earlier Monte had written in his manual for the training of a People"s Fighter that "the command to open fire in an ambush should be given by the commander in the form of his own firing on the enemy (it is preferable to begin firing with a B-7 grenade launcher or any other weapon that will cause immediate heavy losses, if such a weapon is available)".

Now he coolly shouldered a B-7, lined up his sights, and squeezed the trigger. With a white flash, the first round roared straight through second story corner window of the defence center and burst inside, sending a yellow flame back out the window. With that, the attackers began pouring lead into the village. Under a hail of bullets, the Azeri defenders radioed for back, informing their commanders on the Aghdam plain a few kilometres to the North that they could not hold out much longer against the attack. When the defenders ceased returning fire, Monte laid down the B-7 watched his fellow attackers swarm into Garadaghli from several sides.

By five the afternoon, the detachments had achieved their military goals. Only one fighter had been killed on the Armenian side that day, while forty-eight captured Azeris were herded into the bed of a truck. The captives would be transported to Stepanakert, where they would be until they could be exchanged for Armenian hostages in Azeri hands. It appeared as though Garadaghli, the first battle Monte had officially been charged with commanding, had proceeded smoothly to its conclusion. Soon however things changed. Arabo and Aramo fighters shoved thirty-eight captives, including several women and other noncombatants, into a ditch on the outskirts of the village. One of the captives in the ditch pulled pin from a grenade concealed under a bandaged hand and tossed it, taking off the lower leg of one of his captors, a recent Patriotic Detachment recruit named Levon. The Arabo and Aramo fighters there had already been hankering to "avenge" the death of another comrade the day before, so as soon as the grenade had gone off they began stabbing and shooting their captives, until every last one was dead."

"In the early morning of February 15, 1992 Armenian armed units attacked the village of Garadaghly from all directions. Fighters from the neighboring Armenian villages, mercenaries, Russian officers and soldiers of the 366th Russian regiment also took part in the attack. But they could not get close to the village easily.

Nobil Zeynalov, principal of the local school, Khanali Huseynov, a military official and Altay Hasanov, a fighter of the voluntary defense unit, were guarding the first block post. The fighting was very heavy. The hero women of the village were carrying ammunition and food to the fighters under intense fire, giving first aid to the wounded and achieving in their returning back to the battle.

The testimonies of Garadaghly residents that have been victims of the massacre absolutely confirm Melkonian words and simultaneously create more detailed description of the event."

"The testimony of Huseynov Ilgar Gardashkhan oglu (he has been released from Armenian captivity): "On February 15, 1992, at 6 o"clock in the morning from all four sides, Armenian terrorist units attacked our village. We were 118 persons in the village. Of these 11 were women, the rest were men. The battle began, indeed, we did not have any military equipment, but we worthily responded them. One day we fought with them. From our side, 8 persons were killed, despite the decline of our numbers we continued to fight. We pulled out Armenians from the village. On 16 February, Armenians again began to attack the village. They had attacked with the military equipments, we could not withstand. From their side the majority of fighters were mercenaries. Their commander was Manvel, according to some information the Armenian, who came from France.

On February 17, at 3 o"clock they knew that our weapons had already finished, and therefore stopped the fire. Because they had many losses. They told each other that many of them were killed. One of the residents of our village was hit by the sticks and as a result of it killed inside of the village. Then they took 92 hostages towards Khankandi. When we achieved the place by the name "Beylikbaghi", 32 persons of us were shot. They did not calm down with this and therefore had cut off the heads of bodies, and then gathered heads into the bags. The bodies of killed people were filled to the silage-well. After 3 km moving, they shot another person, then one more person".

"The testimony of Tagiyev Tevon Habib oglu (he has been released from Armenian captivity): At the end of the 1991 Garadaghly village was encircled by Armenians that lived in the surrounding villages. The traffic to the village was cut off. Beginning from January of 1992, via helicopters, we began removing children and women from the village. Attacks to the village did not stop. In February helicopters did not come. The contact of the village with abroad was completely cut off. The attacks of Armenians had not been stopped. We were able to defend the village until the February 17. There was no help from outside. Finally, the bullets were over and Armenian armed forces have occupied the village.

They collected the bodies of Armenians that had died during the attack in front of the collective farm and filmed it. A woman journalist was preparing a program. They told to the whole world that these are the people that were killed by Azerbaijanis during the attack to the Armenian village.

177 residents of the village were gathered into the two trucks - young people and adults are separately - and led towards Khankandi. We did not reach the edge of the village, when they pulled two people down from the truck and shot. In the place by the name "Beylikbaghi" that is located at 2 km from the village, they stopped following us. Approximately the distance between us was 50-60 meters.

In "Beylikbaghi" Armenian women and children played and danced. They stopped car near them and ordered got down from the truck. Young people did not want to get down from the truck; therefore, they opened fire and killed several people. People had forced to get down. In front of the eyes of the playing and dancing Armenian women and children, young men from Garadaghly had arrayed into the row and shot. My son Telman did not bear this, he had pulled its hidden grenade pin, shouted and moved towards Armenians. The grenade exploded, Telman killed himself and 10 Armenians along with him. In "Beylikbaghi", Armenians killed 33 residents of Garadagly. Then they had thrown the bodies into the nearby silage well and buried. 5 km to Khankendy, they had pulled all people down from the truck and undressed all warm clothes. They on foot brought us to Khankendy. Along the way, civilian Armenians threw us stones and spat".

"As a result of the occupation of Garadaghly village by Armenian troops, currently 26 citizens of Azerbaijan Republic are registered in the State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons as a missing person (date on February 15, 2017). There are witnesses of these, 15 persons taken prisoners and about the arrest. 50 residents of the village that were captured and taken hostages during the occupation have been released at different times.

And all these cruelties, inhuman acts are being performed by Armenian terrorists, who all over the world are shouting that they are poor and unfortunate people who survived the "genocide". And all this happened at the end of the twentieth century, before the eyes of the entire world community. About such tragedies, you cannot remain silent, since if you do not punish crime and evil, then it has the feature of repeating itself.

From various sources we learn and know that in the occupied lands of Azerbaijan, Armenian terrorists created concentration camps, like German fascists, where in the 21st century they keep Azerbaijani prisoners in inhuman conditions and exploit them in various mines and heavy works.

And the question arises involuntarily: how long will the international community, international organizations, in particular the OSCE Minsk Group, put on the same scale and call for a compromise on the aggressor country Armenia, along with Azerbaijan, which has suffered in this conflict, whose 20 per cent of the territory has been occupied, about 5,000 people are in Armenian captivity, towns, villages, communications are destroyed and has 1 million refugees?

Adopted international conventions condemn acts of genocide, like the Garadaghli and Khojaly tragedy, declare its inadmissibility. The Azerbaijani people have the right to sue the International Court of Justice of the United Nations against the Armenian Republic, guided by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of December 9, 1948.

The world should know that this crime is directed not only against the Azerbaijani people, but against all mankind. People who occupy high positions in Armenia at various times, Seyran Ohanyan, the current President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, as well as Robert Kocharyan and others, as the perpetrators of the act of genocide, should be brought to the international trial.

'Crime should not go unpunished. The world community should blame the military-political aggression of Armenia. International organizations, parliaments of the countries of the world should give an international, political and legal assessment of the Qaradghli and Khojaly genocide committed by the Republic of Armenia on the territory of Azerbaijan, as a genuine genocide," the article concludes.