АThe Armenian diaspora and its bought-in lobbyists continue their hysteria about the alleged 'incredible suffering' and 'genocidal threat' to the Armenians of 'Artsakh' due to the blockade. Although, organising the action on the Lachin road, Azerbaijani environmental activists allow humanitarian supplies into the zone of responsibility of the Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh unhindered.

The residents of the village, listed by the "Artsakh" separatists and Armenian nationalists as "Ivanyan," are also among the "sufferers. According to the census of 2012 organized by separatists there were 1273 "Ivanyans" of exclusively Armenian nationality. And not a single one of them was born there. The reason is simple: before 1992, Armenians did not live here at all, and the settlement was called Khojaly town. This historic Azerbaijani village, famous for its archaeological monuments, took its name from one of the clans of the Azerbaijani ethnic and cultural community of the Shahseven, from which the Shah Guard formed during the Safavid period.

The current "Ivanyanites" are Armenian settlers, often executioners, who participated in the massacre of the residents of Khojaly and looters who seized the homes of murdered and expelled Azerbaijanis after a horrific genocide carried out by Armenian militants supported by the Russian army on the night of 25 to 26 February 2023.

 Many of these displaced people have nothing to do with Karabakh at all; among them are both fighters and mercenaries from Syria and Lebanon, whom the Armenian occupying authorities and separatists have settled in the captured Azerbaijani city. In the separatist "NKR", the town was relegated to the rank of a village in 2000 and renamed "Ivanyan" in honor of Christopher Ivanyan, one of the organizers of the genocide and expulsion of the Azerbaijani population from Karabakh, who died in 1999. From 1992 to 1998 Ivanyan was the first deputy commander of so called "Defense Army of NKR", i.e. armed bands of separatists, and under his command the separatists were especially tough during ethnic cleansing of Azerbaijani population in Khankendi (including Khojali) and Khojavand region. The renaming of Khojaly into "Ivanyan" was yet another blasphemous mockery and sadism for the memory of the victims of genocide.

Basically, the illegal immigrants in Khojaly, if the "blockade suffering", during which they sit in warmth, with electricity and can easily buy Turkish strawberries at the market, is such an ordeal for them, can today leave someone else's home unhindered. No one is going to retaliate against them, they can leave Azerbaijan "comfortably" by the Lachin road. There is no comparison with that "corridor of death", which the Armenian executioners have arranged for the peaceful inhabitants of Khojaly - the old men, women and children in cold winter night from 25 to 26 February, 1992. 

Here are testimonies of a number of journalists and other international sources about Khojaly genocide:

The Washington Times, Brian Killen, Agdam, Azerbaijan, 3 March 1992

... A truckload of bodies was brought to the Azerbaijani town of Aghdam, some faces visibly scratched with knives or their eyes gouged out. One little girl held out her hands as if begging for help ...

TIME, KHODZHALY MURDER, March 16, 1992, reports Yury Zarakhovich / Moscow

...Two weeks ago something terrible and unconscionable happened in the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly. To date, some 200 murdered Azerbaijanis, many of them mutilated, have been removed from Khojaly to be buried in nearby Aghdam... Video footage shows images of disfigured civilians, some of them scalped and others shot...

Sunday Times

... People wandered the corridors of the hospital looking for news of their loved one: "Where is my daughter, where is my son?" moaned a mother. "Raped. Stabbed. Missing." Survivors say Armenian forces launched a merciless massacre, shooting at anything that moved in the ravines . And my daughter fell right beside me ...".

Human Rights Watch/Helsinki

"The massacre of hundreds of Azerbaijani civilians in Khojaly by Armenian troops, allegedly supported by the 366th regiment of the Russian army" was one of the major events that characterised the 1992 war.

The Age, Melbourne, 6 March 1992.

... Refugees from Khojaly give largely uncontradictory accounts of how Armenians attacked their homes on the night of 26 February, chased the escapees and shot them in the surrounding forests. Yesterday I saw 75 freshly dug graves in one cemetery in addition to the four mutilated corpses shown to us...

The Boston Globe,

3 March 1992, Baku, Azerbaijan, Raoul Quinn-Judge

...A helicopter flying over the area reportedly saw other bodies and the BBC quoted a French photographer as saying he had counted 31 dead, including women and children, some looking as if they had been shot in the head at close range...

Liberty, 12 June 1992.

"The fugitives were ambushed and shot at by Armenians ..., mostly women and children, froze, lost in the mountains: others were taken prisoner. There are reports that some of the prisoners were shot.

The Washington Post, 28 February 1992, Agdam, Azerbaijan, Thomas Goltz

...In Aghdam, refugees from Khojaly had registered the names of 477 victims since Wednesday...

The Washington Times, REPORTS OF THE VICTIMS ARE DANGEROUSLY AZERBAIJAN, Brian Killen, Aghdam, Azerbaijan, March 3, 1992.

...On a truckload of bodies delivered to the Azerbaijani town of Agdam, some had faces visibly scratched with knives or had their eyes gouged out. One little girl had her arms outstretched as if calling for help ...

Le Monde, Paris, 14 March 1992.

A foreign journalist in Aghdam saw among the dead women and three scalped children with their fingernails torn off.

Komersant, Moscow, 27 February 2002.

On the night of February 25-26, 1992, the town of Khojaly came under heavy bombardment from the Armenian party. Russian 366th Guards Rifle Regiment took part in the attack. As a result 613 people were killed, 487 wounded, 1275 prisoners wounded and 150 missing.

The Independent, London, 12 June 1992.

The enormous scale of the February massacre of Azerbaijanis in the town of Khojaly - some 600 men, women and children killed - has finally come to light in Azerbaijan. François Zen Ruffinen, head of the International Red Cross delegation in Baku, said he had reports that 580 bodies from Khojaly, most of them civilians, had been taken to the Aghdam mosque. "We have not counted the bodies. But the figure seems reasonable. It is not a fantasy," said Mr Zen Ruffinen. "We have some idea as we have handed over body bags and products for washing the dead."

The Washington Times, REPORTS OF THE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE ASERBAIJAN, 3 March 1992 by Brian Killen, Agdam, Azerbaijan

Dozens of bodies lay strewn across death fields in Khojaly, evidence of a horrific massacre.

The Independent, London, 12 June 1992, WARNING

"People were waving to us for help. We saw three dead children and one two-year-old alive next to one dead woman. He was pulling her by the arm to make her mother get up. We tried to land, but the Armenians started firing at our helicopter and we had to go back."

The Independent, London, 12 June 1992, Frederique Lengaigne / Reuter

... "At about 11 o'clock, there was a bombardment we had never heard before, eight or nine weapons, artillery, heavy machine guns, lots of them," said Mr Sadikov. To escape, we had to reach Aghdam about 15 miles away. "Then we were spotted ... and the Armenians opened fire," said Mr Sadikov, only 10 of his group of 80 people made it through, including his wife and son. Seven of his closest relatives were killed, including his 67-year-old elder brother. "I only had time to bend down and cover his face with a hat," he said...

BBC, Morning News, 3 March 1992.

A very disturbing picture showed many bodies of civilians lifted from the mountain. A reporter said that he, a cameraman and Western journalists saw over 100 bodies of men, women and children killed by Armenians. They were shot from the head at a distance of one metre. The image also shows around ten bodies (mostly women and children) shot in the head.

The Washington Times, REPORTERS OF THE STARTS OF AZERBAIJAN 3 March 1992 by Brian Killen, Aghdam, Azerbaijan

 ... Six other bodies lay prostrate, fully clothed, with frozen limbs in the position in which they had been killed. Their faces were black with cold...

Newsweek

Slaughter'S FACE, Pascal Privat with Steve Le Vine, Moscow, March 1992

... Last week, Azerbaijan was once again a crypt: a place of mourning for refugees and dozens of mutilated corpses dragged off to a makeshift morgue behind a mosque. They, ordinary Azerbaijani men, women and children from Khojaly, a small town in Karabakh seized by Armenian forces on 25-26 February, were killed at close range while trying to flee...

The Times, 2 March 1992.

...Anatoly Levin came under fire while flying to investigate a massacre of refugees by Armenian troops. "Flying low over the snow-covered hills, we saw scattered corpses. Apparently, the refugees had been shot on the run.... Back in Agdam, we examined the bodies that had been picked up by a civilian helicopter. Two old people and a little girl were covered in blood, their limbs twisted by cold and rigor mortis. They had been shot ...

The New York Times, Tuesday, March 3, 1992.

Slaughter at Armenians

Trucks with bodies Near Aghdam, Reuters photographer Frederic Lengen saw two trucks full of Azerbaijani bodies. "Some had their heads cut off and many had been burned".

TIME, A MASSACRE UNCOVERED BY

Anatoly Lieven, 3 March 1992.

More than sixty bodies, including those of women and children, were recovered from the hillsides ... confirming claims that Armenian forces had massacred Azeri refugees. Hundreds are missing.

The Washington Post

Thomas Goltz, Agdam, Azerbaijan, February 28, 1992.

...Of seven bodies spotted here today, two were children and three women, one shot in the chest at close range. There are also men with multiple stab wounds among the 120 refugees being treated at the Agdam hospital...

Many revanchists now living in Yerevan, "Artsakh" separatists in Khankendi and "Ivanyans" living in "trophy" houses have been involved in the horrors described above. Therefore, instead of shouting about a "genocidal blockade" to the whole world, they need to realize their responsibility for the crimes against humanity - genocide in Khojaly. Of course, all perpetrators cannot be brought to justice, many of them died a natural death, such as Christopher Ivanyan. But there are those who are still trying to revive the separatist "Artsakh" project, rekindling the bloody war and adding new atrocities to their past crimes.

George Mazniashvili