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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
EU-Digest
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