Thirty-three years have passed since the armed forces of the Republic of Armenia, with the involvement of Russia’s 366th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment, committed genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly.
The operation, which flagrantly violated all rules of war as well as international humanitarian law, began on the night of February 25, 1992, and continued through February 26-28. As a result of the genocide, 613 civilians were brutally killed, including 63 children, 106 women, and 70 elderly people. Eight families were completely wiped out. Twenty-five children lost both parents, and 130 lost one parent. A total of 487 people, among them 76 children, were wounded. Additionally, 1,275 people were taken hostage, and the fate of 150 of them, including 68 women and 26 children, remains unknown. Armenia has also failed to provide information about 3,979 other Azerbaijanis who were taken hostage or captured from occupied territories.
The tragic events in Khojaly encompass all three categories of international crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.
The massacre in Khojaly qualifies as genocide due to its systematic aim at exterminating a specific ethnic group inhabiting a defined territory. The operation’s planners, commanders, and executors achieved their goal by indiscriminately killing a significant share of the population, regardless of age or gender.
It was a crime against humanity. In the aftermath of seizing control of the town, the perpetrators mercilessly targeted civilians, killing people of all ages, subjecting them to torture, taking them hostage, and holding them under prolonged psychological and physical abuse. Atrocities included sexual violence, forced pregnancies, organ removals, and other brutal acts unrelated to military objectives, specifically aimed at civilians.
And, Khojaly was a war crime. The killings, destruction, and widespread violence in Khojaly far exceeded any military necessity. The goal was not only to occupy an administrative area but also to annihilate its population and obliterate the town.
Several years following the Khojaly, a parallel atrocity occurred in Srebrenica, Bosnia in July 1995, where Bosnian Serb forces, under the watch of international peacekeepers, massacred 8,300 men aged 10 to 65 and subjected countless women to mass sexual violence.
Although both historical events share striking similarities, there is a crucial difference: those responsible for Srebrenica were held accountable. In January 2007, the ad hoc International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) classified the Srebrenica massacre as genocide. In 2009, the European Parliament designated July 11, the commencing date of the genocide, as the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica.
In contrast, the Khojaly genocide, the most horrific of numerous war crimes committed in Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region, has yet to receive proper international legal recognition. Due to double standards, no international tribunal has been established to investigate and prosecute the war crimes orchestrated by Armenia’s political and military leadership, local separatist forces, and Russia’s 366th Regiment. Following Azerbaijan’s anti-terror measures in Karabakh on September 19, 2023, several individuals appeared as the leaders of the puppet regime established by Armenia in the legal territory of Karabakh of Azerbaijan, and commanders of armed forces including separatist groups were captured and charged with war crimes. Legal proceedings are currently underway, however no final verdicts have been issued. The determination of their guilt or innocence rests within the court under the jurisdiction. Regrettably, biased narratives on these trials have been circulating globally. Disturbingly, various international human rights organizations, both governmental and non-governmental, have labeled the accused as hostages, disregarding the ongoing judicial process and issuing misleading statements without awaiting legal conclusions.
