Azerbaijan's MFA's Latest Manipulation Concerning the Khojaly Events and Pashinyan's Speech

The spokesperson of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs commented on November 21 regarding the statements made by the Armenian Prime Minister about the Khojaly incident during a Q&A session with an Azerbaijani ‘blogger’, who is in fact an employee of Azerbaijan’s law enforcement agencies. Layla Abdullayeva once again cited a part of an interview between British researcher Thomas de Waal and former Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan as a counterargument. According to this excerpt, Sargsyan stated, “Before Khojaly, Azerbaijanis thought that ... Armenians are incapable of raising their hands against the civilian population. We managed to break that stereotype.” This interview took place in 2001. Subsequently, this excerpt was published by T. de Waal in his book “Black Garden.” Immediately after its publication, it became a propaganda tool for the Azerbaijani side. However, later on, T. de Waal had to publish the full version of the interview, revealing that the context in which the words were mentioned conveyed an entirely different meaning.

Below is the full excerpt:

“You know, such things are not spoken out loud. They say it might be possible. I would also act like that. First of all, Azerbaijan’s former leader [Ayaz Mutallibov] said that it was not the Armenians, but they themselves, the Azerbaijanis. I’ll say that the truth might be in something else. In any case, Khojaly disgusted all of Karabakh severely at one time, because the airport was located there, because our only connection to Armenia was through air travel, because OMON (Azerbaijani militia special forces) was stationed there. They were checking something there, arresting many people. Moreover, being located directly beneath Stepanakert, they allowed themselves to keep it under fire as well. But I think the most important thing is something else. Before Khojaly, Azerbaijanis thought they were just joking with us. Azerbaijanis thought that Armenians are people who cannot raise their hands against the civilian population. We had to break that all. That’s how it happened. We should also take into account that among those boys were some who had fled from Baku, from Sumgayit. But I think a lot has been exaggerated about it.”

Azerbaijanis needed a pretext to equate something to Sumgayit. But these cannot be compared in any way. Yes, there were indeed civilians in Khojaly. However, alongside the civilian population, there were also soldiers. And when the shell flies, it does not distinguish between a civilian and a soldier; it has no eyes. If civilians stay there despite having a brilliant opportunity to leave, it means they are also participating in combat activities... And they were left a corridor not for them to be shot anywhere, they could have been shot in Khojaly, rather than at the outskirts of Agdam.”

In the interview, S. Sargsyan does not rule out that residents could have been killed during the shelling and the fighting in the city due to military operations. This is despite the fact that the self-defense forces of Nagorno-Karabakh had previously allowed the evacuation of the population. Therefore, even in that case, the responsibility also falls on the Azerbaijani leadership at the time, who refused to evacuate the residents from the war zone.

It is important to highlight that, according to the testimony of the Russian journalist Victoria Ivleva, who was present in Khojaly during the events, she counted only 7 civilian corpses in the settlement, including one in a police uniform. The main photographs of victims among the Khojaly residents circulated by the Azerbaijani side were taken about 10 km away from Khojaly, just 800-900 meters from the positions of the armed units of Azerbaijan’s “Popular Front” movement located in Agdam. As we see from S. Sargsyan’s interview, he refutes the reports that the mentioned individuals were killed by soldiers of the self-defense forces of Artsakh, noting that if they wanted to kill, they would do so in Khojaly, not at the outskirts of Agdam. However, the Azerbaijani side works to bypass this crucial point, presenting S. Sargsyan’s words cut out of context in a favorable light.

It is also important to note that Ramiz Fataliyev, the head of the Azerbaijani commission investigating the Khojaly incidents, stated that the central authorities of Azerbaijan were aware of the attack. Nonetheless, during a Security Council meeting held on February 22, attended by the President of Azerbaijan, the Prime Minister, and the head of the KGB, a decision was made to not evacuate people from Khojaly. R. Fataliyev stated that the main mistake that led to the events in Khojaly was made there.