The fight for freedom and independence has been a rudimentary subject in human history. People around the world have contended against abuse, annexation, occupation, and inequality in pursuit of their fundamental rights like integrity and nobility. While some movements have been victorious, many others ended in catastrophe, with millions of lives lost and many communities irremediably suffering. The Khojaly massacre of Azerbaijan is one of the most disastrous events in the history of Azerbaijan, linked to the wider context of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
In 1992, the region of Nagorno-Karabakh within Azerbaijan became a cynosure of violent conflict between Armenians and Azerbaijanis after the Soviet Union disintegrated. Both sides took control of the area, leading to grievous fighting and the loss of lives. Khojaly, a town in Azerbaijan, became a metaphor for this dispute. On the night of February 25-26, 1992, Armenian military forces launched a full-scale attack on the town. The wholesale killing and slaughter that followed is one of the most horrifying examples of civilian suffering during the war.
Khojaly was surrounded by Armenian forces, and regardless of the efforts of citizens to make a quick exit, thousands were confined. The enemy bombarded the town with artillery gun rounds and heavy weapons of all kinds. Approximately 613 Azerbaijani civilians were executed, including 106 women, 63 children, and 70 elderly people. Many were killed while others died in the freezing temperature after narrowly escaping into the nearby mountains, being seized by gunfire hail, or being blood bathed in the open. Thousands of Khojaly’s residents were displaced, and many were left wounded and traumatized.
While writing about the Khojaly massacre, I asked a colleague of mine if she knew someone who had witnessed this tragic incident in his or her childhood, and I was given the contact number of Aliya Xanim, who narrates her story. It has been translated into English from the Azerbaijani language and might not make sense somewhere but was kept in original words to keep the originality of emotions involved in it.
“I am Abishova Aliye, a living witness of the Khojaly tragedy. On the night of February 25-26, 1992, the most terrible Khojaly tragedy of the 20th century happened. It was around 11 p.m. Khojaly was surrounded by 4 sides. Our exits were closed. I was 10 years old at the time of that tragedy. I remember that day like today. I’m scared. It’s like a ghost following me everywhere. That night, around 11 p.m., Khojaly was under fire from 4 sides with cannons and rockets. When we entered the basement, we couldn’t even put on shoes on our feet. We entered the dark basement barefoot and naked. Everywhere was on fire.
The people of Khojaly were forced to leave Khojaly on the night of the 25th to the 26th. We stayed in the basement. We found out in the morning that the Armenians had already captured Khojaly. We wanted to get out of the basement and run to the forest. But the Armenians buried us. There was a 5-story building we visited there. They also besieged this place. A strong battle was going on here. The screams of women and children could be heard. My cousin was martyred in the battle in that 5-story building, and my uncle was wounded.
When they retreated from the 5-story building around evening, we entered the forest, barefooted and bareheaded. There was a river called Gargar, and we entered the forest barefooted in snowy and foggy weather. The forest was full of corpses of the Khojaly community. They brutally killed the people who went before us. When we entered the forest, the Armenians saw us. We hid among the trees. They killed people so brutally that children’s eyes were gouged out, old people’s heads were cut off, and women’s breasts were cut off.
We traveled through the forest for 3 days; half of the people who came with us were captured. My father was martyred. My mother, me, and my 2 sisters went to Agdam City. After 3 days, we came and got out together with our surviving people. I remember halfway, then I froze from the cold. My mother knew I was dead and brought my body. In Aghdam, she saw me alive among the corpses in the hospital. Then in Baku, my family and I were treated for a long time in the hospital. My legs had no feeling. The doctors told my mother that my leg would be amputated.
On what day was my leg operated on? I was going to be cut, the last time the doctors said we were missing, I felt it when they injected me in the leg. That day in the hospital was like a festive atmosphere among the doctors. We left the hospital after 6 months. We recovered, but the wounds inflicted by the Armenians on us never healed. I lost my childhood on that terrible night, Sheraz.
Today, however, the souls of our martyrs are happy. Khojaly is now free. As a result of the foreign and domestic policy of Mr. President Ilham Aliyev, the power of our army, and the unity of our people, our lands were liberated. Today, my mother and sister live in our liberated Khojaly. A new beautiful Karabakh is being built. We will return to our native Khojaly after the Berpa works are finished. Today we are proud. Our communities are free. Karabakh is ours; Karabakh is Azerbaijan.”
The struggle for freedom and sovereignty often comes with unlimited sacrifices. The Khojaly massacre, like other disastrous events in history, reinforced the threat of racial and political conflicts and the dreadful toll they took on civilian populations. It also highlights the complex and often devastating consequences of wars fought for national sovereignty. In the case of Khojaly, the Azerbaijanis suffered massive losses. The mass movement of people, the loss of innocent lives, and the undergoing damage haunts generations. Fundamentally, the Khojaly massacre serves as a compelling reminder of the need for pleasant solutions to disputes and the significance of addressing historical injustices to avert the reiteration of such savagery.
The Khojaly massacre is a reminder that harmony and peacefulness are breakable and that we must never forget the destructive consequences of loathing bigoty, and brutality. But it is also a reminder of the supremacy of the human spirit — that even in the pitch-black junctures in life, the remembrance of the innocent can twinkle through, directing newer generations toward fairness, reuniting, and the chase of enduring peace.
May the victims of Khojaly rest in peace, and may their memories serve as a bright ray of hope for a world where such disasters, devastations, and misfortunes are never empowered to reappear.
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Sheraz Mehmood Khan is a Research Scholar and a candidate for a PhD in International Relations at Western Caspian University, Baku, Azerbaijan.