The Huffington Post has presented an article dedicated to the Khojaly genocide, perpetrated by Armenians against Azerbaijanis.
On February 25-26, 1992, the Armenian military, together with the 366th infantry regiment of Soviet troops stationed in Khankendi, committed genocide against the population of the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly. Among those 613 killed in the massacre, there were 63 children, 106 women and 70 old people.
Eight families were totally exterminated, 130 children lost one parent and 25 children lost both. A total of 487 civilians became disabled as a result of the onslaught. Some 1,275 innocent residents were taken hostage, while the fate of 150 people still remains unknown.
The Huffington Post’s article titled ‘Bearing Witness’, written by Annie Lascoe, narrates the story of an Azerbaijani woman, Durdane Aghayeva, who have gone through all those atrocities committed during the Khojaly genocide.
Lascoe says that in February this year she met Durdane, who told her and the other American Jewish women what she had gone through during the tragedy.
“And until that February evening, I had never known of the pain that screams from the earth in that small village in the mountains of Caucasia,” said Lascoe.
Lascoe reminded in her article that she and the others, listening to Aghayeva’s story, have family members, who are genocide victims as well, and said they understood the residual trauma of genocide and connected with the power of storytelling.
The full article can be found at: http://goo.gl/9LmuPw
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council’s four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.
/Trend/
