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Azerbaijani Diaspora sends letter to US President related to Khojali massacre

30 January 2010 04:40 (UTC +04:00)

Washington. Isabel Levineâ€“APA. Hundreds of American Azerbaijanis and US citizens have sent a letter to US President Barack Obama, Vice-president Joe Biden, US Congressmen and other senior officials to remind about the Khojali massacre, APA reports quoting its Washington DC correspondent. Azerbaijani Diaspora in US started a new campaign â€“ Khojali Mssacre 18th anniversary.

The letter asks the addresses for a formal remembrance and helping in seeking support for one of biggest massacres of the century.

Reminding about the history of the Massacre, the authors are pointing out that, on the night of February 25-26, 1992, Armenian forces surrounded and attacked the town of Khojaly in Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, brutally massacring its fleeing residents.

â€œAs Newsweek reported at the time, "many were killed at close range while trying to flee; some had their faces mutilated, others were scalped" 613 people, including 106 women and 83 children, were tortured to their deaths in freezing temperatures, with hundreds more missing. Over 1,000 people received permanent health damage, 1,275 people were taken hostage, 8 families were fully destroyed. A total of 25 children lost both of their parents and 130 children lost one of them. According to the Human Rights Watch, Khojaly Massacre was "the largest massacre to date in the conflict" over Nagorno-Karabakhâ€ â€“ the letters reminds.

Also, the letter knows that, for 17 years since the Khojaly massacre, a war crime which preceded Srebrenica Massacre, no proper international attention or independent legal assessment was given to this human tragedy.

â€œRepeated denials of the Armenian side often about the fact of massacre are undermined by the words of an incumbent president of Armenia, Serzh Sarkissian, who commanded Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh at the time: "before Khojali, the Azerbaijanis thought that they were joking with us, they thought that the Armenians were people who could not raise their hand against the civilian population. We were able to break that [stereotype]." (Thomas De Waal. Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War, NYU Press, 2004). Many suspected perpetrators may still remain inside Armenia or Armenian-controlled parts of Azerbaijan, but the ongoing occupation of Azerbaijani territories despite 4 UN Security Council resolutions (#822, 853, 874, 884) seriously impedes both investigation of past war crimes and the efforts of international community to bring a lasting peace to the regionâ€ â€“ letters said.

Among those who sent the letter to US Administration are a number of prominent Americans including well-known in baku American journalist Thomas Goltz.