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35
KHOJALY GENOCIDE
By Thomas Goltz, Aghdam, Azerbaijan
The Washington Post, 28 February 1992,
“Nagorno-Karabakh victims buried in Azerbaijani town - refugees
claim hundreds died in Armenian attack”
Officials of the main mosque in this town just east
of the embattled enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh said
they buried 27 bodies today, brought from an Azer-
baijani town inside the enclave that was captured
Wednesday by Armenian militiamen.
Refugees fleeing the fighting in Khojaly, a town of
6,000 northeast of the enclave’s capital, Stepanakert,
claimed that up to 500 people, including women and
children, were killed in the attack. No independent
estimate of deaths was available here. The Aghdam
mosque’s director, Said Sadikov said refugees from
Khojaly had registered the names of 477 victims
with his mosque since Wednesday.
Officials in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, estimat-
ed the deaths in Khojaly at 100, while Armenian of-
ficials in their capital, Yerevan, said only two Azer-
baijanis were killed in the attack. An official from
Baku said here that his government fears Azerbai-
janis would turn against it if they knew how many
had been killed.
Of seven bodies seen here today, two were children
and three were women, one shot through the chest
at what appeared to be close range. Another 120
refugees being treated at Aghdam’s hospital include
many with multiple stab wounds.
The Armenians who attacked Khojaly Tuesday night
“were shooting, shooting, shooting”, said Raisa
Aslanova, who reached Aghdam Wednesday night.
She said her husband and a son-in-law were killed
and her daughter was missing.
Among the refugees who fled here over the moun-
tains from Nagorno-Karabakh were two Turkmen
soldiers from former Soviet Interior Ministry forc-
es who had taken refuge in Khojaly after deserting
from their unit last Friday because, they said, Arme-
nian non-commissioned officers had beaten them
«for being Muslims».
The two deserters claimed their former unit, the
366th Division, was supporting the Armenian mili-
tiamen who captured Khojaly. They said they tried to
help women and children escape. “We were bringing
a group through the mountains when the Armenians
found us and opened fire”, said Agamehmet Mutif,
one of the deserters. “Twelve were killed”.