Armenian massacre of Azerbaijanis

There are commemoration services to remember the 1992 Armenian massacre of Azerbaijanis in the city of Hocali.

A wreath-laying ceremony was hosted in Baku by President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, who made his way on Saturday to the Statue of Hocali Massacre in commemoration of the mass murder that happened 14 years ago when the Armenians invaded the Upper Karabagh. Azeri and Turkic societies in the United States and Germany also conducted memorial services outside the Armenian Embassy in Washington, turning into protests at times.

Armenians killed a total of 613 people, 63 children and 106 women, in the Hocali massacre. The massacre killed 70 families and captivated 1,275. Although 14 years have passed since the mass murder, there are no reports on the whereabouts of 150 people. The story of the Hocali mass murder is as follows: It happened when the Armenian troops invaded the Hocali town of the Upper Karabagh on 25 February 1992.

The Armenians began to attack the city of Hocali in an attempt to invade it with assistance from the Russian troops in the Hankenti city of the Upper Karabagh. It was very difficult for the Azerbaijanis in the city of Hocali to resist the Armenians as well as the Russians. The Azerbaijani civilians left the city early in the morning on February 26 in an effort to get to Agdam City. However, they were shot dead in the Armenian ambush. The Armenian troops killed the entire population of older people along with children, but they reserved the young boys and girls for captivation.

It was on February 28 when a group of journalists on board arrived at the scene only to be shocked by the real extent of the massacre. They had arrived there in order to collect the dead bodies, even though they ran the risk of being shot. Corpses were scattered all around the area. Gruesome scenes of people shot dead in the head, eyes pulled out, disassembled body parts, and those being beheaded and crush under heavy tanks were everywhere.

The Azerbaijanis were able to retrieve four dead bodies before Armenians opened fire. A day after another group of people were brought in by helicopters to collect the rest of the corpses. The Russian and Armenian soldiers responsible for all that had happened were identified in an investigation in the mass murder of Armenians. However, an internationally recognizable prosecution has not yet been conducted for those soldiers. The Armenians still keep one fifth of the Azerbaijani territories under occupation. Around one million Azerbaijanis live under hard conditions in other parts of the country as they were forced to leave the Armenian-occupied parts of the country.