From: ko@cns.umist.ac.uk (Kutluk Ozguven)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish,talk.politics.soviet,soc.rights.human,talk.politics.mideast,soc.culture.europe
Subject: Re: Ousted Azeri President Says Claim of Armenian Massacre was Staged !!
Keywords: Ayaz Mutalibov's interview with a Czech journalist
Date: 14 Apr 92 17:50:18 GMT
Organization: UMIST, Manchester, England.

dbd@urartu.SDPA.org (David Davidian) writes:


>The following is an Azeri explanation for the Azeri media blitz regarding a
>claim of an Armenian massacre of Azeris.

>This explanation is noteworthy for is comes from the mouth of the "former"
>Azeri President Ayaz Mutalibov! Anti-Armenian fascists -- read this closely!

>       AZERI LEADER, AYAZ MUTALIBOV SAYS "MASSACRE INCIDENT" WAS STAGED

>The Czechoslovak journalist Dana Mazalova recently conducted a Moscow 
>interview with ousted Azerbaijani President Ayaz Mutalibov. The following is 
>an excerpt from that interview, which can be seen in the April 2, 1992 issue 
>of _Nizavisimaya Gazeta_.

>MAZALOVA: What are your thoughts about the incident in Khodjalu, which was
>          followed by your resignation? Corpses from the fighting in Khodjalu
>          have been found not far from Aghdam. It appears that these people
>          were initially shot in the foot to prevent them to move further,
>          after which they were hit with axes. On February 19, my colleagues
>          had filmed these corpses. On March 2, the same corpses were shown
>          scalped. It seems like weird games.

>MUTALIBOV: Those residents who survived the Khodjalu incidents have stated
>           that whatever happened there was orchestrated only to create the
>           scenario for my resignation. There were certain elements working
>           the overthrow of the President. I highly doubt that the Armenians
>           would provide revealing documents to the Azerbaijanis. I can only
>           assume that certain people were interested in using those pictures
>           at the plenary session of the Azerbaijani Supreme Council to place
>           the focus of the attention on my person.

>My Comments to the fascist crowd:

>Perhaps our net-fascists can chew on this and then pass it to their fellow


The claim that you made on the 26/27 February 1992 Khojaly massacre
was that there were no massacre, the victims relatives were all lying,
the mutilated babies and cut off heads were to impress westerners, and
the hundreds of scattered corpses were carried to mountains to pressure
innocent Armenian government.  Your lies turned out to be what they are,
when western journalists visited the place and investigated the incident,
and concluded that over 1000 Azeri *civilians* including children, and elderly
were massacred by Armenian militia men on 26/27 February. I can provide 
anyone with the tens of Western newsreports on this.  

As for the article, which appears in a pro-Moscow paper, the reporter could 
not took pictures of them on 19th because the massacre took place 7 days later.
Any independent investigator could see whether a body has waited more than 
7 days in open. This is absolutely incredible that hundreds of bodies are shot
on 19 February, in an incident we did not hear to cause hundreds of lives,
and stored at freezer in Agdam, then sent back to mountains after heads cut
off. Then the thousands of relatives, according to this theory, were taught
where to cry, where to blame, and how to be consistent when journalists came.
And this collossal organization is to be handled by a country that has no
regular military or intelligence. And the whole organization is to be done
without the notice of western intelligence services.   That cannot be believed
by any human being. That is not even funny, when over 1000 refugees killed
on the way to Agdam.

The above article, which I seriously doubt about its reliability, does not
give us any evidence that the whole massacre, the greatest on 
European soil since WW2 in terms of its brutality, is a set up and
careful cutting-and-glueing of pictures. Muttalibov, who is accused of
indifference to the war in Karabakh while fighting for his ex-communist
establishment, says that the massacre is used against him. He says the
pictures otherwise could not be gotten by dissidents, if there were no
conspiracy to throw him off from power. Let us think that there is
an international evil conspiracy to throw him out and the whole Khojaly
massacre is overseen by people to achive that. Does that mean that the
Armenian criminals are cleaned off from the massacre they commited ? 
Even the against-Muttalibov-world conspiracy theory had been true,
does that mean that the Armenian militia men are justified in taking
off the eyes of babiesm cutting heads, and raping in cold blood, and
full-patriotism ? Davidian lies again. As an Armenian official is 
reported by UPI to say about the massacre : "I am not surprised".

No, the Khojaly Massacre 26/27 Feb 1992 is a fact, is proven and
reported by British journalists, and will remain as a dark page in
history to show how lies and probaganda can turn an ethnic group
into criminal. The only way for Armenians not to be part of the crime
is to acknowledge these crimes and collaborate with international
organizations and agreements to stop the bloody War in Karabakh.

As for Davidian's MET University reference, it is not only METU
that knows and condemnes the massacre. Here in Manchester, UK, 
most people have watched the hundreds of massacred bodies and crying 
mothers in all TV channels and did condemn it when a 
Stop the war in Karabakh  piece march is organized.

I beleive that Davidian's lies about the innocence of Armenian
militia men is not shared by rational Armenians. I believe people
cannot be that blind. 

Towards a peaceful Caucasus, 

Kutluk Ozguven