[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 29 (Thursday, February 15, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E361-E362]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRAGEDY IN KHOJALY, AZERBAIJAN

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BILL SHUSTER

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 15, 2007

  Mr. SHUSTER. Madam Speaker, one of our greatest strengths as elected 
officials is the opportunity to bring to light truths that are little 
known and command recognition.
  Today, as the Co-chairman of the House Azerbaijan Caucus, I would 
like to bring to the attention of this body the tragedy that took place 
in Khojaly, Azerbaijan, a town and townspeople that were destroyed on 
February 26, 1992. Fifteen years later, there is little attention or 
interest paid to the plight of Khojaly outside of Azerbaijan.
  Sadly, Khojaly, a town in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, 
now under the control of Armenian forces, was the site of the largest 
killing of ethnic Azerbaijani civilians.
  According to Human Rights Watch and other international observers, 
the massacre was committed by the ethnic Armenian armed forces, 
reportedly with the help of the Russian 366th Motor Rifle Regiment. 
This crime led to the death of 613 civilians; including 106 women, 63 
children and 70 elderly men; 1,275 persons were taken hostage, and the 
fate of more than 150 remains unknown.
  As part of the population tried to escape the town of Khojaly, they 
encountered violent ambushes and were murdered. According to the 
Russian organization, Memorial, 200 Azerbaijani corpses were brought 
from Khojaly to Agdam within four days, and it was discovered that they 
were subjected to abuses, torture and mutilation. Human Rights Watch 
stated that ``we place direct responsibility for the civilian deaths 
with Karabakh Armenian forces.''
  At the time, Newsweek Magazine reported: ``Azerbaijan was a charnel 
house again last week: a place of mourning refugees and dozens of 
mangled corpses dragged to a makeshift morgue behind the mosque. They 
were ordinary Azerbaijani men, women and children

[[Page E362]]

of Khojaly, a small village in war-torn Nagorno-Karabakh overrun by 
Armenian forces on 25-26 February. Many were killed at close range 
while trying to flee; some had their faces mutilated, others were 
scalped.''
  Time Magazine stated ``While the details are argued, this much is 
plain: something grim and unconscionable happened in the Azerbaijani 
town of Khojaly two weeks ago. So far, some 200 dead Azerbaijanis, many 
of them mutilated, have been transported out of the town tucked inside 
the Armenian-dominated enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh for burial in 
neighboring Azerbaijan. The total number of deaths--the Azerbaijanis 
claim 1,324 civilians have been slaughtered, most of them women and 
children--is unknown.''
  Members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) 
from Albania, Azerbaijan, and the United Kingdom stated in May 2001 in 
Written Declaration No. 324 that the ``Armenians massacred the whole 
population of Khojaly and fully destroyed the town.''
  Khojaly was the first significant Azerbaijani settlement overrun by 
Armenian forces in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The forces next 
overran the Nagorno-Karabakh districts of Zangilan, Gubadli, Fuzuli, 
Aghdam, and Kalbajar, as well as the towns of Shusha and Lachin. 
Altogether, the occupied territories represent roughly 20 percent of 
the territory of Azerbaijan. And, altogether roughly one million 
Azerbaijanis were evicted from their homes over the course of the 
Armenian-Azerbaijan war.
  On January 25, 2005 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of 
Europe overwhelmingly adopted a resolution highlighting that 
``considerable parts of Azerbaijan's territory are still occupied by 
the Armenian forces and separatist forces are still in control of the 
Nagorno-Karabakh region.''
  Armenian Defense Minister, in an interview with British journalist 
Tomas de Waal openly admitted that ``Before Khojaly the Azerbaijanis 
thought that . . . the Armenians were people who could not raise their 
hands against the civilian population. We were able to break that 
[stereotype].'' Madam Speaker, the tragedy of Khojaly was a crime 
against humanity and I urge Congress to join me in standing with 
Azerbaijanis as they commemorate this tragedy.

                          ____________________