[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 25 (Thursday, February 25, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E239-E240]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          THE KHOJALY TRAGEDY

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BILL SHUSTER

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 25, 2010

  Mr. SHUSTER. Madam Speaker, one of our greatest strengths as elected 
officials is the

[[Page E240]]

opportunity to bring to light truths that are little known and command 
recognition.
  Today, as the cochairman 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.
  At the time, the Khojaly tragedy was widely covered by the 
international media, including the Boston Globe, Washington Post, New 
York Times, Financial Times, and many other European and Russian news 
agencies.
  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. With a population of 
approximately 7,000, Khojaly was one of the largest urban settlements 
of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.
  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. Human Rights 
Watch described the Khojaly Massacre as ``the largest massacre to date 
in the conflict'' over Nagorno-Karabakh. In a 1993 report, the watchdog 
group stated ``there are no exact figures for the number of Azeri 
civilians killed because Karabakh Armenian forces gained control of the 
area after the massacre'' and ``while it is widely accepted that 200 
Azeris were murdered, as many as 500-1,000 may have died.''
  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 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.''
  Azerbaijan has been a strong strategic partner and friend of the 
United States. The tragedy of Khojaly was a crime against humanity and 
I urge my colleagues to join me in standing with Azerbaijanis as they 
commemorate this tragedy.

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