By Rachel Avraham
Rahila Rashid qizi Hajiyeva, a Khojaly genocide survivor, related in Khojaly: A Crime against Humanity: “The Armenians seized Khojaly during the night of February 25, 1992. They burned houses, killed innocent people, and plundered our property. The people were forced to flee from their homes. But we could not leave our house. The Armenians came into our house and captured us. The Armenians raped us several times. They beat us with machine gun barrels and bludgeons and didn’t give us any food. A man whose name was Karo was among the Armenians who tortured us. He was even more cruel than the others. He was tying captives arms and legs, and then beating and breaking them with a baton. He inserted burning cigarettes into their eyes and different parts of their bodies and raped women.”
Bloody events that occurred throughout human history remain in our hearts and minds forever. From the Holocaust to the Rwandan Genocide to Khojaly, we must always stress not only “Never AGAIN” but bear witness for the sake of the victims. Their testimony demonstrates to us the importance of preserving humanism in the face of genocide and crimes against humanity. To do anything less than remember, bear witness and vow to fight injustice in every place in the world would be to insult the victims of crimes against humanity across the globe.
For as Elie Wiesel once said, “The opposite of love is not hate. It is indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness. İt’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy. It’s indifference. And the opposite of death is not death. İt’s indifference.” Indeed, to sit back, watch atrocities occur and do nothing is also a grave evil for as Edmund Burke once said, “The only thing neccessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.”
Within one horrendous day in 1992, 613 Azerbaijanis were massacred. This figure includes 63 children, 106 women and 70 elderly people. Eight families were completely annihilated. 56 people were tortured to death. 130 children became orphans. 487 people were permanently disabled. 1,275 people were captured. 150 others went missing. The city of Khojaly was completely burned to the ground. Many of the civilians within the city were beheaded, had their eyes gouged out, were skinned, burned alive or otherwise disfigured. As Le Monde reported at the time, “Foreign journalists in Aghdam saw three corpses with their heads and nails removed among the women and children killed in Khojaly. This is not Azeri propaganda, but reality.” Aside from the genocide in Khojaly, over 100 other Azerbaijani villages were destroyed in the First Karabakh War.
As we approach Khojaly Genocide Memorial Day, we must remember how the victims of this horrific crime against humanity went from experiencing unspeakable horror to building up a nation dedicated to pluralism, tolarism, and multiculturalism. A nation that serves as a bridge between East and West, promoting modern technology with a Caspian flare. Today, Azerbaijan remains an island of stability neighboring a sea of regressive regimes and remains resilient against all forms of oppression.
Azerbaijanis pride themselves on their open-mindedness. They attempt to learn from the virtues of all major religious faiths: Tengrism and fire worship, Manichaeism and Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Modern Azerbaijan is also a major proponent of globalism and seeks to balance all of its economic and political interests with its progressive vision, so that they can continue to survive in the modern era. Azerbaijan is a peace loving country that prides itself on coexistence, multiculturalism and tolerant thinking. With their strong patriotism, they demonstrate their hospitality, their humanity and their rich cultural heritage.
The Azerbaijani people have made many discoveries and innovations that have changed the universe in a positive way. Lev Davidovich Landau, an Azerbaijani Jewish physicist, won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1962 for “his pioneering theories for condensed matter, especially liquid helium.” The Azykh cave, one of the first human settlements in the planet that is located in Azerbaijan, is recognized as an important cultural monument. It should be noted that after the historic victory of Azerbaijan in 2020, the Azikh cave, which had been under occupation for many years, was reunited with its ancestral homeland. The pure spirit of this place returned to its rightful owners.
Azerbaijan’s national and spiritual wealth is a gift that it wishes to bestow on future generations. The great Azerbaijani poet Nizami Ganjavi wrote the great classical work The Khansa of Nizami. The Khansa is a lavish type of poetry that was popular in the Persian and Moghul courts. Nizami Ganjavi is considered the greatest among the medieval Persian-style poets. It is no coincidence that UNESCO declared this year the Year of Nizami in the Republic of Azerbaijan in honor of the 880th birthday of this great poet.
The intellectualism of the Azerbaijani people has taught them the importance of seeking peace for the sake of justice. They believe that the beauty that surrounds us will save the world, finding solace in the holy scriptures of all faiths, with special emphasis on the Torah, the New Testament and the Quran. They believe that these holy books all have important lessons to teach humanity. The Azerbaijani people, despite their vast accomplishments, never forget the atrocities that were committed against the innocent women, children and elderly of their nation.
As a civilized nation, the Azerbaijani people condemn all genocides, massacres, acts of terrorism, acts of aggression and all forms of bigotry and hatred across the globe. They respect the right of every individual to live as he or she desires. They stand strongly against all crimes against humanity, from the Holocaust to Rwanda to Bosnia to the My Lai and Khatyn massacres. They seek to end all horrific crimes against humanity across the globe and to punish the perpetrators of every genocide. Crimes against humanity and genocides must never go unpunished. Such acts must be condemned by the community of nations. On February 26, as Azerbaijanis across the world commemorate Khojaly Genocide Day, the Azerbaijani nation calls upon the International Court of Justice to give the Azerbaijani victims the long awaited justice that they deserve.
