By Rachel Avraham
This month, Azerbaijanis are commemorating Khojaly Genocide Day. It is a national day of mourning in Azerbaijan that is commemorated every year on February 26 in the memory of the 613 innocent Azerbaijani men, women and children who were slaughtered in one day for the crime of being Azerbaijani. This grave tragedy has been recognized as genocide by Pakistan, Sudan, Czech Republic, Bosnia and Hersegovina, Jordan, Mexico, Columbia, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, Panama and a few other states.
In honor of this important occasion, the Economic Peace Center is hosting a panel titled “Karabakh and the Khojaly Genocide” at the Begin Center on February 28th at 7pm, featuring former Minister Ayoob Kara, myself, prominent Middle East scholar Dr. Mordechai Kedar, Azerbaijani activist Lev Spivak and many other speakers. However, Israelis may be wondering, how is the Khojaly Genocide relevant for our times?
It is relevant because the crime of genocide has not yet been eliminated in our world, as the ongoing Chinese genocide against the Uighurs demonstrates. It started in 2017 and is still ongoing, yet the international community has chosen to ignore it and to host the Olympic Games in Beijing, as if nothing were happening.
It is relevant because elements of the French Jewish community have chosen to support the Armenian cause, while remaining deafly silent about the Khojaly Genocide in the 1990’s. In fact, much of the rest of the world has chosen to back Armenia merely because they are Christian, while completely ignoring what happened during the Khojaly Genocide.
Rabbi Israel Barouk wrote in Khojaly: A Crime against Humanity, “Of those who perished, 56 people were killed with particular cruelty: burning alive, scalping, beheading, gouging out of the eyes and the bayoneting of pregnant women in the abdomen.” An additional 1,275 people were taken hostage. Many of those who were held hostage were raped and tortured in the cruelest manner.
Elie Wiesel, author of the Night Trilogy, once said, “When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must at that moment become the center of the universe.”
As an Israeli American journalist, I was raised to believe that it is important to take a stance against all genocides and crimes against humanity. For today, it could be innocent Azerbaijani civilians. Tomorrow it could be another nation and then the following day, it could be my people. As German dissident Martin Niemoller once stated, “First, they came for the socialists and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then, they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then, they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.”
For this reason, I have dedicated my professional life to speaking out against terrorism, war crimes and crimes against humanity, like what happened in Khojaly. I believe that if G-d gave us the privilege of living in a free democratic society, we have a moral duty to speak out in favor of those who are less fortunate than us, to be a voice for the voiceless underdogs, whose narratives have been silenced in a cruel world that has lost its moral compass.
The Talmud says, “Whoever saves a life, it is as if he saved the world entire.” However, as Jews, I believe that we should not just try to save lives, but also speak out against evil and to stand up for victims. For by bearing witness to their suffering, we are giving them the tools to persevere and endure an inhumane reality.
I believe that our history as Jewish people, from the destruction of the Second Temple to the failure of the Bar Kochba Revolt, from the blood libels and forced conversions of medieval Christendom to the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the Russian Pogroms, and the Holocaust, all taught us to have a big heart for the oppressed. As Exodus 23:9 says, “You know the feelings of the stranger, as you yourselves have been strangers in the land of Egypt.” As Midrashim Tehillim Chapter 22 proclaims, “Had I not fallen, I could not have arisen; had I not sat in the darkness, G-d would not have been a light for me.”
Azerbaijani people are not too different from us. Some parts of the Old City of Baku have an uncanny resemblance to the Old City of Jerusalem, with its beautiful antique looking stone walls, Middle Eastern markets, beautiful restaurants, and the fragrance of special jams, baklava (Pahlavi in Azeri), saffron and other spices in the air. Both in Baku and the Old City of Jerusalem, they like to sell oriental tea sets, unique looking carpets, and other souvenirs that are reminiscent of 1001 Arabian Nights.
And both Baku and Jerusalem contain fables about forbidden love. Baku’s Maiden Tower tells a Romeo and Juliet like story of a girl choosing to die rather than marry a man she did not love. Similarly, the Tower of King David was built by a king, who fell in love with a married woman and sought to get rid of her husband, just so that he could marry her.
And like Jewish people, Azerbaijan’s history is also laden with tragedy. Azerbaijan was originally a democratic country, the first of its kind in the Muslim world who not only granted minorities equality but also gave women the right to vote in 1919, a good year before the United States did likewise. However, in 1920, Azerbaijan was invaded by communism and thus became part of the Soviet Union. For decades, the people of Azerbaijan were repressed, which culminated in the Black January massacre.
And when the Azerbaijani people tried to break free, they found themselves in open conflict with Armenia, which resulted in the Khojaly genocide and one fifth of Azerbaijan being ethnically cleansed of Azerbaijanis. Only recently, the Azerbaijani people were able to reclaim their lands, yet they constantly receive condemnations from the Biden administration and other Democrats in the US Congress, just like Israel has. However, like Israelis, Azerbaijani’s dream of a better tomorrow.
The State of Israel has always stood beside Azerbaijan, as it is one of our few allies in the Muslim world. As survivors of the world’s greatest genocide, we also have a moral obligation to stand beside the victims of the Khojaly genocide in the face of a world that would rather stand behind the perpetrators. Indeed, the international community must stop making excuses for Armenia, wake up and smell the coffee, if they want the peace to last in the Caucasus.
As then Israeli President Reuven Rivlin stated at the UN General Assembly in 2015, “On this day we must ask ourselves honestly, is our struggle, the struggle of this Assembly, against genocide, effective enough? Was it effective enough then in Bosnia? Was it effective in preventing the killing in Khojaly? Of Afghans by the Taliban? Is it effective enough today in Syria? Or in the face of the atrocities of Boko Haram in Nigeria? Are we shedding too many tears, and taking too little action?”
He concluded, “I am afraid that the United Nations “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide” has remained a merely symbolic document. It did not succeed in realizing its commitment and fulfilling the objective that underpins the establishment of the United Nations Organization. Therefore, this institution, where we are standing today, has a duty of unparalleled challenge not to make do with statements but rather to push ahead with decisive action.” Had the international community heeded his advice, the world would be a better place today for Azerbaijanis, Israelis, and the entire world.
