The State Security Service of Azerbaijan, as earlier reported, arrested one of the Khojaly massacre perpetrators Rashid Beglaryan in August 2023, AzVision.az reports.
During the interrogation, Beglaryan, confessing his involvement in the Khojaly massacre of February 1992, said that false promises were made to the surviving Azerbaijani civilians that they could safely pass through the Asgaran district and reach Aghdam. Then up to 200 civilians, mostly women, children, and the elderly, were ambushed near Asgaran fortress.
Beglaryan, during his testimony to the investigation, noted that when Armenian armed groups, of which he was member, opened fire, the women and children began to scream, those who were able to escape fled towards Aghdam, and the bodies of the dead remained lying there [near Asgaran fortress].
"After we stopped shooting, we approached the corpses and examined them. If someone was still alive, we shot them. Then we began to remove valuables from them. This area was full of bodies of Khojaly residents. The bodies lay here about a week, after which they were buried,” he added.
During the investigative actions on the spot carried out by the State Security Service, the accused in the criminal case, Beglaryan, in his testimony showed the places of mass graves of Azerbaijanis near the Asgaran fortress, killed during the Khojaly massacre.
Based on the testimony, the working group of the State Commission of Azerbaijan for Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons carried out search and excavation work near the mentioned fortress.
An employee of the Working Group of the State Commission of Azerbaijan on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons Zaur Ismayilov said that the remains in a mass grave found in Asgaran are believed to belong to Khojaly residents.
A burial with the remains of at least eight people was found on the specified territory. It is not excluded that other remains will be found during the search work, which will continue in the future.
A visit of media representatives has been organized to the scene. During the visit, along with representatives of local media, the territory was also inspected by 35 representatives of foreign media (Serbia, Türkiye, Morocco, Peru, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Russia).
The visitors were informed that further the human remains will be exhumed from the area and transferred to the appropriate laboratories for identification.
On the night of February 25-26, 1992, Armenian military formations, with the support of the 366th motorized rifle regiment stationed in Khankendi, committed massacre against the population of the city of Khojaly.
As a result of this bloody massacre, 613 people, including 106 women, 63 children, and 70 older people were killed, 8 families were completely wiped out, 25 children lost both parents, 130 children lost one of their parents, 487 people were seriously injured, 1,275 people were taken hostage, and the fate of 150 of them is still unknown.
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