Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] At the trial of the former leaders of the unrecognized republic of Nagorno-Karabakh in the Baku court, the victims spoke out - Azerbaijanis who were forced to leave Karabakh with the beginning of the movement for its annexation to Armenia.
As reported by the "Caucasian Knot", the Baku Military Court is considering the criminal case of 15 former leaders and residents of Nagorno-Karabakh. They are charged under more than 20 articles, and the case contains 2,548 episodes. Former presidents of the unrecognized republic Bako Sahakyan and Arayik Harutyunyan told the court that the Karabakh army was fully supplied by the Armenian authorities, and former speaker of parliament David Ishkhanyan - that the goal of the military actions was the annexation of Karabakh to Armenia. None of the leaders of the unrecognized republic considered the integration of the Armenian population of the region into Azerbaijan possible, explained the former head of the NKR Foreign Ministry.
There are 15 former Karabakh officials in custody in Azerbaijan, including former presidents Arayik Harutyunyan, Bako Sahakyan and Arkady Ghukasyan, as well as former parliament speaker David Ishkhanyan and former Nagorno-Karabakh state minister Ruben Vardanyan, the latter's case is being heard separately. "Kavkazsky Uzel" has prepared a report " Vardanyan and 15 Karabakh leaders: the main thing about the courts in Baku ".
The trial of 15 former leaders and residents of the unrecognized republic in the Baku Military Court continued today with the testimony of victims who were forced to leave Karabakh after the start of the armed conflict.
A native of Khankendi (the Armenian name is Stepanakert, - note of the "Caucasian Knot") Nazeika Atakishiyeva reported that Azerbaijanis began to be openly persecuted by supporters of Karabakh's annexation to Armenia in February 1988. The woman said that she worked as a weaver at the Karabakh silk factory, where Robert Kocharyan ( later the second president of Armenia, - note of the "Caucasian Knot" ) also worked, lubricating the machines. According to the victim, since February 1988, "bearded men not from Khankendi" began to wait for Azerbaijani employees of the factory at the exit from work. Supporters of the movement for joining Armenia threw stones at them, insulted them, knocked on their doors with calls to "leave", and medical workers refused to provide medical assistance. Also in February 1988, Atakishiyeva's house was looted and destroyed, and the family was forced to leave for Agdam.
Victim Zemfira Abbasova, who also lived in Khankendi, said that she was unable to leave her home after the Miatsum (Reunification in Armenian - note by the "Caucasian Knot") movement began in Karabakh. "They insulted us and put pressure on us, broke into our homes, robbed, destroyed, and destroyed our property. We could not go outside, they threw stones at us. They did not even sell us bread. At that time, I worked in the railway department, and they broke in there too. They demanded that we leave our homes so that Armenians could move in instead of us," Vesti.az quotes her as saying.
Akhmed Akhmedov, a victim, said that he was the only Azerbaijani among 30 students at the Khankendi school. "I was repeatedly insulted as an Azerbaijani. Whenever there was a small conflict, they would shout: "tork, tork", that's what they called the Turks. They created an atmosphere of intolerance. (...) It was 1986, I was in the eighth grade. I had a classmate named Armen Beglaryan, who was sitting at one of the back desks. I heard him say to his deskmate: "Gorbachev promised us that we would join Armenia". That was the first time I learned about these political issues," Azertac quotes him as saying.
According to Akhmedov, ethnic intolerance became even more pronounced starting in January 1988: “Azerbaijanis went to buy bread, but they were not given bread, they were harassed everywhere (...) stones were thrown at Azerbaijani houses and windows were broken.” On February 20, 1988, the car in which he was returning home from a relative in Agdam was shot at in the Askeran region. Akhmedov received a bullet wound to the arm, and two other passengers were killed. “Later I learned that a police officer who lived in Askeran opened fire on us with a machine gun,” he said. The victim added that he had now returned to Khankendi.
The victim, Valida Rasulova, told the court that her husband was shot dead in the village of Karkijahan on September 18, 1988, after armed Armenian forces attacked their home. The victim, Farida Huseynova, claimed that the head of her workshop at the silk factory in Khankendi harassed Azerbaijani workers and even threatened to torture them.
Several victims told the court about the events in the village of Baganis-Ayrym in the Gazakh region on the night of March 23-24, 1990. According to former residents, the village was attacked by Armenian armed groups, houses were looted and burned, and several villagers, as well as a policeman, were killed. Victim Ramiz Adygezalov reported that his wife, a child who was only 39 days old, and other relatives were killed. His fellow villager Vugar Magerramov reported that his father was killed and that "there was a baby among those killed." Following this testimony, prosecutors showed video footage filmed in the village: the footage showed the burned bodies of residents, including Adygezalov's wife and newborn son.
The next court hearing is scheduled for April 14.
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