Armenian Embassy: Azeri leadership almost completely mastered the art of distorting facts in order to avoid responsibility for own crimes

ArmInfo. Representing only one's own interpretation of history is the original style of the leadership of Azerbaijan, which resembles the Goebbelsian ideology - "if you utter a big enough lie and repeat it, people will eventually believe in it."

According to Georgia-Online, this is stated in the statement of the Armenian Embassy in Georgia, circulated in response to the message of the Azeri embassy in Georgia in connection with the Khojaly events.

The Armenian diplomatic mission recalls that since the last years of the existence of the USSR, the self- determined people of Artsakh is struggling to recognize their status guaranteed by international law. "The legitimate demands of the people of Artsakh for the implementation of their right to self-determination were met with anti-Armenian pogroms in the Azeri city of Sumgait. These events, carried out under the slogan" Death to Armenians ", were the embodiment of the policy of xenophobia, ethnic cleansing and deportation of Armenians, conducted by the leadership of Azerbaijan, it was these atrocities that caused the Nobel Prize winner Andrei Sakharov to write: "If someone could doubt this before Sumgait, then after this tragedy did not remain no moral right to insist on the preservation of Artsakh as part of Azerbaijan. If the response of official Baku to the aspiration of the people of Artsakh to implement their right to self- determination was the pogroms and ethnic cleansing of the Armenian population, then the reaction to their right implementation in 1991, based on the current at that time Soviet legislation and norms of international law, was a large-scale war unleashed by Azerbaijan against Artsakh's independence, accompanied by gross violations of international humanitarian law," the statement of the Armenian Embassy reads.

The diplomatic mission recalled that 25 years ago the armed forces of Azerbaijan launched a multi-month artillery shelling of Stepanakert, which at that time turned into a refuge for refugees fleeing pogroms in Sumgait, Baku and other cities of Azerbaijan. "On February 13, 1992, in violation of international conventions, Azerbaijan began using BM-21 Grad rocket launchers to fire the residential areas of Stepanakert, Khojalu was one of seven firing points used for shelling Stepanakert. Back in Soviet times, Khojaly was of strategic importance, since it is located at the crossroads connecting Stepanakert with other regions of Artsakh. In addition, in the 1970s, alongside Khojaly, the only airport in Artsakh was built, which in time the blockade of Artsakh was the only way to the outside world. Thus, by 1992 it became obvious that neutralization of the Khojaly fire point was an imperative for the physical preservation of the population of Stepanakert and Artsakh as a whole. The operation to neutralize the Khojaly firing point began on February 25, 1992. For several months before the start of the operation, the self-defense forces of Artsakh through all possible means informed the Azerbaijani side about this operation, its objectives and humanitarian corridor, left for the evacuation of the civilians," the embassy said.

The Armenian Embassy in Georgia also stressed that Azerbaijan continues to distort the facts that accompany the bloody events near the city of Agdam, which they call the "Khojaly tragedy". "Only facts about these events raise a lot of questions and the authorities of Azerbaijan. So why did not Azerbaijan manage to evacuate the residents of Khojalu? An excerpt from an interview with Ramiz Fataliyev, head of the Commission on Khojaly tragedy. "There were four days left before the Khojaly events. On February 22, in the presence of the president, prime minister, head of the KGB and others, a meeting of the National Security Committee took place, during which it was decided not to evacuate the residents of Khojalu.

"As it was noted, the self-defense forces of Artsakh left a humanitarian corridor for Khojaly residents, who reached Aghdam safely. The former Mayor of Khojalu even reached Baku, and now he is a deputy of the Milli Mejlis. Unfortunately, a group of Khojalu residents who successfully crossed the territories under the control of the Armenian side did not reach Agdam on the territories controlled by the Azeri side, it is not surprising that Azerbaijan has zero tolerance for doubts, suspicions or journalistic investigations concerning the official version of these events. The people who dared to speak the truth about these events were either killed like Genghis Mustafayev, or imprisoned, as a journalist Eynulla Fatullayev, or were sent into exile as the first president of Azerbaijan. Let us not forget that over 700 Khojaly residents did not leave the village and were taken to Stepanakert, where they were provided with food and medical assistance. Two days later they were transferred to the Azeri side without any preconditions.

The leadership of Azerbaijan has not yet answered these questions posed by the Azerbaijanis themselves. At the same time, it almost completely mastered the art of distorting the above-mentioned facts in order to blame others for their own crimes and avoid responsibility, while also trying to create a fictitious counterbalance to the mass murders committed against Armenians in Sumgait, Kirovabad and Maraga," the Armenian Embassy said.