Investigations of terrorist acts and other grave crimes committed by Armenian separatist troops on the territory of Azerbaijan are continuing, the State Security Service of Azerbaijan told Trend.

As a result of local anti-terrorist measures carried out in September 2023 in the village of Gozlukorpu in Azerbaijan's Kalbajar district, Madat Babayan, who had an AKM machine gun with him, was detained and disarmed.

Babayan is suspected of committing terrorist acts with the aim of inciting ethnic hatred as part of an organized detachment of separatist troops, as well as of committing the Khojaly massacre.

During the investigation, he noted in his testimony that in February 1992 he was a participant in the Khojaly massacre.

As a member of Armenian armed formations, which consisted of Armenian residents of Azerbaijan's Chapar, Gozlu, and Gozlukorpu villages, led by Lieutenant Colonel Arkadi Shirinyan of the Armenian Armed Forces, Babayan participated in uniting in Tazabina village of Khojaly district with other Armenian militants—residents of Yaychi, Heyvaly, and Zaylik villages of Kalbajar district—on February 24, 1992—to kill Azerbaijani civilians in accordance with a pre-determined plan.

Heading from Khankendi towards Khojaly, Armenian militants ambushed and killed more than 150 unarmed civilians (most of them women, children, and elderly) fleeing towards the Asgaran district at around 23:00 (GMT+4) on February 25, 1992. All the residents were shot on the spot with automatic weapons.

Babayan, collecting the corpses of Azerbaijanis on February 26, 1992, noticed how Vamik Petrosyan, Shirin Shirinyan, and other members of the gang committed insulting actions over the bodies of the killed, as well as captured more than 100 civilians in Khojaly.

Furthermore, Babayan stated that on February 26, 1992, he assisted in the establishment of an armed post at the Khojaly-Ballija-Khankendi intersection in the direction of Azerbaijan's Khankendi to ensure the concealment of the facts of the robbery of Azerbaijani property and mass murders committed in the city.

Three days later, while he was stationed at this post, the bodies of Azerbaijanis killed in Khojaly were carried in three trucks and deposited into dug pits on the territory of the left bank (circa 400 meters from the post) of the Gargarchay (river). The inmate also claimed robberies conducted in Khojaly between February and March 1992.

During the investigation, Babayan not only provided detailed information, but also clearly disclosed the locations of criminal activities against citizens. Furthermore, he pointed to areas in Gozlukorpu where he personally buried the bodies of Azerbaijanis arrested and unjustly detained in the village school who died as a result of ill-treatment and torture.

Comprehensive investigations into the aforementioned and other connected crimes are presently underway.

During the first Karabakh war, the Armenian military committed a massacre against the population of Khojaly, which consisted of 7,000 people, on February 26, 1992.

As a result of the massacre, 613 people were killed, including 63 children, 106 women, and 70 elderly persons. During the onslaught, 1,000 civilians were injured. Eight families were fully destroyed; 130 children lost one parent, and 25 lost both. Nearly 1,275 innocent residents were kidnapped, and the fate of 150 others is unknown.

Trend.az