Thirty-four years have passed since the massacre committed by Armenian armed forces in the Garadaghli village of the Khojavand district.
According to the Operative Information Center-OMM, Armenian military units, supported by the personnel and heavy equipment of the 366th motorized rifle regiment stationed in Khankendi, launched an assault on the Azerbaijani-populated village of Garadaghli starting February 15, 1992. After two days of heavy fighting, the village was occupied on February 17.
During the occupation, the village was completely destroyed, and a brutal massacre was carried out against the peaceful, unarmed population, including innocent children, women, and the elderly. As a result of the tragedy, out of 117 village residents taken hostage from Garadaghli, nearly 80 were murdered with particular cruelty, 6 went missing, and based on witness testimonies, 9 were confirmed to have been taken captive.
Witness accounts reveal that 43 of the captured Azerbaijanis were shot dead just 2 kilometers from Khankendi, with some subsequently beheaded. The Garadaghli tragedy is regarded as one of the most horrific pages of the First Garabagh War, occurring just days before the Khojaly Genocide. The systematic nature of the violence in Garadaghli is cited by international observers and Azerbaijani authorities as evidence of a policy of ethnic cleansing aimed at displacing the local Azerbaijani population from their ancestral lands.
