Photos from Khojaly tragedy, Second Karabakh War exhibited in Tbilisi

The works of Azerbaijani photographers have been presented at an ongoing exhibition in Tbilisi as part of the "Documentary photography in the South Caucasus" project.

Photos of 10 Azerbaijani photographers were included in the "Ground Zero" exhibition, organised with the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Report informs.

Some of the photos reflect the consequences of the Khojaly tragedy and the Second Karabakh War. The “Conflict” documentary footage of the photojournalist Ilgar Jafarov and the photos taken by photographer Sitara Ibrahimova have been presented under the title "Black Garden 2.0".

The massacre of Azerbaijanis in the town of Khojaly has been committed within a broader military campaign by Armenia to seize the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. 

The Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict emerged with the anti-Azerbaijan sentiments in Armenia and later grew into armed intervention in Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territories. A four-year bloody war between the two neighbouring countries ended with a ceasefire in 1994 and saw Armenia occupying 20 per cent of Azerbaijan’s sovereign territory. Over 30,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and one million were expelled from those lands in a brutal ethnic cleansing policy conducted by Armenia.

The Khojaly genocide is considered one of the bloodiest massacres committed by Armenia against ethnic Azerbaijanis. Late into the night on February 25, Armenia’s forces, backed by the Infantry Guard Regiment No. 366 from a then-collapsed Soviet army, assaulted the town of Khojaly, located in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the attack, the Armenian armed forces killed 613 ethnic Azerbaijanis, including 106 women, 63 children, and 70 elderly people; and took another 1,275 as hostages. Another 150 Azerbaijani nationals went missing, and their fates remain unknown to this day. Those suffering major injuries or having been maimed totalled 487, including 76 children.

In the meantime, Azerbaijani Ambassador to Georgia Faig Guliyev also visited the exhibition and viewed the presented documentary photographs.

The exhibition was jointly organised by the Georgian Association of Documentary Photographers and the Adjara Group. Since July 4, Georgian and Azerbaijani photographers have been presented at the exhibition, which will welcome visitors until July 11.