Top official: Armenia declines to reveal locations of Azerbaijani mass graves

Azerbaijani presidential aide Hikmat Hajiyev has said that Armenia continues to refuse to disclose mass grave sites of Azerbaijanis killed in the first Karabakh war in the early 1990s.

He made the remarks on his Twitter account on October 5 to comment on the mass grave found in Khojavand District's Edilli village.

"Mass grave of tortured/killed Azerbaijani militaries by Armenia during the 1st [Karabakh] war identified in Edilli village. Edilli was used as a concentration camp for Azerbaijani hostages by Armenia. 4,000 Azerbaijani militaries/civilians remain missing. Armenia refuses to provide mass grave locations," he wrote.

Mass grave of tortured/killed Azerbaijani militaries by 🇦🇲 during the 1st war identified in Edilli village. Edilli was used as concentration camp for Azerbaijani hostages by Armenia. 4000 Azerbaijani militaries/civilians remain missing. 🇦🇲 refuses to provide mass grave locations. pic.twitter.com/5FkgdaADBI

— Hikmet Hajiyev (@HikmetHajiyev) October 5, 2022

Earlier, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Leyla Abdullayeva commented on this war crime committed by Armenia.

"Another mass grave discovered in Edilli village of Khojavand; the remains of 12 people, identified as servicemen. To the attention of those who speak on war crimes: since 1st Karabakh war 4,000 Azerbaijanis went missing, many of them tortured, killed and buried in mass graves," Abdullayeva tweeted on October 5.

Another mass grave discovered in #Edilli village of #Khojavand🇦🇿; the remains of 12 people, identified as servicemen.
❗️To the attention of those who speak on war crimes: since 1st Karabakh war 4000 Azerbaijanis went missing, many of them tortured, killed & buried in mass graves. pic.twitter.com/tYDbJRUfeC

— Leyla Abdullayeva (@LAbdullayevaMFA) October 4, 2022

About 30,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and one million got displaced from their ancestral lands during the first Karabakh war from 1988 to 1994.

In the early 1990s, Armenians perpetrated systematic crimes and atrocities against Azerbaijanis to break the spirit of the nation and annihilate the Azerbaijani people of Karabakh. The Khojaly genocide is regarded as the culmination of Armenian mass murders.

Some 613 Azerbaijanis, including 63 children, 106 women and 70 elders were brutally murdered on the ground of national identity in Khojaly in 1992.

This heinous act was preceded by a slew of others. Armenians set fire to around 20 buildings in Gazakh District's Baghanis-Ayrim village, killing eight Azerbaijanis. A family of five, including a 39-day-old newborn, were all burnt alive.

Between June and December 1991, Armenian troops murdered 12 and wounded 15 Azerbaijanis in Khojavand District's Garadaghli and Asgaran District's Meshali villages.

Armenian military detachments bombed buses on the Shusha-Jamilli, Aghdam-Khojavand, and Aghdam-Garadaghli routes in August and September of the same year, killing 17 Azerbaijanis and injuring over 90 others.

In October and November 1991, Armenians burned, destroyed, and plundered over 30 settlements in the mountainous area of Karabakh, including Tugh, Imarat-Garvand, Sirkhavand, Meshali, Jamilli, Umudlu, Garadaghli, Karkijahan, and other significant villages.

Many of the Armenia-committed massacres on Azerbaijan's formerly occupied territories meet entirely the requirements of the Genocide Convention, which was approved by the United Nations General Assembly on December 9, 1948.

About 4,000 Azerbaijanis went missing as a result of the first Karabakh war and Armenia has yet to present Azerbaijan with details about their whereabouts.

A Moscow-brokered ceasefire deal that Baku and Yerevan signed on November 10, 2020, brought an end to six weeks of war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani army declared a victory against the Armenian troops. The signed agreement obliged Armenia to withdraw its troops from the Azerbaijani lands that it had occupied since the early 1990s. The agreement stipulated the return of Azerbaijan's Armenian-occupied Kalbajar, Aghdam and Lachin regions. Before the signing of the deal, the Azerbaijani army had liberated around 300 villages, settlements, city centres, and historic Shusha city.