On October 15, 2023, the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev raised the State Flag of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the city of Khojaly. The city of Khojaly was occupied on the night of February 25-26, 1992. The Armenian invaders committed one of the bloodiest genocides in history against the Azerbaijani people in Khojaly. As a result of this genocide, 613 civilians were killed. The city of Khojaly was cleared of separatists on September 19-20, 2023 as a result of local anti-terrorist measures carried out by the Azerbaijani Army in Karabakh. The waving of the Azerbaijani flag in this city demonstrates once again that the blood of the victims of the Khojaly tragedy does not remain on the ground. Abulfat Karimov, one of the witnesses of the cruel night, says that he will never forget what he experienced.
Abulfat Karimov, who was captured during the Khojaly tragedy Publika.azWe present an interview with:
– Mr. Abulfat, what feelings did you have when you saw our 3-color flag in Khojaly?
– When I saw the Azerbaijani flag flying in Khojaly, I felt shivers. When I first heard the news, I had a very strange feeling. My joy knew no bounds. I couldn’t say thank you. I thank God that I saw this day with my eyes and heard it with my ears. The foot of an Azerbaijani soldier is touching our Khojaly, our flag is flying. When I saw our flag flying in Khojaly, I thought the world was mine.
– So, where did you hear this news first?
– I first heard the news on TV. As a family, we were in front of the TV all day. Years later, I saw Khojaly so closely. With God’s help, I will go myself. I want to go home soon. Let’s see how our state advises, whenever it moves us, we will act accordingly. (pauses for a while)
Abulfat Bey’s voice trembled as the words knotted in his throat and joy mixed with sadness.
– Mr. Abulfat, you have experienced very painful days. How do you remember those days?
– My father was a participant in the Second World War and lost his leg. But he was alive. My father went missing in the Khojaly genocide. Still no news. Khojaly was in such an environment that it was in a favorable place in every way. Because the airport, railway, highway passed through Khojaly. Khojaly was right in the middle of the plate. The sides are steep, the middle is shallow. Armenians lived in all the villages around us. We were in such a place that we had no connection not only with Azerbaijan, but also with neighboring villages. After the last plane was shot down in November, our hope was completely cut off. Our hope was only in God. The people lived very badly. Military planes brought us bread.
– And that night came…
– We went to the Ketik forest with the people. The weather was so cold… But I couldn’t fit in with the crowd. Because my father had no legs, we were left behind. It was necessary to cross the Gargar River, which was closed at 4 o’clock at night, so that we could climb the mountain. My father and I came to the river bank to slowly cross the river. We had already crossed the river. There were stones up to a part of the river. We stopped by. There was no longer a stone 1 meter from the shore, it was necessary to cross the water. I was forced to unbutton my pants, took my shoes in my hands, took my father in my arms, and then entered the river. Icy water cut the man’s leg. My father was a bit of a lively man. When I was in my lap, my leg fell into the gap. We both fell into the river. The shoe slipped out of my hand. We were both in the water. The weather was terribly cold, I searched for shoes for 30-40 minutes barefoot. We slowly climbed up. When I took a step and looked back, I saw that the soles of my feet were covered with snow. For a moment, I said to myself, what would have happened if instead of this snow, stones would have rained from the sky. Without it, we go to death face up. The crowd was either frozen or their legs were seized. They suffered a lot. We climbed up, albeit with difficulty. I stayed in that forest for five days. Imagine if you could count the number of bushes in the forest, but not the number of frozen people. A coat was thrown over a freezing child, woman, or old man under any tree. Something looked like a bumpy hill, I didn’t know if it was stone or snow. I put my foot on it and my foot fell into the valley. You say he is human. How many people were frozen. Who is hungry and thirsty and eats snow, who cannot lie down and walk. I couldn’t look at my father’s face when I was full. He was crying a lot. I always remember that face…
When I saw our flag in Khojaly, my captivity, my youth, my father, everything that happened in the forest came before my eyes. Today I will go home, but the people suffering, freezing and dying in that forest will not be able to go. Until that incident, when I went to the neighborhood, I was my neighbor on the right and left. Now most of them are not alive.
Even though the Khojaly prisoner talked about his joy today, the wounds in his heart were never silent.
– How did you get captured?
– It would be 8-9 in the morning. I found a way through the forest and started walking. God only knows how I got there. I was very sleepy and tired. The trees were thick. So I walked a long way in the forest. I also saw that a village was visible in the distance. I was so happy that I thought there was a village in Agdam. I was approaching the village. I also saw that a beardless man in military uniform came out from under the bush. We greeted. He asked where? I was happy, he spoke so beautifully that I said he was Azerbaijani. We took a couple of steps with this. I wanted to say that there is a fire in the back, there are healthy people next to it, let’s go back and take them. I saw that a bearded man with a machine gun came out from under the other bush.
I realized that I was under siege. I was silent. The first one out did nothing. But the second growing beard kicked my stomach 5-6 times. How many days have I been eating snow? This also hit me in the stomach. When I held my stomach with my hand, he shot me in the neck with a machine gun. They took me in droves. They brought me to the village of Dehraz, where Armenians live. The village was surrounded by farms. First they took all my documents. Then they opened the door and pushed me into the farm. There were about 150 people there. There were women, children, men and the elderly among them. People do not forget these days, they cannot forget them.
– How did the Khojaly tragedy affect your thoughts and your life?
– The Khojaly tragedy is not a forgotten event. I miss my father. At home, the children showed me our house there with the help of “Google map”. There is no home or nest left. Since there is no living in our house, there is no trace of what it was before. At that time, we had a shed in our yard. I saw on the map that all our vines had dried up and our house was destroyed. They are a little neat because they lived in the neighboring houses. But not our house. When I saw the house, I remembered my father’s sufferings in that house. But now my father is neither dead nor alive. I don’t know how many years have passed since it will be found or not. (?) I hope it will be found. (!) At least we have a place to cry. In general, there were more people than trees in the Ketik forest. Half of them are still in that forest. Maybe most of them were eaten by worms. We went deep into the forest. It should be searched there. There were people everywhere. Their bones will come out of the forest of our village. Thank goodness we have our land. The bones of the people left in that forest will be found, and we will go to our home.
Aysel Shahmar
The article was prepared with the financial support of the Media Development Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan (MEDIA) in the direction of “Great Return to territories freed from occupation”.
