Khojaly Witness Reza Deghati: Honoring truth through photography

Renowned photojournalist Reza Deghati, known for documenting war tragedies worldwide, has continuously used his lens to reveal the realities of human suffering. His courageous documentation of the “Black January” tragedy in Azerbaijan during Soviet time was among his significant contributions to uncovering the truth. He worked tirelessly to ensure the world saw the truth.

On February 26, 1992, Ramiz Abutalibov, an Azerbaijani diplomat at UNESCO in Paris, called and informed him of news about the massacre of civilians in Khojaly. Reza took the first available plane from Paris to Baku.

At that time, the Intourist Hotel (now the Hilton Hotel) was the only accommodation for foreign visitors. Reza stayed with many diplomats and foreigners at this hotel. As a foreign correspondent, he went to local authorities to obtain accreditation to go to the frontline.

Despite his reputation as an internationally renowned Photojournalist who documented “Black January” and whose work reached thousands of foreign media outlets, the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan denied him a permit to visit Aghdam. Their answer was firm: “It is forbidden! We will not allow you to go there.”

But Reza was undeterred. The obstacles reminded him of the Soviet-imposed ban on foreign journalists during the “January 20” tragedy. Determined to bypass restrictions, he searched for a way forward. His chance came in an unexpected encounter with four French doctors and pharmacists staying at the same hotel. Reza notes:

“They were doctors and pharmacists. When I asked why they had come, they explained they were bringing one ton of medicine for Armenians in Stepanakert (Khankendi). When I asked why, they said, ‘All the magazines in Paris are writing that Azerbaijanis are killing Armenians. Armenians need help.’”

The misinformation echoed what Reza had read in French publications. Reza Deghati’s journey to document the Khojaly massacre was not without challenges, but his determination to expose the truth led him to uncover historical facts. Despite being denied access to the conflict zone, Reza discovered that the Ministry of Defense had permitted French medics to deliver medicine to Armenians in Stepanakert (Khankendi). He convinced the doctors to add his name to their permit, and together, they set off for Stepanakert (Khankendi).

After a day-long journey from Baku and crossing many checkpoints and obstacles, they arrived late evening at Aghdam, the closest town to the frontline. However, they discovered that the road to Stepanakert (Khankendi) was unpracticable and blocked. So, the group spent the night at an Azerbaijani doctor’s house in Aghdam, where their host shared stories of Armenian atrocities in Khojaly. However, the French medics were skeptical, believing the reports were exaggerated.

In the next day's early morning, Reza went to the city to gather information. Upon arrival, he observed a large crowd behind the Aghdam Juma Mosque. These people, with sorrow and wailing, were survivors of the Khojaly massacre who had managed to escape.

Meanwhile, Reza met the regional commander, Allahverdi Baghirov, who, like other volunteers, began to defend his country as a civilian. Through conversations with Allahverdi Baghirov and other people, Reza gradually began to understand the extent of the horrors they had experienced. He continued photographing and speaking with different people, cross-referencing their accounts to verify the consistency of their stories. Reza explains:

“I have been photographing wars for 12 years, but I have never seen the tragedies that happened to the people of Khojaly anywhere else. That is why I did not want to believe how one person could commit such atrocities against another. But after seeing the mutilated bodies, their eyes gouged out, and their skin peeled off, I believed what I had heard.”

When Reza returned to the doctor’s house where they were staying, he explained what he had witnessed to the French medics.

Reza met Pierre Gauthier in Juma Mosque, a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Gauthier was entering the conflict zone to bring Azerbaijani corpses to the rear of the mosque, where people were gathering to search for their loved ones among the bodies.

Reza's discussion with Pierre Gauthier and some of his shared stories showed the extent of the atrocities. Pierre recounted what he had witnessed, also with French medics.

Allahverdi Baghirov, going for a prisoner exchange on the midway road to Askaran, invited Reza to accompany him. Baghirov suggested Reza to use his French passport and speak in French rather than Azerbaijani to ensure his safety from the Armenians. This allowed Reza to meet and communicate with Armenian soldiers. During his conversation with Armenian soldiers, Reza was surprised to encounter French man from Paris fighting on the Armenian side, who identified himself only as "George" and did not reveal his entire identity. Reza emphasizes:

“He told me he was French and coming from Paris, and many other volunteers like him had come here from France and America to fight. I asked if anyone from other countries had come to fight on the Armenian side. He also said that they had come from many different countries, but the main snipers had come from Lebanon.”

Reza connected the dots to his previous work in Lebanon in 1982, where he had heard Armenian ASALA members, known for their sniper skills. Reza notes:

“When I was covering the war in Lebanon in 1982 and 1985, I heard that the strongest snipers were Armenians who were also members of the ASALA group. They all came to fight against Azerbaijanis in Karabakh. I was covering events during the occupation of Fuzuli, Jabrayil, and other regions, and I saw in the corpses there that most of them had been shot with a single bullet in the forehead, which means that this was the work of snipers.”

During the conversation, Armenian soldiers ask Reza if he is not afraid to be with Azerbaijanis, noting that they can behead him. They offered him the option to stay with them and not return to the Azerbaijan side. Reza responded that it was okay, explaining that he is a foreign journalist with years of experience covering wars and knows how to handle different situations. At this moment, one of the Armenian soldiers, drunk and speaking a mix of Russian and Armenian, pulled a teaspoon from his pocket and showed it to Reza. Frenchman was uneasy by the drunk soldier's actions. Reza asked what the teaspoon was for, and the French explained that Armenians used it to remove the eyes of Turks (Azerbaijanis) while they were alive. After the prisoner exchange, Reza returned to the doctor's house and shared what he had witnessed with people.

Accompanied by Reza, the French medics visited Juma Mosque, hospitals, and morgues in the city to observe the situation and speak with the people. During a visit to the mosque, Reza saw an elderly woman, Mrs. Garatel who came daily with her sister, Mrs. Gozal in search of her nephew and husband. Reza recounts:

“I saw the elderly woman crying, covering her eyes with her hands, and moaning. She looked at me and said, "My son, my son, come, I found my nephew's body but no eyes." At that moment, I remembered the teaspoon in the hand of that Armenian soldier and felt a chill inside me. I returned to the morgue, observed corpses, and found the woman’s nephew. His eyes had been removed. The French doctors said that his eyes had been removed while he was alive, as the bleeding indicated.”

After French medics met victims and heard firsthand accounts of the atrocities, they realized that reality on the ground and news in France did not match. Reza recalls:

“They called Paris and said, ‘What should we do if there is such a situation here?’ And they were told by Paris to have nothing to do with it! You will take the medicines to the Armenians in Stepanakert (Khankendi). The French doctors and pharmacists were undecided.

During the dinner, they told Reza that after witnessing what they had seen, they realized the reality did not match the news reports in Paris. They decided to leave the one-ton of medicine at the hospitals in Aghdam and return to Paris.

Reza stayed in Karabakh, traveling to Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Lachin, and eventually, Shusha to document the front lines in Azerbaijan. He spent about a month on the front lines until the final days of Shusha. His urgent mission was to return to Paris to share the images and stories he had witnessed with the international media.

Determined to share the news, Reza Deghati took the first flight from Baku to Istanbul and then to Paris, where he worked to distribute his photographs in international media and exhibit them internationally—despite considerable pressure and physical attacks on his exhibitions by the Armenians in France, Reza, a professional photojournalist, remained resolute in his mission to present the historical evidence he had documented.

One of the key motivations for his persistence was the words of the elderly woman, Mrs. Garatel he had met in Aghdam: ‘I found my nephew's body but no eyes.’ For 33 years, Reza Deghati has been the voice of the Khojaly victims, documenting their struggles and ensuring their stories are heard worldwide. Reza emphasizes:

“Those moments I witnessed and those voices I heard deeply affected me. It is my lifelong duty—a burden on my shoulders—to convey to the world what happened to them.”

Reza Deghati developed the website (www.khojalywitness.org) with colleagues in Paris and Baku as part of his ongoing mission. It presents photographs taken in Khojaly and Aghdam in 1992 alongside the stories of the victims.

One of the website's primary goals is to assist individuals in identifying and locating their missing loved ones by showcasing photographs and the personal stories of Khojaly victims and witnesses.

In addition, Reza Degati's book "Massacre of the Innocents," which tells about the massacres committed against Azerbaijanis starting from the early 90s of the 20th century and was published in English and French in 2014, is the only essential and in-depth publication on the "Khojaly Massacre" published worldwide. The book includes photos taken by him during the January 20, 1990 tragedy in Baku and the February 26, 1992 massacre in Khojaly, as well as photographs reflecting the lives of refugee and internally displaced families.