Armenian atrocity in Baganis Ayrim in 1990 - a prelude to Khojaly genocide of 1992

The policy of ethnic cleansing, genocide, and aggression, carried out against Azerbaijanis by Armenians for over the last 100 years, has reached its peak through a series of massacres during the first Karabakh war.

The major objective of the massacres and acts of terror Armenians carried out against Azerbaijanis was to force local residents to abandon their homes and pave the way for them to create a so-called "great Armenia" at the expense of lands of neighboring countries, including Azerbaijani territories.

Armenians have repeatedly implemented the policy of ethnic cleansing against Azerbaijanis to realize their malicious plans. The Armenian nationalists resorted to ethnic cleansing policies across the whole of Azerbaijan both in the past and in the 1990s when Azerbaijan regained its sovereignty.

The village of Baganis Ayrim in Qazakh District was one of the venues where Armenians committed atrocities, killing dozens of innocent villagers with whom they used to be neighbors, sharing their grief and happiness just a couple of years before the Armenians, duped by fascist ideology, came to the village with a plan to slaughter former neighbors.

Baganis Ayrim was a tiny village, made up of 100 homes. The village was invaded by Armenians on March 23-24, 1990. After invading the village, 10 residents of the village, who could not leave due to their ages and sought shelter in basements, were set fire alive by Armenians. The oldest person killed was about 80 years old with a 39-day-old toddler.

As eyewitnesses said and pictures taken indicated, the seven people, including a 39-day toddler, were set on fire alive. In addition to those killed, 15 people were wounded and after the mass killing, the village was looted by Armenians. Today Baganis Ayrim is a ghost village.

Throughout history, humanity has witnessed a lot of wars, but none of them saw such a merciless massacre. These atrocities cannot even be compared to the misdeeds of the Nazis during WWII. Unfortunately, the world is not aware of this atrocity even today.

After the blood-curdling incident, Armenians, who remained unpunished for such brutalities, continued their violence and committed a series of mass killings, such as Karkicahan (1991), Meshali (22.12.1991), Garadagli (14-17. 02.1992), Bashguneytapa (06.1991-03.1992), Agdaban (08.04.1992), Ball?qaya (28.08.1992), Basl?bel (18.04.1993) and Khojaly.

Every time, Armenians committed severer brutalities against Azerbaijanis, the world remained indifferent and greenlighted for fresh atrocities. Of course, the peak of the massacres against Azerbaijanis by Armenians came to Khojaly on February 26, 1992, where humanity again proved powerless in the face of yet another Armenian crime.

Among the series of mass killings, Baganis Ayrim is distinguished from others by its distinctiveness, or to put it differently, its geographical location from the theater of war in Karabakh. The invasion and the atrocities committed in the village revealed the hideous intentions of Armenians.

So, mass killings and ethnic cleansing contradict Armenians’ false claims alleging that Armenians in Karabakh wanted to break away from Azerbaijan for the discrimination they purportedly went through. On the other hand, this once again proves a dominant view in Azerbaijan that it is not Karabakh that wants to break away from Azerbaijan, but Armenia that occupied nearly 20% of Azerbaijani lands, retaining the lands under occupation for nearly 30 years, razing to the ground the territory the size of Luxembourg.