Interview with Lithuanian journalist Richardas Lapaitis.
Q: At early days of the Karabakh war, you visited the conflict zone numerous times making reports. What can you say about what you saw in Khojaly?
A: I collected a lot of facts against humanity, and not only against the civilian population of Azerbaijan, during visits to Nagorno-Karabakh in 1992, 1993. Now, of course, there is a lot of research into the events in Khojaly. I always say it there is a need to use memories of those who were there. There are not so many people who can help the investigation. I think sooner or later all these materials will reach the Hague tribunal and the perpetrators of the massacre will be made accountable for their deeds. They will still be pursued whole life and suits will be filed against them.
There have very large ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh. There are plenty of these facts. Even at a time when I was a young reporter I saw that Armenian militants preferred to attack on peaceful, innocent population.
Of course, there were preparations for operation in Khojaly and this operation was well-prepared and implemented without the help of Russian forces.
Many civilians were killed not in the city, but when they were leaving through the "humanitarian corridor", which actually was not a corridor, but a gateway to hell. And those who escaped from a nightmare in the city fell into an even bigger nightmare.
The children whom we photographed were killed near the village of Nakhchivanik and its surroundings. In some photographs, which we have taken, you can see, for example, the body of a six-year-old girl doused with gasoline. The gunshot wounds are obvious. As a Lithuanian journalist, I am still shocked that kidneys of some children were cut out or some body parts were cut off and they were slashed by a knife in a frightening manner.
I remember there was a room near the mosque in Aghdam where corpses were brought from the Khojaly district - I do not say Khojaly, but namely the district. The body of an old lady in her 70s was also brought there. Her body was so brutally mutilated that we could barely make out that the body belongs to a woman.
Sometimes with our counterparts who also managed to get to the area and took photos there- Oleg Litvin, Ilgar Jafarov, the late Chingiz Mustafayev - we wondered why all this happened. And the questions were more than the answers. Those photos that have passed on to you and will also be passed on to next generations are priceless. But this is not enough. All journalists who once worked there must be involved in a joint work and their materials must be used as textbooks.
Q: Tell us, please, about the facts you discovered proving the use of prohibited weapons by the Armenians during the occupation of Azerbaijani lands.
A: I visited not only Nagorno-Karabakh. I also visited Nakhchivan, which was under siege at that time. There I met with Heydar Aliyev, not when he was good, but when he was bad. The meeting took place in a room where there was no electricity, but a kerosene lamp at the table. I visited Sadarak, of course, with Heydar Aliyev’s help, because there was a blockade and public transport was not working.
I obtained some documents in Sadarak. I got some of them in Baku from the Health Ministry. They were forensic examination of victims, civilians and soldiers of the Azerbaijani army. The documents stated what caused their death. The examination was conducted by expert. The majority of signatures were not by Azerbaijani, but Russian doctors who had no grounds to lie. And it was clear that these people died from mustard gas, phosgene, diphosgene, prohibited by all international conventions.
The state that uses such weapons should be imposed sanctions. Of course, Europe, America, even Russia did not have a serious attitude to this although these facts are obvious. And the documents that I have do not only specify how these people died, but also the sites of explosion. When Azerbaijan regains Karabakh - I'm sure it will happen - it will be easy to find the place of these explosions. The documents indicate specific streets, the number of bombs that fell and number of people who died.
Q: How the situation has changed since then?
A: To be honest, Armenians do not delay time in vain. They need to destroy these traces. It is very unfortunate that along with traces of atrocities against civilian population, they also destroy historical monuments. As to libraries, schools and museums, I was personally convinced in the early 1990s that all this had already been looted and burned. Almost nothing was left at time already. There were only historical monuments. Armenians are now trying to destroy them, too.
But God still sees everything. And now the situation is not what it once was at that time. Everybody supported Armenia in the early 1990s while Armenians were prepared not only to the war in the trenches, but also to the information war. In those days, more than 250 newspapers and magazines around the world worked for them. They worked so actively that even my articles about the real state of affairs in the region were a lone voice in the wilderness, and nobody wanted to hear it.
By the way, some photos of Armenians allegedly killed by Azerbaijanis, which were printed by Armenians themselves, were actually photos of Azerbaijanis killed in Khojaly. It has been repeatedly proved. After all, journalists recognize their photographs.
By the way, so many countries now stand by Azerbaijan. I think that Armenia should now feel alone in this fight. God forbid, the conflict will be resolved without bloodshed.
Still, peace-loving attitude of Azerbaijanis amazes me. Europe seemed not to know these people well. This nation does not want tears of their mothers or even mothers of their enemies. The world community must understand this.
I place much blame on the Minsk Group which is inactive. But now Azerbaijan is not alone. Already many have understood this, even now students in Lithuania talk about Azerbaijan, create some kind of groups, we meet, invite representatives of various embassies and media. I think something good will happen in near future.
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