BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 7. The community of
Aghdaban and representatives of Azerbaijani NGOs have appealed to
the international community with an open letter, Trend reports.

“We, peaceful Azerbaijanis who were subjected to the genocide by
Armenian military units in the village of Aghdaban of the Kalbajar
district on April 7-8, 1992, including live witnesses of the
massacre, those who lost their family members, relatives, and
homes, as well as representatives of Azerbaijan’s civil society,
are appealing to you with an open letter and demanding justice!

Hot on the heels of the Khojaly genocide, more than 130 houses
were burned, and 779 villagers were killed during the massacre
committed by Armenia against the civilian population in the village
of Aghdaban of the Kalbajar district in the early hours of April 8,
1992. During the tragedy, 32 people were murdered, eight elderly
people, two kids, and seven women were burned alive. Two people
went missing and five were taken prisoner.

During the tragedy, the manuscripts and collections of Ashiq
Shamshir and his father, the native of Aghdaban poet Gurban, both
prominent representatives of Azerbaijan’s Ashiq art, were
destroyed. Ashiq Shamshir’s grandson was burned alive.

Today, we are in our native land of Aghdaban. We are addressing
you from a village that was completely destroyed by Armenia during
the occupation. Here, all graves in the village cemetery were
desecrated, including the grave of Ashiq Shamshir, and mined.
During the occupation, Armenia blew up mosques in the territory of
Azerbaijan, kept pigs and cattle in them, and razed dozens of
mosques to the ground. This is an act of vandalism that does not
befit any religion or spirituality.

As a result of the acts of genocide and crimes committed in the
occupied territories of Azerbaijan, dozens of mass graves are still
being discovered in liberated territories.

We are outraged by the arming of Armenia by France and the
European Union under the guise of a European peace mechanism, as
well as all kinds of support for the re-emergence of revengeful
trends in Armenia. We reject all such actions and double standard
approaches to the issue of territorial integrity, and consider
these steps as actions against the people and state of
Azerbaijan!

We know perfectly well that the Aghdaban genocide, and indeed
the genocide committed in Khojaly, Meshali, Gushchular, Malibayli,
Garadaghli, Balligaya, Bashlibel, was committed in order to break
the resolve of our people who stood up for the defense of their
native land during Armenia’s aggression against Azerbaijan, to
undermine their determination to fight, and to carry out ethnic
cleansing.

The past period, the 44-day war in 2020, the anti-terror
operation on September 19-20, 2023 also showed that all this could
not break the unwavering determination of the Azerbaijani
people.

We, representatives of the Aghdaban community and civil society
of Azerbaijan, are proud of Victorious Commander-in-Chief and
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. As a result of his resolute
policy and wise leadership, Azerbaijan has secured the
implementation of UN resolutions on its own, the territorial
integrity and sovereignty of our republic has been fully restored,
and the people of Azerbaijan have realized their greatest dream. We
fully support and welcome the policy of President Ilham Aliyev!,”
the letter said.