{"id":9353,"date":"2021-11-20T13:28:05","date_gmt":"2021-11-20T09:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qarabag.com\/?p=9353"},"modified":"2022-11-21T10:28:28","modified_gmt":"2022-11-21T06:28:28","slug":"garakandtragedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qarabag.com\/garakandtragedy\/","title":{"rendered":"Garakand tragedy"},"content":{"rendered":"
On November 20, 1991, Azerbaijani Mi-8 helicopter was shot down by Armenian armed formations near the village of Garakand in the Khojavend district. As a result of the Garakand tragedy, negotiations between Azerbaijan and Armenia on the peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict, mediated by the Presidents of Russia and Kazakhstan, broke down.\u00a0 After the tragedy near the village of Garakand, the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict escalated into a full-scale war.\u00a0 Qarabag.com<\/a> has presented a brief chronicle of the events that took place in Azerbaijan 30 years ago.\u00a0 Russian and Soviet archival newspapers such as \u201cNovoe Russkoe Slovo\u201d, \u201cIzvestia\u201d, \u201cPravda\u201d, \u201cBakinskiy rabochiy\u201d, \u201cKomsomolskaya Pravda\u201d were used in the compilation of the material.<\/strong><\/p>\n On November 18, 1991, Armenian armed formations attacked the village of Khojavend in the Martuni district of the NKAO (now Khojavend district). In order to clarify the situation in Khojavend, a commission was established. Its members included senior Azerbaijani statesmen, representatives of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR and members of the Russian-Kazakh peacekeeping mission. On November 20, at 13:30, the commission flew from Aghdam to Martuni by Mi-8T helicopter (Flight No.72) to visit the village of Khojavend. About an hour later, the helicopter exploded near the village of Garakand, Khojavend district.\u00a0 As a result of an expert assessment conducted in the laboratory of the Scientific Research Institute of the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan, it was found out that the helicopter was engaged by machine guns and submachine guns from the ground. According to one of the versions, the helicopter exploded in the air, and its fragments and the bodies of the dead began to fall to the ground.\u00a0 However, according to the testimony of E.Saryeva, a local resident from the village of Marzili, the downed helicopter did not explode and the crew still managed to land it on the ground. Then a truck rushed to the landing site, and 15-20 minutes later, shots were clearly heard from the helicopter landing site. The militants who arrived at the helicopter crash site mutilated the remains of many of the dead (traces of gunshot wounds on the corpses) and looted.\u00a0 They stole weapons belonging to military and law enforcement officers as well as videotapes, a video camera of TV journalists and valuables of the victims. The \u201dblack box” of the downed helicopter was transferred by the Azerbaijani authorities to Moscow and was soon declared burnt out.[Y.A.Pompeyev. “The Bloody pool of Karabakh”, 1992., p. 62]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Three days of mourning were declared in Azerbaijan in connection with this tragedy. The list of the victims of Garakand tragedy:<\/p>\n [\u201cBakinsky Rabochiy\u201d No. 227 (22252), 22.11.1991., p. 2]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
\n[“Novoe Russkoe Slovo” 12\/23\/1991., p. 4]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
\n[“Novoe Russkoe Slovo”, 12\/23\/1991., p. 4]<\/a> <\/span>
\n[\u201cBakinskiy Rabochiy\u201d No. 227 (22252), 22.11.1991., pp. 1-2]<\/a><\/span>
\n[“Pravda” No. 2, 01\/03\/1991., p. 6]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n
\n[“Novoe Russkoe Slovo”, 12\/23\/1991., p. 4]<\/a><\/span>
\n[“Komsomolskaya Pravda” No. 270-271 (20270-20271), 23.11.1991., p 1]<\/a><\/span>
\n[“Izvestia” No. 249 (23515) 18.10.1991., p. 1]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
\n[“Izvestia” No. 283 (23549), 28.01.1991., p. 1]<\/a><\/span>
\n[“Novoye Russkoe Slovo”, 23.12.1991., p. 4]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n
\n[“Bakinskiy rabochiy” No. 227 (22252), 22.11.1991., p. 1]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n