Armenian leader had hand in 1992 Khojaly massacre of Azerbaijanis: MHP leader Bahçeli

Anadolu Agency - ANKARA

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli on Feb. 27 accused the president of neighboring Armenia of playing a role in a 1992 massacre of Azerbaijani citizens.

Speaking to his party’s lawmakers in parliament, Devlet Bahçeli said Armenia should be held accountable for the Khojaly massacre.

“The real trouble is that the traitors who had a hand in the Khojaly massacre have taken on key positions in Armenia’s state and political life,” said Bahçeli.

“President Serzh Sargsyan is among them,” Bahçeli said referring to the Armenian leader, currently serving his second term.

In 1992, Sargsyan was chairman of a “defense” committee for Upper Karabakh, where the massacre took place.

The massacre is regarded as one of the bloodiest and most controversial incidents of the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan for control of the now-occupied Upper Karabakh region.

Following the breakup of the Soviet Union on Feb. 26, 1992, Armenian forces took over the town of Khojaly – whose population was over 11,000 at the time – in Karabakh after battering it with heavy artillery and tanks, assisted by an infantry regiment.

The two-hour offensive killed 613 Azerbaijani citizens, according to Azerbaijani figures. One hundred and fifty of the 1,275 Azerbaijanis that the Armenians took hostage during the massacre remain missing.