At a hearing in the Baku Military Court, the accused Madat Babayan admitted his involvement in the Khojaly genocide while serving in the Armenian armed forces.
During the interrogation, Babayan confirmed that he was in Khojaly on February 25 and 26, 1992. “We were taken there by our commander. His name was Henrik Tamrazyan. The goal was to remove Azerbaijanis from Khojaly,” he said.
Noting that Arkady Shirinyan, nicknamed "Kholostoy", gave all the orders in Khojaly, Madat Babayan stated: “Vanik Petrosyan gave us the orders. Vanik gave the order to shoot and kill unarmed people. Vanik and Arkady cut off people’s fingers, as well as the ears of corpses.”
M. Babayan confirmed that they arrived in Khojaly with weapons, and that armored vehicles were used. The accused admitted to participating in the killing of unarmed people. He said, “We made a mistake.”
He added that he saw about 150 corpses in Khojaly, including children, the elderly and women. The bodies were loaded onto vehicles and taken away by Armenian soldiers.
Court proceedings against Armenian citizens accused of crimes against peace and humanity, war crimes, including preparing and conducting a war of aggression, acts of genocide, violations of the laws and customs of warfare, as well as terrorism, financing of terrorism, forcible seizure of power, and other offenses committed during Armenia’s military aggression, will resume on April 21.
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