Armenian MP says Khojaly events remain a 'stain' on Azerbaijan's history

An Armenian opposition lawmaker claims that the events surrounding the 1992 fighting around Khojaly (Ivanyan) remain a “stain” on Azerbaijan’s modern history.

In a social media post on Thursday, Tigran Abrahamyan, secretary of the opposition Pativ Unem faction, recalled that 34 years ago Artsakh’s self-defense forces conducted an operation aimed at neutralizing firing positions in Ivanyan. The positions had been used to shell Stepanakert and nearby settlements with Grad multiple rocket launchers, Alazan missile systems, artillery and armored vehicles.

Abrahamyan highlighted that following the operation, Azerbaijani civilians were permitted to leave through a humanitarian corridor toward the Azerbaijani-held town of Aghdam. Some of them were later subjected to torture and killings by Azerbaijani forces amid internal political turmoil in Azerbaijan at the time.

“This episode became one of the most disgraceful chapters in Azerbaijan’s modern history: internal hostility and hatred led to crimes against their own people,” Abrahamyan wrote.

He also said that subsequent attempts by Azerbaijan to attribute certain episodes to Armenians were unsuccessful, stressing that international journalists and documentarians had already recorded Azerbaijan’s crimes in 1992.

“This remains a stigma on the Azerbaijani people,” he added.