Azerbaijani army officer addresses Vagif Khachatryan's relatives
Meshala Tragedy, Vagif Khachatryan
Azerbaijani army officer in reserve and veteran of the first Karabakh war Azay Kerimov met with Vagif Khachatryan in hospital, who is being detained in Karabakh on charges of participation in the Meshala tragedy of December 1991.
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“He recognized me immediately,” Kerimov wrote on Facebook.
“Though his real name is Vagif, at that time everyone knew him by the nickname Vladik.
The fact is that on May 15, 1991, we detained Vagif (Vladik) with four other militants. I personally beat him up, and during the meeting he remembered that incident.
Even before the Meshala tragedy, Vagif was an active participant of the expulsion of 30 thousand Azerbaijanis from Khankendi (Stepanakert). He was in the detachment of Garik, who had previously worked as chief of criminal investigation in Khankendi.
After Vagif was arrested by us and put in Shusha prison, he gnawed his left hand with his teeth at night to die of bleeding. That scar is still on his arm.
Three months later Vagif was sold to Armenians for a large sum of money by prosecutors and investigators sent to Shusha from Baku. And in December he took part in the Meshala tragedy. He also participated in the Khojaly massacre in February 1992.”
He also noted that Khachatryan has a good command of Russian and Azerbaijani languages in addition to Armenian. According to him, Khachatryan honestly pointed to the photos of three residents of Meshala who cooperated with Armenians.
Kerimov addressed Khachatryan’s relatives at the end of his update.
“I address Vera, Vagif’s daughter, who worked in those years as a school director in Lachin, I address her husband, a police officer in Khankendi.
Vagif is treated well here, the food is decent, and he is under constant medical supervision. Vagif said something himself, but you should say exactly: specify the places of mass burial of 150 inhabitants of Khojaly, 21 inhabitants of Malybeyli-Gushchular, 147 people missing from Shusha. If you give this information to the Azerbaijani side, you will make Vagif’s punishment much easier. Now, Vera, the word is yours, we are waiting for information from you,” he wrote.
Khachatryan’s youngest daughter Vera, in turn, denied all the accusations against her father.
“I deny all the rumors being spread. My father was not Samvel Babayan’s driver, my father could not commit such actions – even towards Azerbaijanis. You must help me to bring my father back to his homeland healthy and unharmed. Everyone’s father could have been in his place. No one is immune.”
On July 29, Vagif Khachatryan was detained by officers of the State Border Service of Azerbaijan at the Lachin checkpoint of the Azerbaijani-Armenian state border while attempting to travel to the Republic of Armenia for medical treatment through the mediation of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry declared the detention of Vagif Khachatryan by Azerbaijani law enforcement a “kidnapping” and called on the international community to influence Azerbaijan for his return.
He is accused of involvement in the Meshala tragedy.
The Meshala tragedy took place on December 23, 1991. According to the official information of the Azerbaijani side, on that day Armenian militants attacked Meshali village in the former Askeran, now Khojaly district of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani volunteers tried to defend the village. As a result of the shootings, 28 people were killed and 14 were wounded. Among the dead were eight women and three children. Houses and administrative buildings were looted, destroyed and burned. The damage to the village amounted to about 5.5 million manats.
On January 11, 1992, a criminal case was initiated in the town of Shusha.
