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For a whole week, the Azerbaijani media have been trumpeting about ‘recognition of the Khojaly genocide’ by various US states. In particular, the Azerbaijani websites stated in their headlines that Montana, Nebraska and Hawaii characterised the Aghdam events of 1992 as ‘genocide.’ However, a closer look at the original texts of the resolutions, as well as of the contents of the articles with such striking headlines, revealed that the Azerbaijani media ran false information.

The website of Interfax-Azerbaijan news agency, for instance, published an article titled ‘US state Montana recognises Khojaly genocide.’ In the text, the agency cites a declaration signed by Steve Bullock, the governor. “As Montanans, we join with our Azerbaijani brothers and sisters in Montana to remember this day while also seeking to find understanding that surpasses the violence so often associated with conflict,” the declaration reads. Therefore, the text of the declaration obviously lacks any mention about a so-called ‘genocide’ or its ‘recognition,’ this also confirmed by the copy of the document posted on the website.

For its part, the website of the Trend news agency informs in an article titled ‘Another US state condemns Khojaly genocide’ that Nebraska allegedly adopted the first document ‘on Khojaly genocide.’ However, the text of the declaration posted on the Azerbaijani website clearly lacks any remark about ‘a recognition of genocide.’ Pete Ricketts, the governor of the state, has only signed a declaration proclaiming February 26 as ‘Khojaly Remembrance Day.’

A similar situation was also observed in case of Hawaii. In an article titled ‘Another state recognises Khojaly genocide,’ the website Haqqin.az writes that David Ige, the governor of Hawaii, has signed a special declaration ‘about recognition of Khojaly genocide.’ However, there is no such wording in the text of the declaration. The governor only highlights that it is important to remember the Khojaly victims in order to prevent a future repetition of such a tragedy.

Moreover, naturally, in none of the resolutions the responsibility of the Aghdam events of 1992 is laid on the Armenian side. With this pattern of manipulation with the information, the Azerbaijani propaganda first targets the domestic audience, which will hardly check the sources and discover inconsistencies with the original.

On February 26, 1992, during the Karabakh war, around 200 to 300 people (according to Human Rights Watch, and 600 according to the version propagated by Azerbaijan) were killed in unknown circumstances near the city of Aghdam. They were deliberately withheld by the Azerbaijani authorities in the midst of the military actions. The authorities of Azerbaijan intentionally kept the population in the village for months by force and did not evacuate them in order to use them as human shields later as the village was one of the firing points for shooting at the blockaded Stepanakert (among five others).

The residents of Khojalu, coming out through the humanitarian corridor the self-defense forces of the NKR had left open, freely passed more than 10 km and reached the Aghdam city controlled by the Azerbaijani troops. Later, dead bodies of the villagers were found not far from the positions of Azerbaijani troops. The exact death toll remains unknown as the official Baku publishes data contradicting each other. Parliamentary Commission investigating the tragic death of the civilians at Aghdam city was dissolved by the order of Heydar Aliyev, the investigative materials are kept secret.