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American journalist Thomas Goltz – one of the pillars of the Azerbaijan’s propaganda machine, who “as an eyewitness” actively spreads “facts” about 1992 Aghdam events he allegedly witnessed – was caught on yet another lie.

Thomas Goltz’s article published in the Sunday Times on March 8, 1992 (p. 533) is included in the Azerbaijani propagandistic publication “The Khojaly Genocide” (2006), which compiles all the “proving base” of the Azerbaijani side based on foreign publications and eyewitness accounts.

As any other publication of the kind, which needs an imitation of credibility, Goltz’s article teems with names of heroes, including those having many children, whose grief should cause “shock and tremor” in the audience.
The names of people, who, according to the journalist’s claims, tragically died a month after the interview of January 1992, are presented in the article.

The first is Zumrut Ezoya, “mother-of-four.” According to Goltz, “she and her family were victims of mass murders committed by the Armenians on February 26.”

The second is Balakishi Shakilov, 55, father-of-five, and his wife Dilbar. According to Goltz, “this couple, their three sons and three daughters were murdered during the assault, as many others were, whom I spoke to.” Here the journalist is so obsessed with myths that he accidentally “kills” a child, who was not originally mentioned in this invented family.

The third is Omar Veyselov, who survived, but lost his wife and daughter.

However, the problem is that the official Baku published the list of names of those dead long ago. The list can be accessed on Xocali.net. (http://xocali.net/ru/comparative.html)

The official list lacks the names of the people mentioned by Goltz.

Thomas Goltz worked as a journalist in Turkey and in other countries of the USSR for 15 years, later writing a number of books, among which are ones dedicated to the Karabakh war, where he actively supports Azerbaijan’s point of view.

On February 26, 1992, during the war in Karabakh, 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 have been deliberately withheld by the Azerbaijani authorities in the midst of the military actions. Population of the village of Khojaly, which was one of the firing points shooting at the blockaded Stepanakert (among five others) was kept in the village for months by force and was not evacuated by the authorities of Azerbaijan deliberately, in order to use them as human shields later.

Residents of Khojaly coming out through the humanitarian corridor, that the self-defence forces of NKR had left open, freely passed more than 10 km and reached the Aghdam city controlled by the Azerbaijani troops. Later, not far from the positions of Azerbaijani troops dead bodies of the villagers were found. 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.