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134-406: The Khojaly massacre ( Azerbaijani : Xocalı soyqırımı , Armenian : Խոջալուի արյունահեղություն , romanized :  Khojalui aryunaheghut’yun ) was the mass killing of Azerbaijani civilians by Armenian forces and the 366th CIS regiment in the town of Khojaly on 26 February 1992. The event became the largest single massacre throughout the entire Nagorno-Karabakh conflict . Khojaly

268-429: A 2011 study, 30 Turkish participants were tested to determine how well they understood written and spoken Azerbaijani. It was found that even though Turkish and Azerbaijani are typologically similar languages, on the part of Turkish speakers the intelligibility is not as high as is estimated. In a 2017 study, Iranian Azerbaijanis scored in average 56% of receptive intelligibility in spoken Turkish. Azerbaijani exhibits

402-575: A corridor by which the people could leave, was, nevertheless, left by Armenians. Why then would they begin to shoot?" In later interviews, however, Mutalibov would condemn the Armenians, claiming that they blatantly misinterpreted his words. He also denied ever accusing the Popular Front of Azerbaijan of having anything to do with these events, saying that he only meant that the PFA took advantage of

536-420: A corridor. On 25–26 February 1992, Armenian forces went on the offensive, forcing almost the entire Azerbaijani population of the enclave to flee, and committing what HRW describes as "unconscionable acts of violence against civilians" as they fled. According to HRW, the tragedy struck when "a large column of residents, accompanied by a few dozen retreating fighters, fled the city as it fell to Armenian forces. It

670-449: A degree mutually intelligible, though it is easier for a speaker of Azerbaijani to understand Turkish than the other way around. Turkish soap operas are very popular with Azeris in both Iran and Azerbaijan. Reza Shah Pahlavi of Iran (who spoke South Azerbaijani) met with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk of Turkey (who spoke Turkish) in 1934; the two were filmed speaking their respective languages to each other and communicated effectively. In

804-852: A global network of non-governmental organizations that monitor censorship worldwide. It also co-founded the Cluster Munition Coalition , which brought about an international convention banning the weapons. HRW employs more than 275 staff—country experts, lawyers, journalists, and academics—and operates in more than 90 countries around the world. Headquartered in New York City , it has offices in Amsterdam , Beirut , Berlin , Brussels , Chicago , Geneva , Johannesburg , London , Los Angeles , Nairobi , Seoul , Paris , San Francisco , Sydney , Tokyo , Toronto , Washington, D.C. , and Zürich . HRW maintains direct access to

938-657: A literary language in the 14th century through poetry and other works. One ruler of the Qara Qoyunlu state, Jahanshah , wrote poems in Azerbaijani language with the nickname "Haqiqi". Sultan Yaqub , a ruler of the Aq Qoyunlu state, wrote poems in the Azerbaijani language. The ruler and poet Ismail I wrote under the pen name Khatā'ī (which means "sinner" in Persian ) during the fifteenth century. During

1072-531: A mass membership, as AI is, HRW depends on wealthy donors who like to see the organization's reports make headlines. For this reason, according to Foreman, it may be that organizations like HRW "concentrate too much on places that the media already cares about," especially Israel. For the financial year ending June 2008, HRW reported receiving approximately US$ 44 million in public donations. In 2009, HRW said it received almost 75% of its financial support from North America, 25% from Western Europe and less than 1% from

1206-498: A much larger number of Persian and Arabic loanwords, phrases and syntactic elements. Early writings in Azerbaijani also demonstrate linguistic interchangeability between Oghuz and Kypchak elements in many aspects (such as pronouns, case endings, participles, etc.). As Azerbaijani gradually moved from being merely a language of epic and lyric poetry to being also a language of journalism and scientific research , its literary version has become more or less unified and simplified with

1340-535: A non-syllabic / v / can also be pronounced after the aforementioned diphthongs, to form / ou̯v / and / œy̯v / , the rules of which are as follows: Modern linguists who have examined Azerbaijani's vowel system almost unanimously have recognised that diphthongs are phonetically produced in speech. Before 1929, Azerbaijani was written only in the Perso-Arabic alphabet , an impure abjad that does not represent all vowels (without diacritical marks ). In Iran,

1474-656: A permanent access to attend the organization's assemblies. Bahrain held the IPU Meeting from 11–15 March 2023. Pursuant to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Human Rights Watch opposes violations of what the UDHR considers basic human rights . This includes capital punishment and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation . HRW advocates freedoms in connection with fundamental human rights, such as freedom of religion and freedom of

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1608-579: A report accusing Israel of apartheid and calling on the International Criminal Court to investigate "systematic discrimination" against Palestinians, becoming the first major international rights NGO to do so. In August 2020, the Chinese government sanctioned HRW executive director Kenneth Roth—along with the heads of four other U.S.-based democracy and human rights organizations and six U.S. Republican lawmakers—for supporting

1742-511: A result of the Chinese sanctions, with the situation in Hong Kong henceforth to be monitored by HRW's China team. The decision to leave came amid a wider crackdown on civil society groups in Hong Kong. On 8 March 2023, Bahrain canceled two HRW staff members' entry permit visas to attend the 146th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly. The permits were issued on 30 January 2023. Holding a constant observer status with IPU, HRW authorities had

1876-552: A result of the shelling of the town, an unascertained number of civilians were killed in Khojaly during the assault. The Armenian side practically refused to tell Memorial observers how many people perished. The refugees in both groups were fired upon, resulting in death of many of them. Those who remained alive dispersed. Running refugees came across Armenian military posts and were fired upon. Some refugees managed to escape to Agdam, while some, mainly women and children (the exact number

2010-459: A result of wartime military operations, and were caused by the prevention of the town inhabitants' evacuation by Azerbaijani forces, who shot those attempting to flee. This explanation, however, is widely disputed. Among others, the executive director of Human Rights Watch has stated that: "we place direct responsibility for the civilian deaths with Karabakh Armenian forces. Indeed, neither our report nor that of Memorial includes any evidence to support

2144-516: A similar stress pattern to Turkish but simpler in some respects. Azerbaijani is a strongly stressed and partially stress-timed language, unlike Turkish which is weakly stressed and syllable-timed . Below are some cognates with different spelling in Azerbaijani and Turkish: The 1st person personal pronoun is mən in Azerbaijani just as men in Turkmen , whereas it is ben in Turkish. The same

2278-938: Is a Turkic language from the Oghuz sub-branch. It is spoken primarily by the Azerbaijani people , who live mainly in the Republic of Azerbaijan , where the North Azerbaijani variety is spoken, while Iranian Azerbaijanis in the Azerbaijan region of Iran , speak the South Azerbaijani variety . Azerbaijani has official status in the Republic of Azerbaijan and Dagestan (a federal subject of Russia ), but it does not have official status in Iran, where

2412-678: Is a qualified social worker who has worked with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), Save the Children , and most recently as director of Amnesty International 's Crisis Response Program. Hassan holds honors degrees in social work and law from Australia and a master's degree in international human rights law from Oxford University . Human Rights watch and Amnesty International are both international non-governmental organizations headquartered in

2546-477: Is as follows: The modern Azerbaijani Latin alphabet contains the digraphs ov and öv to represent diphthongs present in the language, and the pronunciation of diphthongs is today accepted as the norm in the orthophony of Azerbaijani. Despite this, the number and even the existence of diphthongs in Azerbaijani has been disputed, with some linguists, such as Abdulazal Damirchizade  [ az ] , arguing that they are non-phonemic. Damirchizade's view

2680-459: Is because there is a strong tu-vous distinction in Turkic languages like Azerbaijani and Turkish (as well as in many other languages). The informal "you" is used when talking to close friends, relatives, animals or children. The formal "you" is used when talking to someone who is older than the speaker or to show respect (to a professor, for example). HRW In 1997, Human Rights Watch shared

2814-467: Is biased against Israel in its coverage of the Israel–Palestine conflict . In 2014, two Nobel Peace Laureates , Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and Mairead Maguire , wrote a letter signed by 100 other human rights activists and scholars criticizing HRW for its revolving-door hiring practices with the U.S. government, its failure to denounce the U.S. practice of extrajudicial rendition , its endorsement of

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2948-641: Is certain that Russian and Iranian words (sic), respectively, have entered the vocabulary on either side of the Araxes river, but this has not occurred to an extent that it could pose difficulties for communication". There are numerous dialects, with 21 North Azerbaijani dialects and 11 South Azerbaijani dialects identified by Ethnologue. Three varieties have been accorded ISO 639-3 language codes: North Azerbaijani, South Azerbaijani and Qashqai . The Glottolog 4.1 database classifies North Azerbaijani, with 20 dialects, and South Azerbaijani, with 13 dialects, under

3082-557: Is close to present-day Azeri- Türki . ), Afshari (often considered a separate language ), Shahsavani (sometimes considered its own dialect, distinct from other Turkic languages of northwestern Iran ), Baharlu (Kamesh), Moqaddam, Nafar, Qaragozlu, Pishagchi, Bayat, Qajar, Tabriz ". Russian comparatist Oleg Mudrak  [ ru ] calls the Turkmen language the closest relative of Azerbaijani. Speakers of Turkish and Azerbaijani can, to an extent, communicate with each other as both languages have substantial variation and are to

3216-651: Is common throughout former USSR countries). The Shirvan dialect as spoken in Baku is the basis of standard Azerbaijani. Since 1992, it has been officially written with a Latin script in the Republic of Azerbaijan, but the older Cyrillic script was still widely used in the late 1990s. Ethnologue lists 21 North Azerbaijani dialects: "Quba, Derbend, Baku, Shamakhi, Salyan, Lenkaran, Qazakh, Airym, Borcala, Terekeme , Qyzylbash , Nukha, Zaqatala (Mugaly), Qabala, Nakhchivan, Ordubad, Ganja, Shusha (Karabakh), Karapapak , Kutkashen, Kuba". South Azerbaijani, or Iranian Azerbaijani,

3350-796: Is encountered in many dialects of the Turkmen language and may be observed in such words as: boyun > moyın in Yomut – Gunbatar dialect, büdüremek > müdüremek in Ersari and Stavropol Turkmens' dialects, bol > mol in Karakalpak Turkmens' dialects, buzav > mizov in Kirac dialects. Here are some words from the Swadesh list to compare Azerbaijani with Turkmen: Azerbaijani dialects share paradigms of verbs in some tenses with

3484-722: Is from Turkish Azeri which is used for the people ( azerice being used for the language in Turkish), itself from Persian آذری, Āzarī. The term is also used for Old Azeri , the ancient Iranian language spoken in the region until the 17th century. Azerbaijani evolved from the Eastern branch of Oghuz Turkic ("Western Turkic") which spread to the Caucasus, in Eastern Europe , and northern Iran, in Western Asia , during

3618-429: Is impossible to determine), froze to death while wandering around in mountains, some were captured near the villages of Nakhichevanik and Pirjamal. Helsinki Watch reported that "the militia, still in uniform, and some still carrying their guns, were interspersed with the masses of civilians" and according to eyewitness accounts, there was a shooting between Armenian forces and the Azerbaijani forces who were mixed with

3752-415: Is reported that as they approached the border with Azerbaijan, they came across an Armenian military post and were cruelly fired upon". According to Memorial society, part of the population started leaving Khojaly soon after the assault began, trying to flee towards Agdam, and armed people from the town's garrison were among some of the fleeing groups. People left in two directions: 1) from the east side of

3886-501: Is spelled Buş and Schröder becomes Şröder . Hyphenation across lines directly corresponds to spoken syllables, except for geminated consonants which are hyphenated as two separate consonants as morphonology considers them two separate consonants back to back but enunciated in the onset of the latter syllable as a single long consonant, as in other Turkic languages . Some samples include: Secular: Invoking deity: Azerbaijani has informal and formal ways of saying things. This

4020-404: Is still very much exaggerated, very much. Azerbaijanis needed an excuse to equate a place to Sumgait, but they can not be compared. Yes, in fact, was in Khojaly civilians, but along with the civilians were soldiers. [W]hen a shell is flying through the air, it doesn't distinguish between a civilian resident and a soldier; it doesn't have eyes. If the civilian population stays there, even though there

4154-634: Is still written in Cyrillic script. The Azerbaijani Latin alphabet is based on the Turkish Latin alphabet. In turn, the Turkish Latin alphabet was based on former Azerbaijani Latin alphabet because of their linguistic connections and mutual intelligibility. The letters Әə , Xx , and Qq are available only in Azerbaijani for sounds which do not exist as separate phonemes in Turkish. Northern Azerbaijani, unlike Turkish, respells foreign names to conform with Latin Azerbaijani spelling, e.g. Bush

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4288-527: Is the official language of the Republic of Azerbaijan . It is closely related to modern-day Istanbul Turkish, the official language of Turkey. It is also spoken in southern Dagestan , along the Caspian coast in the southern Caucasus Mountains and in scattered regions throughout Central Asia . As of 2011 , there are some 9.23 million speakers of North Azerbaijani including 4 million monolingual speakers (many North Azerbaijani speakers also speak Russian, as

4422-402: Is true for demonstrative pronouns bu , where sound b is replaced with sound m . For example: bunun > munun / mının , muna / mına , munu / munı , munda / mında , mundan / mından . This is observed in the Turkmen literary language as well, where the demonstrative pronoun bu undergoes some changes just as in: munuñ , munı , muña , munda , mundan , munça . b > m replacement

4556-717: Is widely spoken in Iranian Azerbaijan and, to a lesser extent, in neighboring regions of Turkey and Iraq , with smaller communities in Syria . In Iran , the Persian word for Azerbaijani is borrowed as Torki "Turkic". In Iran, it is spoken mainly in East Azerbaijan , West Azerbaijan , Ardabil and Zanjan . It is also spoken in Tehran and across the Tehran Province , as Azerbaijanis form by far

4690-512: The 366th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment of United Armed Forces of the Commonwealth of Independent States . took part in the attack on Khojaly. Memorial called for an investigation of the facts of participation of CIS soldiers in the military operations in the region and transfer of military equipment to the sides of the conflict. Soon after the massacre, in early March 1992, the regiment was withdrawn from Nagorno-Karabakh. Paratroopers evacuated

4824-679: The Chuvash language , on which linguists also rely in the study and reconstruction of the Khazar language . Azerbaijani phonotactics is similar to that of other Oghuz Turkic languages, except: Works on Azerbaijani dialectology use the following notations for dialectal consonants: Examples: The vowels of the Azerbaijani are, in alphabetical order, a /ɑ/ , e /e/ , ə /æ/ , ı /ɯ/ , i /i/ , o /o/ , ö /œ/ , u /u/ , ü /y/ . The typical phonetic quality of South Azerbaijani vowels

4958-544: The Eastern Anatolia Region and all over Iran from the 16th to the early 20th centuries, alongside cultural, administrative, court literature, and most importantly official language (along with Azerbaijani) of all these regions, namely Persian . From the early 16th century up to the course of the 19th century, these regions and territories were all ruled by the Safavids , Afsharids , and Qajars until

5092-474: The Israeli Center for Near East Policy Research, Armenia's non-recognition of the Khojaly massacre was an "impediment for peace" in the region, and that the "same state that perpetrated that crime against humanity" is continuing to not take responsibility for their actions. To date, no one has been prosecuted for the massacre in Khojaly. In November 2019, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called

5226-958: The Kipchak-Turkic language of the same name), the dialect of the Ayrïm (Āyrom) tribe (which, however, resembles Turkish ), and the dialect spoken in the region of the Borchala river ; (3) northern group: Zakataly , Nukha , and Kutkashen ; (4) southern group: Yerevan (Īravān), Nakhichevan (Naḵjavān), and Ordubad (Ordūbād); (5) central group: Ganja (Kirovabad) and Shusha ; (6) North Iraqi dialects ; (7) Northwest Iranian dialects: Tabrīz , Reżāʾīya ( Urmia ), etc., extended east to about Qazvīn ; (8) Southeast Caspian dialect ( Galūgāh ). Optionally, we may adjoin as Azeri (or "Azeroid") dialects: (9) East Anatolian , (10) Qašqāʾī , (11) Aynallū, (12) Sonqorī , (13) dialects south of Qom , (14) Kabul Afšārī . North Azerbaijani, or Northern Azerbaijani,

5360-492: The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict . Mentioning that "there are no exact figures for the number of Azeri civilians killed because Karabakh Armenian forces gained control of the area after the massacre", HRW estimated the number of Azerbaijani civilian deaths at least 161 in 1993 and then to at least 200 in 1994, mentioning the possibility that as many as 500–1,000 may have died". The death toll given by Azerbaijani authorities

5494-558: The Nobel Peace Prize as a founding member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines . It played a leading role in the 2008 treaty banning cluster munitions . HRW's annual expenses totaled $ 50.6 million in 2011, $ 69.2 million in 2014, and $ 75.5 million in 2017. Human Rights Watch was co-founded by Robert L. Bernstein , Jeri Laber , and Aryeh Neier as a private American NGO in 1978, under

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5628-792: The Rwandan genocide of 1994, the Democratic Republic of the Congo , and the excessive breadth of U.S. sex offender registries and their application to juveniles. In the summer of 2004, the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Columbia University in New York became the depository institution for the Human Rights Watch Archive, an active collection that documents decades of human rights investigations around

5762-425: The 16th century, the poet, writer and thinker Fuzûlî wrote mainly in Azerbaijani but also translated his poems into Arabic and Persian . Starting in the 1830s, several newspapers were published in Iran during the reign of the Azerbaijani speaking Qajar dynasty , but it is unknown whether any of these newspapers were written in Azerbaijani. In 1875, Akinchi ( Əkinçi / اکينچی ) ("The Ploughman") became

5896-565: The 366th CIS regiment, launched an offensive in early 1992, forcing almost the entire Azerbaijani population of the enclave to flee, and committing "unconscionable acts of violence against civilians" as they fled. The massacre was one of the turning points during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. The death toll given by the Azerbaijani authorities is 613 civilians, including 106 women and 63 children. According to Human Rights Watch , at least 200 Azerbaijanis were killed during

6030-404: The 366th regiment took part in military operations near Khojaly on Karabakhi side on the 20s of February. At least two such instances were recorded. And during evacuation of the military personnel of the regiment paratroopers selectively searched several servicemen and found large amounts of money on them, including foreign currency. The Armenian side officially asserts that the killings occurred as

6164-541: The Agdam Region. However, in his statement to the European Court of Human Rights Fatullayev claimed that in the article "The Karabakh Diary", he had merely conveyed the statements of a local Armenian, who had told Fatullayev his version of the events during the interview. Fatullayev claimed that his article did not directly accuse any Azerbaijani national of committing any crime and that in his article, there

6298-598: The Armenians had indeed left a free corridor and the Armenian soldiers positioned behind the corridor had not opened fire on them. Some soldiers from the battalions of the National Front of Azerbaijan instead, for some reason, had led part of the refugees in the direction of the village of Nakhichevanik, which during that period had been under the control of the Armenians' Askeran battalion. The other group of refugees were hit by artillery volleys while they were reaching

6432-533: The Armenians, who are very accurate and who know very well how to behave in such situations, would have allowed the Azerbaijanis to obtain evidence from Khojaly, which would expose them in committing fascist acts… I assume that someone had a vested interest in showing these photos in the session of the Supreme Council and placing all the blame on me… However, the general background of arguments is, that

6566-421: The Armenians. At the same time, some Armenian sources admitted the responsibility of the Armenian side. According to Markar Melkonian , the brother of the Armenian military leader Monte Melkonian , "Khojaly had been a strategic goal, but it had also been an act of revenge." The date of the massacre in Khojaly had a special significance: it was the run-up to the fourth anniversary of the anti-Armenian pogrom in

6700-552: The Azerbaijani macrolanguage with "significant differences in phonology, lexicon, morphology, syntax, and loanwords" between the two. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) considers Northern and Southern Azerbaijani to be distinct languages. Linguists Mohammad Salehi and Aydin Neysani write that "there is a high degree of mutual intelligibility" between North and South Azerbaijani. Svante Cornell wrote in his 2001 book Small Nations and Great Powers that "it

6834-462: The Azerbaijani forces in Khojaly warning that unless missile attacks from that town on Stepanakert ceased, Armenian forces would attack. The report quotes the testimony of an Azerbaijani woman who states that after Armenians seized Malybeyli, an ultimatum was made to Alif Gajiev, the head of the militia in Khojaly, who told the population on 15 February, but they didn't consider leaving the town. The report also noted that by remaining armed and in-uniform,

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6968-441: The Azerbaijani militia endangered the retreating civilians. Salman Abasov, one of the survivors of massacre stated: Several days before the tragedy the Armenians told us several times over the radio that they would capture the town and demanded that we leave it. For a longtime helicopters flew into Khojali and it wasn't clear if anyone thought about our fate, took an interest in us. We received practically no help. Moreover, when it

7102-465: The HRW archive are not open to researchers or to the public, including the records of the meetings of the board of directors, the executive committee, and the various subcommittees, limiting historians' ability to understand the organization's internal decision-making. HRW has been criticized for perceived bias by the national governments it has investigated for human rights abuses. Some sources allege HRW

7236-579: The Hong Kong pro-democracy movement in the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests . The five organizations' leaders saw the sanctioning, whose details were unspecified, as a tit-for-tat measure in response to the earlier U.S. sanctioning of 11 Hong Kong officials. The latter step had in turn been a reaction to the enactment of the Hong Kong National Security Law in June. In October 2021, The New York Times reported that HRW left Hong Kong as

7370-710: The Iranian languages in what is now northwestern Iran, and a variety of languages of the Caucasus and Iranian languages spoken in the Caucasus , particularly Udi and Old Azeri . By the beginning of the 16th century, it had become the dominant language of the region. It was one of the spoken languages in the court of the Safavids , Afsharids and Qajars . The historical development of Azerbaijani can be divided into two major periods: early ( c.  14th to 18th century) and modern (18th century to present). Early Azerbaijani differs from its descendant in that it contained

7504-699: The Latin script and not South Azerbaijani written in the Perso-Arabic script. Modern literature in the Republic of Azerbaijan is primarily based on the Shirvani dialect, while in the Iranian Azerbaijan region (historic Azerbaijan) it is based on the Tabrizi one. An Azerbaijani koine served as a lingua franca throughout most parts of Transcaucasia except the Black Sea coast, in southern Dagestan ,

7638-509: The Modern Azeric family, a branch of Central Oghuz. In the northern dialects of the Azerbaijani language, linguists find traces of the influence of the Khazar language . According to Encyclopedia Iranica : We may distinguish the following Azeri dialects: (1) eastern group: Derbent (Darband), Kuba , Shemakha (Šamāḵī), Baku , Salyani (Salyānī), and Lenkoran (Lankarān), (2) western group: Kazakh (not to be confounded with

7772-924: The North Atlantic Anglosphere that report on global human rights violations. The major differences lie in the groups' structures and methods for promoting change. Amnesty International is a mass-membership organization. Mobilization of those members is the organization's central advocacy tool. Human Rights Watch's main products are its crisis-directed research and lengthy reports, whereas Amnesty International lobbies and writes detailed reports but also focuses on mass letter-writing campaigns, adopting individuals as " prisoners of conscience " and lobbying for their release. HRW openly lobbies for specific actions for other governments to take against human rights offenders, including naming specific individuals for arrest, or sanctions to be levied against certain countries, such as calling for punitive sanctions against

7906-600: The Republic of Azerbaijan and Russia) is based on the Shirvani dialect, while South Azerbaijani uses variety of regional dialects. Since the Republic of Azerbaijan's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Northern Azerbaijani has used the Latin script. On the other hand, South Azerbaijani has always used and continues to use the Perso-Arabic script . Azerbaijani is closely related to Turkmen , Turkish , Gagauz , and Qashqai , being mutually intelligible with each of these languages to varying degrees. Historically,

8040-528: The U.S. 2011 military intervention in Libya , and its silence during the 2004 Haitian coup d'état . In 2020, HRW's board of directors discovered that HRW accepted a $ 470,000 donation from Saudi real estate magnate Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber , owner of a company HRW "had previously identified as complicit in labor rights abuse", under the condition that the donation not be used to support LGBT advocacy in

8174-517: The affected countries, Americas Watch also examined the role played by foreign governments, particularly the United States government , in providing military and political support to abusive regimes. Asia Watch (1985), Africa Watch (1988) and Middle East Watch (1989) were added to what was known as "The Watch Committees". In 1988, these committees united under one umbrella to form Human Rights Watch. In April 2021, Human Rights Watch released

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8308-409: The argument that Azerbaijani forces obstructed the flight of, or fired on Azeri civilians". British journalist Thomas de Waal noted that "the overwhelming evidence of what happened has not stopped some Armenians, in distasteful fashion, trying to muddy the waters". However, De Waal has also stated that the tragedy in Khojaly was a result of a chaotic situation, and not a "deliberately planned" action by

8442-640: The assault, the Khojaly population was informed about the existence of this 'corridor' through loudspeakers mounted on armoured personnel carriers. NKR officials also noted that, several days prior to the assault, leaflets had been dropped on Khojaly from helicopters, urging the Khojaly population to use the 'free corridor'. However, not a single copy of such a leaflet has been provided to Memorial's observers in support of this assertion. Likewise, no traces of such leaflets have been found by Memorial's observers in Khojaly. When interviewed, Khojaly refugees said that they had not heard about such leaflets. Several days prior to

8576-445: The assault, the representatives of the Armenian side had, on repeated occasions, informed the Khojaly authorities by radio about the upcoming assault and urged them to immediately evacuate the population from the town. The fact that this information had been received by the Azerbaijani side and transferred to Baku is confirmed by Baku newspapers (Bakinskiy Rabochiy) Armenian fighters stated to HRW investigators that they sent ultimata to

8710-419: The author did not cross the limits of journalistic freedom". The Court, however, also noted that "The Karabakh Diary" did not constitute a piece of investigative journalism focusing specifically on the Khojaly events and considered that Fatullayev's statements about these events were made rather in passing, parallel to the main theme of the article. According to international observers, soldiers and officers of

8844-596: The basis for drawing international attention to abuses and pressuring governments and international organizations to reform. Researchers conduct fact-finding missions to investigate suspect situations, also using diplomacy, staying in touch with victims, making files about public and individuals, providing required security for them in critical situations, and generating local and international media coverage. Issues HRW raises in its reports include social and gender discrimination , torture , military use of children , political corruption , abuses in criminal justice systems, and

8978-482: The cession of Transcaucasia proper and Dagestan by Qajar Iran to the Russian Empire per the 1813 Treaty of Gulistan and the 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay . Per the 1829 Caucasus School Statute, Azerbaijani was to be taught in all district schools of Ganja , Shusha , Nukha (present-day Shaki ), Shamakhi , Quba , Baku , Derbent , Yerevan , Nakhchivan , Akhaltsikhe , and Lankaran . Beginning in 1834, it

9112-481: The children cradled in the women’s arms. Several of them, including one small girl, had terrible head injuries: only her face was left. Survivors have told how they saw Armenians shooting them point blank as they lay on the ground." Helen Womack reported in The Independent : "The exact number of victims is still unclear, but there can be little doubt that Azeri civilians were massacred by Armenian fighters in

9246-454: The city of Sumgait where the civilian Armenian population was brutally murdered solely because of their ethnic origin. Melkonian wrote that fighters of Arabo and Aramo military detachments stabbed many Azeri civilians to death, despite Monte Melkonian strictly ordering not to harm captives. In an interview with Thomas de Waal, Serzh Sargsyan , the then Defense Minister of Armenia who later became president of Armenia, he stated that Stepanakert

9380-460: The civilians. At the same time, Human Rights Watch and Memorial stated that the killing of civilians could not be justified under any circumstances. Human Rights Watch noted that "The attacking party is still obliged to take precautionary measures to avoid or minimize civilian casualties. In particular, the party must suspend an attack if it becomes apparent that the attack may be expected to cause civilian casualties that are excessive in relation to

9514-400: The concrete and direct military advantage anticipated. The circumstances surrounding the attack at Nakhichevanik on those fleeing from Khojaly indicate that Armenian forces and the troops of the 366th CIS regiment (who were not apparently acting on orders from their commanders) deliberately disregarded this customary law restraint on attacks". However, the obligation to protect the civilians

9648-452: The conflict had escalated into a full-scale war. In February 1992 the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, Stepanakert , was under a blockade by Azerbaijani forces. In 1988 the town had 2,135 inhabitants. Due to the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, population exchanges occurred between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Meskhetian Turk refugees leaving Central Asia subsequently settled in Khojaly. According to Thomas de Waal , Khojaly had been

9782-530: The corridor. Nevertheless, attempting to minimize his own role did not help him. In one of his interviews Mutalibov stated that the event was "organized" by his political opponents to force his resignation. The interview was much cited in Armenia. As the survivors of Khojaly say, all this was organized to create a cause for my resignation. A certain power was working for discrediting the President. I don't think

9916-476: The current edition, World Report 2020 , was released in January 2020, and covers events of 2019. World Report 2020 , HRW's 30th annual review of human rights practices around the globe, includes reviews of human rights practices and trends in nearly 100 countries, and an introductory essay by Executive Director Kenneth Roth, "China's Global Threat to Human Rights". HRW has reported extensively on subjects such as

10050-493: The denialism of the massacre by calling it "propaganda" and "fabricated". Memorials have been erected in Azerbaijan and abroad to commemorate the Khojaly massacre. Azerbaijani language Azerbaijani ( / ˌ æ z ər b aɪ ˈ dʒ æ n i , - ɑː n i / AZ -ər-by- JAN -ee ) or Azeri ( / æ ˈ z ɛər i , ɑː -, ə -/ az- AIR -ee, ah-, ə- ), also referred to as Azeri Turkic or Azeri Turkish ,

10184-430: The fact that there were armed people fleeing together with the refugees, who were firing at Armenian outposts, thus drawing return fire, as well as by an attempted breakthrough by the main Azerbaijani forces. According to members of the Armenian armed forces, the Azerbaijani forces attempted to battle through Agdam in the direction of the 'free corridor'. At the moment when the Armenian outposts were fighting off this attack,

10318-520: The first Azerbaijani newspaper to be published in the Russian Empire . It was started by Hasan bey Zardabi , a journalist and education advocate. Mohammad-Hossein Shahriar is an important figure in Azerbaijani poetry. His most important work is Heydar Babaya Salam and it is considered to be a pinnacle of Azerbaijani literature and gained popularity in the Turkic-speaking world. It

10452-430: The first groups of Khojaly refugees approached them from the rear. The armed people who were among the refugees began firing at the Armenian outposts. During the battle, one outpost was destroyed, but the fighters from another outpost, of whose existence the Azerbaijanis were unaware, opened fire from a close distance at the people coming from Khojaly. According to testimonies of Khojaly refugees (including those published in

10586-493: The focus of a large resettlement program by the Azerbaijan government in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This coincided with the First Nagorno-Karabakh War and increased the population to 6200 by 1991. Khojaly was on the road from Shusha and Stepanakert to Aghdam and had the region's only airport. The airport was of vital importance for the survival of the population in Karabakh, which had no land connection with Armenia and

10720-400: The founder of Varlıq , Javad Heyat , in 2001 where a document outlining the standard orthography and writing conventions were published for the public. This standard of writing is today canonized by a Persian–Azeri Turkic dictionary in Iran titled Loghatnāme-ye Torki-ye Āzarbāyjāni . Between 1929 and 1938, a Latin alphabet was in use for North Azerbaijani, although it was different from

10854-607: The language was referred to by its native speakers as türk dili or türkcə , meaning either "Turkish" or "Turkic". In the early years following the establishment of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic , the language was still referred to as "Turkic" in official documents. However, in the 1930s, its name was officially changed to "Azerbaijani". The language is often still referred to as Turki or Torki in Iranian Azerbaijan . The term "Azeri", generally interchangeable with "Azerbaijani",

10988-409: The largest minority in the city and the wider province, comprising about 1 ⁄ 6 of its total population. The CIA World Factbook reports that in 2010, the percentage of Iranian Azerbaijani speakers was at around 16 percent of the Iranian population, or approximately 13 million people worldwide, and ethnic Azeris form by far the second largest ethnic group of Iran, thus making the language also

11122-495: The legalization of abortion . HRW has documented and reported various violations of the laws of war and international humanitarian law , most recently in Yemen. Human Rights Watch also supports writers worldwide who are persecuted for their work and in need of financial assistance. The Hellman/Hammett grants are financed by the estate of the playwright Lillian Hellman in funds set up in her name and that of her longtime companion,

11256-524: The loss of many archaic Turkic elements, stilted Iranisms and Ottomanisms, and other words, expressions, and rules that failed to gain popularity among the Azerbaijani masses. The Russian annexation of Iran 's territories in the Caucasus through the Russo-Iranian wars of 1804–1813 and 1826–1828 split the language community across two states. Afterwards, the Tsarist administration encouraged

11390-543: The majority of Iranian Azerbaijani people live. Azerbaijani is also spoken to lesser varying degrees in Azerbaijani communities of Georgia and Turkey and by diaspora communities, primarily in Europe and North America. Although there is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between both forms of Azerbaijani, there are significant differences in phonology , lexicon , morphology , syntax , and sources of loanwords . The standardized form of North Azerbaijani (spoken in

11524-524: The majority of countries it reports on. Cuba , North Korea , Sudan , Iran , Israel , Egypt , the United Arab Emirates , Uzbekistan and Venezuela are among the handful of countries that have blocked HRW staff members' access. HRW's former executive director is Kenneth Roth , who held the position from 1993 to 2022. Roth conducted investigations on abuses in Poland after martial law

11658-438: The mass of bodies two caught his sight. An old woman with uncovered grey head was lying face down next to a little girl in a blue jacket. Their legs were tied with barbed wire, and the old woman's hands were tied as well. Both were shot in their heads, and the little girl in her last move was stretching out her hands to her dead grandmother. Shocked, Romanov initially forgot about his camera, but started filming after recovering from

11792-452: The massacre "a blatant lie," claiming that it was "carried out by Azerbaijanis themselves", despite the findings by Human Rights Watch which placed direct responsibility for the civilian deaths with Karabakh Armenian forces. Pashinyan referred to Ayaz Mutalibov 's interview to claim that the massacre had been committed not by Armenian soldiers but by Popular Front of Azerbaijan militants who allegedly shot their own civilians escaping through

11926-622: The massacre, though as many as 500–1,000 may have died. This number includes combatants and those who died of cold. Most governments and media use the term massacre to refer to the incident. Azerbaijani sources oftentimes refer to the massacre as a tragedy ( Azerbaijani : Xocalı faciəsi ) or a genocide ( Xocalı soyqırımı ). In the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, both Armenians and Azerbaijanis became victims of pogroms and ethnic cleansing, which resulted in numerous casualties and displacement of large groups of people. By 1992,

12060-414: The maximum four as of 2016. The Better Business Bureau said HRW meets its standards for charity accountability. Some notable current and former staff members of Human Rights Watch: Human Rights Watch publishes reports on many different topics and compiles an annual World Report presenting an overview of the worldwide state of human rights. It has been published by Seven Stories Press since 2006;

12194-435: The medieval Turkic migrations . Persian and Arabic influenced the language, but Arabic words were mainly transmitted through the intermediary of literary Persian. Azerbaijani is, perhaps after Uzbek , the Turkic language upon which Persian and other Iranian languages have exerted the strongest impact—mainly in phonology, syntax, and vocabulary, less in morphology. The Turkic language of Azerbaijan gradually supplanted

12328-596: The meeting of the National Security Council was held… At the meeting, a resolution was made not to evacuate the people from Khojaly. It was considered that if we evacuated the population, we would invite Armenians to occupy the settlement. That is, we would ourselves incite Armenians to attack. Even the members of the Security Council didn't believe that Armenians could commit this sort of actions that resulted in genocide. They thought that if

12462-551: The mosque when we arrived in Agdam late on Tuesday. I also saw women and children with bullet wounds, in a makeshift hospital in a string of railway carriages at the station", "I have little doubt that on this occasion, two weeks ago, the Azeris were the victims of Armenian brutality. In the past, it has been the other way round" Russian journalist Victoria Ivleva entered Khojaly after it fell to Armenian armed forces. She took photos of

12596-540: The name Helsinki Watch , to monitor the then- Soviet Union 's compliance with the Helsinki Accords . Helsinki Watch adopted a practice of publicly " naming and shaming " abusive governments through media coverage and direct exchanges with policymakers. Helsinki Watch says that, by shining the international spotlight on human rights violations in the Soviet Union and its European partners, it contributed to

12730-635: The novelist Dashiell Hammett . In addition to providing financial assistance, the Hellman/Hammett grants help raise international awareness of activists who have been silenced for speaking out in defence of human rights. Each year, Human Rights Watch presents the Human Rights Defenders Award to activists who demonstrate leadership and courage in defending human rights. The award winners work closely with HRW to investigate and expose human rights abuses. Human Rights Watch

12864-493: The one used now. From 1938 to 1991, the Cyrillic script was used. Lastly, in 1991, the current Latin alphabet was introduced, although the transition to it has been rather slow. For instance, until an Aliyev decree on the matter in 2001, newspapers would routinely write headlines in the Latin script, leaving the stories in Cyrillic. The transition has also resulted in some misrendering of İ as Ì . In Dagestan, Azerbaijani

12998-483: The organization has to be seen as more international, less an American organization." He continued, "Human Rights Watch is one of the most effective organizations I support. Human rights underpin our greatest aspirations: they're at the heart of open societies." The donation, the largest in HRW's history, increased its operating staff of 300 by 120 people. Charity Navigator gave HRW a three-star rating for 2018. Its financial rating increased from three stars in 2015 to

13132-486: The overuse of Persian, Arabic, and European elements in both colloquial and literary language and called for a simpler and more popular style. The Soviet Union promoted the development of the language but set it back considerably with two successive script changes – from the Persian to Latin and then to the Cyrillic script – while Iranian Azerbaijanis continued to use the Persian script as they always had. Despite

13266-463: The personnel of the regiment by helicopter, but over 100 soldiers and officers remained in Stepanakert and joined the Armenian forces, including the commander of the 2nd battalion major Seyran Ohanyan , who later served as a Minister of Defense of Armenia . The Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper reported: Despite categorical orders of the command of the military district , some military personnel of

13400-451: The population left the settlement we ourselves would give Khojaly up. Elmar Mammadov, the Mayor of Khojaly testified that the Azerbaijani authorities knew about the attack but they took no measure to evacuate the civilians: On 25 February 1992 at 8:30 pm we were told that the tanks of the enemy have been placed around the city in a fighting position. We informed everybody about this over

13534-570: The press . It seeks to achieve change by publicly pressuring governments and their policymakers to curb human rights abuses, and by convincing more powerful governments to use their influence on governments that violate human rights. Human Rights Watch publishes research reports on violations of international human rights norms as set out by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and what it perceives to be other internationally accepted human-rights norms. These reports are used as

13668-441: The press), the armed people inside the refugee column did exchange gunfire with Armenian outposts, but on each occasion, the fire was opened first from the Armenian side. Denial of the Khojaly massacre, by either claiming that the massacre was committed by Azerbaijanis themselves or that no civilian was killed is common among the Armenian public, officials and organisations. According to Rachel Avraham, senior media research analyst at

13802-419: The process of standardization of orthography started with the publication of Azerbaijani magazines and newspapers such as Varlıq ( وارلیق — Existence ) from 1979. Azerbaijani-speaking scholars and literarians showed great interest in involvement in such ventures and in working towards the development of a standard writing system. These effort culminated in language seminars being held in Tehran , chaired by

13936-400: The radio. Furthermore, on 24 February I called Aghdam and told them, that a captured Armenian fighter has informed us on the impending attack... There was no response. I have also asked to send a helicopter for the transportation of the elderly, women and children. But no help came. None of the witnesses interviewed by Helsinki Watch on the Azerbaijani side said that they knew beforehand of such

14070-412: The region's democratic transformations in the late 1980s. Americas Watch was founded in 1981 while bloody civil wars engulfed Central America. Relying on extensive on-the-ground fact-finding, Americas Watch not only addressed perceived abuses by government forces but also applied international humanitarian law to investigate and expose war crimes by rebel groups. In addition to raising concerns in

14204-536: The rest of the world. According to a 2008 financial assessment, HRW reports that it does not accept any direct or indirect funding from governments and is financed through contributions from private individuals and foundations. Financier George Soros of the Open Society Foundations announced in 2010 his intention to grant US$ 100 million to HRW over ten years to help it expand its efforts internationally: "to be more effective", he said, "I think

14338-526: The second most spoken language in the nation. Ethnologue reports 10.9 million Iranian Azerbaijani in Iran in 2016 and 13,823,350 worldwide. Dialects of South Azerbaijani include: "Aynallu (often considered a separate language ), Karapapakh (often considered a separate language. The second edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam mentions that it is close to both "Āzerī and the Turkish of Turkey". The historian George Bournoutian only mentions that it

14472-611: The shock. However, the helicopter came under the fire, and they had to leave. Czech journalist Dana Mazalova said that in Baku she had seen Chingiz Mustafayev 's unedited footage of the dead bodies without the signs of mutilation that were shown in later footage. Azerbaijani journalist Eynulla Fatullayev traveled in 2005 to Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh and wrote an article called "Karabakh Diary". He claimed that he met some refugees from Khojaly, temporarily settled in Naftalan, who said that

14606-444: The site of the massacre: "Scattered amid the withered grass and bushes along a small valley and across the hillside beyond are the bodies of last Wednesday’s massacre by Armenian forces of Azerbaijani refugees. ... Of the 31 we saw, only one policeman and two apparent national volunteers were wearing a uniform. All the rest were civilians, including eight women and three small children. Two groups, apparently families, had fallen together,

14740-611: The situation to focus the popular resentment on him. Mutalibov stated that after the massacre he called the speaker of the Supreme Soviet of NKAO Artur Mkrtchyan , and the latter assured him that the people of Khojaly were given a corridor to escape, and he only referred to Mkrtchyan's words, without making any assertions as to whether the corridor actually existed. Armenian organisations such as Armenian National Committee of America , Political Science Association of Armenia and Armenian National Committee of Australia have embraced

14874-468: The snowy mountains of Nagorny Karabakh last week. Refugees from the enclave town of Khojaly, sheltering in the Azeri border town of Agdam, give largely consistent accounts of how their enemies attacked their homes on the night of 25 February, chased those who fled and shot them in the surrounding forests. Yesterday I saw 75 freshly dug graves in one cemetery in addition to four mutilated corpses we were shown in

15008-641: The spread of Azerbaijani in eastern Transcaucasia as a replacement for Persian spoken by the upper classes, and as a measure against Persian influence in the region. Between c.  1900 and 1930, there were several competing approaches to the unification of the national language in what is now the Azerbaijan Republic, popularized by scholars such as Hasan bey Zardabi and Mammad agha Shahtakhtinski . Despite major differences, they all aimed primarily at making it easy for semi-literate masses to read and understand literature . They all criticized

15142-764: The top leaders in Sudan who oversaw a killing campaign in Darfur . The group also called for human rights activists who had been detained in Sudan to be released. HRW's documentations of human rights abuses often include extensive analyses of conflicts' political and historical backgrounds, some of which have been published in academic journals. AI's reports, on the other hand, tend to contain less analysis, instead focusing on specific abuses of rights. In 2010, Jonathan Foreman wrote that HRW had "all but eclipsed" Amnesty International. According to Foreman, instead of being supported by

15276-431: The town northeastwards along the river, passing Askeran to their left (this route, according to Armenian officials, was provided as a "free corridor"); and 2) from the north side of the town northeastwards, passing Askeran to their right (it appears that fewer refugees fled using this route). Thus, the majority of civilians left Khojaly, while around 200–300 people stayed in the town, hiding in their houses and basements. As

15410-568: The town streets strewn with dead bodies of its inhabitants, including women and children. She described how she saw a large crowd of Meskhetian Turks from Khojaly who were led to captivity by the Armenian militants and she was hit by an Armenian soldier who took her for one of the captives, when she was helping a woman falling behind the crowd with four children, one of which wounded, and the other one newly born. The captives were later exchanged or released, and in 2011 Ivleva found that woman in Azerbaijan. Her little child grew up, but did not speak, this

15544-571: The wide use of Azerbaijani in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic , it became the official language of Azerbaijan only in 1956. After independence, the Republic of Azerbaijan decided to switch back to a modified Latin script. The development of Azerbaijani literature is closely associated with Anatolian Turkish, written in Perso-Arabic script . Examples of its detachment date to the 14th century or earlier. Kadi Burhan al-Din , Hasanoghlu , and Imadaddin Nasimi helped to establish Azerbaiijani as

15678-483: The withdrawal of the Soviet Internal Troops from Karabakh the blockade became total. Some inhabitants left the blockaded town, but the civilian population was not fully evacuated, despite insistent demands of the head of executive power of Khojaly, Elman Mammadov . Khojaly was defended by local OMON forces under the command of Alif Hajiyev , which numbered about 160 or so lightly armed men. Khojaly

15812-728: The world. The archive was transferred from the Norlin Library at the University of Colorado, Boulder . It includes administrative files, public relations documents, and case and country files. With some exceptions for security considerations, the Columbia University community and the public have access to field notes, taped and transcribed interviews with alleged victims of human rights violations, video and audiotapes, and other materials documenting HRW's activities since its founding in 1978 as Helsinki Watch. Some parts of

15946-521: Was 613 civilians, including 106 women and 63 children. By 28 March 1992, over 700 civilians from Khojaly, mostly women and children detained both in the city and on their way to Aghdam, were delivered to the Azerbaijani side, according to Moscow-based Memorial society. Memorial described the actions of Armenian militants as in gross violation of a number of basic international human rights conventions. Anatol Lieven wrote in The Times after visiting

16080-522: Was a perfect opportunity to leave, that means that they also are taking part in military operations . . . The corridor was not left open in order to shoot them, shooting could have been done in Khojali, not somewhere near Agdam. . According to Memorial society, Official representatives of the NKR and members of the Armenian armed forces explained the death of civilians in the zone of the 'free corridor' by

16214-455: Was accompanied by the Russian journalist Yuri Romanov in the first helicopter flight to the scene of the tragedy. Romanov described in his memoir how he looked out of the window of the helicopter and jumped back from an incredibly horrible view. The whole area up to the horizon was covered with dead bodies of women, elderly people and boys and girls of all ages, from newly born to teenagers. Amid

16348-630: Was an Azerbaijani-populated town of some 6,300 people in the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast of Azerbaijan SSR , also housing the region's only airport in 1992. The town was subject to daily shelling and total blockade by Armenian forces during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War . Without supply of electricity, gas, or water, it was defended by the local forces consisting of about 160 lightly armed men. The Armenian forces, along with some troops of

16482-474: Was attributed to the shock she suffered in childhood. After the seizure of Khojaly, Armenians allowed Azerbaijanis to claim their dead, based on which the Azerbaijanis later grounded their accusations of the massacre. As argued by British historian Christopher J. Walker , the group committing a massacre would have hardly taken up any of these measures. The site of the Khojaly mass killing was filmed on videotape by Azerbaijani journalist Chingiz Mustafayev , who

16616-675: Was being shelled from Khojali, that the fleeing Azerbaijanis had put up armed resistance, that "a lot was exaggerated" in the casualties and that Azerbaijanis needed something to compare to the Sumgait pogrom. At the same time, he stated: Before Khojali, the Azerbaijanis thought that they were joking with us, they thought that the Armenians were people who could not raise their hand against the civilian population. We were able to break that [stereotype]. And that's what happened. And we should also take into account that amongst those boys were people who had fled from Baku and Sumgait. Although I think that

16750-458: Was challenged by others, such as Aghamusa Akhundov  [ az ] , who argued that Damirchizade was taking orthography as the basis of his judgement, rather than its phonetic value. According to Akhundov, Azerbaijani contains two diphthongs, / ou̯ / and / œy̯ / , represented by ov and öv in the alphabet, both of which are phonemic due to their contrast with / o / and / œ / , represented by o and ö . In some cases,

16884-464: Was declared 1981. He later focused on Haiti , which had just emerged from the Duvalier dictatorship but continued to be plagued with problems. Roth's awareness of the importance of human rights began with stories his father had told about escaping Nazi Germany in 1938. He graduated from Yale Law School and Brown University . Tirana Hassan became the group's executive director in 2023. Hassan

17018-656: Was introduced as a language of study in Kutaisi instead of Armenian. In 1853, Azerbaijani became a compulsory language for students of all backgrounds in all of Transcaucasia with the exception of the Tiflis Governorate . Azerbaijani is one of the Oghuz languages within the Turkic language family . Ethnologue lists North Azerbaijani (spoken mainly in the Republic of Azerbaijan and Russia) and South Azerbaijani (spoken in Iran, Iraq, and Syria) as two groups within

17152-467: Was likewise breached by the Azerbaijani side. As stated by HRW report: The parties may not use civilians to shield military targets from attack or to shield military operations including retreats. Thus a party that intersperses combatants with fleeing civilians puts those civilians at risk and violates its obligation to protect its own civilians. Human Rights Watch described the Khojaly massacre in their 1994 report as "the largest massacre to date" in

17286-591: Was no statement asserting that any of the Khojaly victims had been killed or mutilated by Azerbaijani fighters. Fatullayev was sued for defamation and convicted in an Azerbaijani court to eight and a half years in prison and a penalty fee of $ 230,000. Reporters without Borders strongly condemned this decision, stating that the judgment was based on no evidence but is purely political. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that Fatullayev must be released, because in their opinion "although “The Karabakh Diary” might have contained certain exaggerated or provocative assertions,

17420-672: Was one of six international NGOs that founded the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers in 1998. It is also the co-chair of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines , a global coalition of civil society groups that successfully lobbied to introduce the Ottawa Treaty , which prohibits the use of anti-personnel landmines. Human Rights Watch is a founding member of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange ,

17554-422: Was possible to take our women, children out of the town, we were persuaded not to do so. Azerbaijani filmmaker Ramiz Fataliev testified in his interview that the Azerbaijani authorities did not evacuate the civilians from Khojaly because they thought that by doing so they would invite the Armenians to occupy Khojaly: On the 22nd of February, in the president's, prime-minister's, KGB minister's and others' presence,

17688-417: Was shelled by Armenian forces almost daily in the winter of 1991–1992, and people grew accustomed to spending nights in basements, surviving the total blockade, and the lack of electricity, gas and water. The report of Memorial stated that the Armenian side claimed that a free corridor was provided for fleeing civilians. The Memorial report says: According to the officials of the NKR and those taking part in

17822-750: Was translated into more than 30 languages. In the mid-19th century, Azerbaijani literature was taught at schools in Baku , Ganja , Shaki , Tbilisi , and Yerevan . Since 1845, it has also been taught in the Saint Petersburg State University in Russia . In 2018, Azerbaijani language and literature programs are offered in the United States at several universities, including Indiana University , UCLA , and University of Texas at Austin . The vast majority, if not all Azerbaijani language courses teach North Azerbaijani written in

17956-495: Was under a total blockade by Azerbaijan. According to Human Rights Watch , Khojaly was used by Azerbaijani forces as a base for shelling Stepanakert . In October 1991, the Nagorno-Karabakh forces cut the road connecting Khojaly and Aghdam, so that the only way to reach Khojaly was by helicopter. According to the Memorial civil rights society, from autumn 1991 Khojaly was practically blockaded by Armenian armed forces, and after

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