March 24, 1990, is one of the darkest days in the history of Azerbaijan. Thirty-five years ago, Armenian militants attacked the Azerbaijani village of Baganis Ayrim in the Gazakh district on the border with Armenia. Ten people, including three women and a newborn baby, were killed, the village was burned down, and 438 of its residents became refugees.
Carrying out massacres against Azerbaijani civilians around the time of the beloved national holiday Novruz Bayram is a hallmark of Armenian nationalists, a pattern known since the spring of 1918. In the 1990s, Armenian militants merely repeated that historical experience. It was there, on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, that Armenian militants first used a horrific “innovation” — burning people alive using gas cylinders. Before the destruction of Khojaly, Baganis Ayrim was referred to as the “Azerbaijani Khatyn.”
This village remained effectively under Armenian occupation until 2024, when it was returned to Azerbaijan as part of the border delimitation and demarcation process. Formally — bloodlessly. In reality, such a constructive stance in Yerevan only emerged after losing the 2020 war, the anti-terror operations in 2023, and a series of border skirmishes.
It would seem that today, with Baganis Ayrim back under Azerbaijani control and its revival on the agenda, it is time to commemorate the victims and, as politicians like to say, “turn the page.” But that’s not so easy. One reason is that the tragedy of Baganis Ayrim has never been politically evaluated — not in the immediate aftermath, nor later. And that must be done. There are simply too many inconvenient truths surrounding this tragedy.
The destruction of Baganis Ayrim took place in March 1990. The Soviet Union still existed. In fact, just over two months earlier, in January 1990, Gorbachev carried out a punitive operation in Baku. Yet no one in Moscow thought of restoring order in Armenia, where illegal armed groups were already being formed. Baganis Ayrim was attacked with heavy firearms, machine guns, automatic rifles, grenade launchers… Such an “arsenal” could hardly have been purchased at any army surplus store. Moreover, even local police, the KGB, and other security agencies were not authorized to have such weaponry. So where did Armenian militants get it from? No answer was given — neither then nor now.
And perhaps the most crucial point: already by spring 1990, the conflict was not limited to Karabakh as such. Armenia was attempting to seize territories hundreds of kilometers away from Karabakh — deep within Azerbaijan. The Gazakh district holds a special place here. Rail and highway routes to Georgia pass right near the border. Even after the 1994 ceasefire agreement, Armenian nationalists openly shared plans to seize the village of Alibeyli, located near the junction of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia, and to repeat the Khojaly genocide there. At least, the newspaper “Voice of Armenia” wrote so directly. Later, strategic export pipeline routes would also pass through this area. And it’s hardly a coincidence that in the summer of 2020, right on the eve of the “new war for new territories,” Armenia attempted new territorial seizures precisely here. And once again, the world tried not to notice. Finally, after the 44-day war, Armenia began talking about plans to create a new Russian base near the tri-border area.
Therefore, it is especially impossible to treat the tragedy of Baganis Ayrim as a thing of the past today — in the face of Yerevan’s revanchist preparations. Especially since it is precisely here, in the immediate vicinity of Baganis Ayrim, that European “binocular lovers” conduct their provocative maneuvers. The balance of power in the region has changed fundamentally, but Yerevan’s policies — it seems — have not. They’ve simply found themselves a new “big brother,” as President Ilham Aliyev noted.
That means we must keep our powder dry — to prevent such tragedies from ever happening again.
Nurani
Translated from minval.az
