Victim taken hostage in Kalbajar: ‘Armenian army soldiers buried 23 people alive before my eyes’

During the ongoing trial at the Baku Military Court on May 8, victim Zabil Safarov, who was taken hostage during the occupation of Azerbaijan’s Kalbajar district, gave testimony, Report informs.

In his testimony, Safarov stated that on April 4, 1993, the Armenian armed forces entered Kalbajar and surrounded them.

"When the Armenians put me in a tank and took me away, my grandmother begged them not to separate the child from her. But they ignored this. After that, they killed my grandmother there for stating, 'someday our army will take back these lands.' After killing my grandmother, they brought me to the Vang village of Kalbajar. There they tortured us, and then brought us to the district," he said.

The victim recalled that the Armenian armed forces soldiers insulted the minors and women they had taken hostage, tortured everyone regardless of whether they were elderly or children, and killed them.

"The Armenians heated a skewer and burned the body of an Azerbaijani soldier. They also cut off someone's ear. While I was in Shusha 'prison,' I witnessed them burning someone's body and putting a cross mark on it. I saw Armenians beat several Azerbaijanis to death.

They also buried 23 people alive before my eyes, with only their heads left above ground.

The Armenians tortured Azerbaijanis so much that they committed suicide because they couldn't endure it.

Armenian army soldiers looted our cemeteries, exhumed corpses from graves, plundered and desecrated them.

Because of the torture inflicted on me, my right ear doesn't hear well, and my eyesight has weakened. They broke my teeth," Safarov emphasized.

The trial continues for Armenian citizens accused of crimes against peace and humanity, including war crimes, acts of terrorism, the preparation and execution of aggressive war, genocide, violations of war laws and rules, forcible seizure and retention of power, as well as financing terrorism, among other offenses stemming from Armenia's military aggression.