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The Capture of Gushchular and Malibeyli was an incident in which eight ethnic Azerbaijani civilians were killed by Armenian irregular armed units in simultaneous attacks on the villages of Malibeyli, Ashaghi Gushchular, and Yukhari Gushchular in the Shusha District of Azerbaijan, on February 10–12, 1992 during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.

Overview

According to the Memorial, the villages of Malibeyli and Gushchular were attacked by Armenian irregular armed units where the houses were burned and several civilians were killed. Both sides accused the other of using the villages as strategic gathering points, covering the artillery positions. According to several eyewitnesses, the Azerbaijani self-defense forces were mixed in with civilians as they fled.

Azerbaijani populated villages of Malibeyli and Gushchular (administratively separated as Ashaghi Gushchular and Yukhari Gushchular) of Shusha District of Azerbaijan are located in the highlands of Karabakh region, close to the regional center of Shusha. The villages had a population of nearly 4,000 people and shared the same village administration. Like Khojaly in 1988, Gushchular and Malibeyli received Azerbaijani refugees from Armenia. The figure ranged from 580 to 1500. When the Nagorno–Karabakh conflict started, the villages became one of the main targets of Armenian armed units. Since October 1991, Malibeyli was in complete blockade.

A report in the newspaper Express Chronicle asserted that on February 5, a helicopter distributed warning leaflets telling villagers they had two days to leave the village before it "would cease to exist", however, no interviews confirmed this report. Since October 1991, the residents were confined to their villages and the only way in or out was by helicopter. The last helicopter to fly into Shusha district was shot down by Armenians on January 28. At midnight on February 10, Armenian armed units, reportedly aided by Russian troops, stormed Malibeyli village. The women and children from Malibeyli fled to Gushchular village. Inhabitants of both villages took positions and fought the enemy until 9 a.m. All roads to the nearby towns of Shusha and Khojaly were cut off. The closest village was Abdal Gulably of Agdam District and required passage through Armenian-held villages. Most of the armed ethnic Armenians were volunteers from Syria, Lebanon, the United States, and France.

Malibeyli and Gushchular were attacked by Armenian armored personnel carriers and heavy artillery after large-scale Azerbaijani ground assault against Stepanakert and with the aim to end the shelling of neighboring Armenian villages by Azerbaijani forces.

According to the Russian human rights organization Memorial, dozens of civilians were killed by shelling during expulsion of Azerbaijani population from two villages.

See also

• List of massacres of Azerbaijanis
• Capture of Shusha

References

1. ^ Denber, Rachel; Goldman, Robert K. (1992). Bloodshed in the Caucasus: escalation of the armed conflict in Nagorno Karabakh. Praeger Publishers. pp. 24–27. ISBN 0-275-96241-5. Retrieved 2010-12-20. Kalbajar.
2. ^ Charles, van der Leeuw (2000). Azerbaijan: A quest for identity. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-312-21903-2.
3. ""Доклад правозащитного центра "Мемориал" о массовых нарушениях прав человека, связанных с занятием населенного пункта Ходжалы в ночь с 25 на 26 февраля 1992 г. вооружёнными формированиями." Memorial". Archived from the original on July 31, 2010. Retrieved March 6, 2012.
4. "ПРОШЛО 18 ЛЕТ СО ДНЯ ОККУПАЦИИ СЕЛ МАЛЫБЕЙЛИ И ГУШЧУЛАР ШУШИ. ПО ЭТОМУ СЛУЧАЮ СОСТОЯЛАСЬ ЦЕРЕМОНИЯ ПОЧТЕНИЯ ПАМЯТИ ПОГИБШИХ". Azerbaijan Community of Nagorno Karabakh. February 11, 2010. Archived from the original on July 10, 2012. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
5. Cornell, Svante (2001). Small Nations and Great Powers: A Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict in the Caucasus (Caucasus World). Routledge. p. 81. ISBN 0-7007-1162-7.
6. de Waal, Thomas (2003). Black Garden. New York University Press. p. 166. ISBN 0-8147-1944-9.
7. Markar, Melkonian (2008). My brother's road. I. B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-84511-530-2.
8. Croissant, Michael P. (2006). The Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict: causes and implications. Praeger Publishers. p. 78. ISBN 0-275-96241-5. Retrieved March 22, 2012. Following the collapse of the large-scale Azerbaijani ground assault against Stepanakert by the first week of February, ethnic Armenian forces went on the offensive in areas to the north and southwest of the Karabakh capital. With the stated objective of "suppress Azeri fire emplacements," Armenian forces took the village of Malybeyli on 11 February and began a major assault towards Khojaly, a town with both strategic and symbolic value several kilometers north of Stepanakert.
9. "Доклад Правозащитного Центра «Мемориал» о массовых нарушениях прав человека, связанных с занятием населенного пункта Ходжалы в ночь с 25 на 26 февраля 1992 г. вооруженными формированиями". Правозащитный центр «Мемориал». 1 July 1992. Retrieved 24 December 2021.

39°49′46″N 46°47′36″E / 39.82944°N 46.79333°E / 39.82944; 46.79333

• Conflicts in 1992
• First Nagorno-Karabakh War
• Massacres in Azerbaijan
• Armenian war crimes
• Mass murder in 1992
• 1992 in Azerbaijan
• February 1992 events in Asia