Twenty-five years have passed since the occupation of theMalibeyli and Gushchular villages of Azerbaijan’s Shusha district by Armenian armed forces.

Armenia’s armed units, together with the 366th infantry regiment of Soviet troops, stationed in Khankendi, launched an attack on the Malibeyli and Gushchular villages on February 9, 1992.

Both villages were occupied after the three-day unequal battle. The villages were burned, homes, schools, kindergartens, hospitals, administrative buildings, and cultural monuments were destroyed.

As a result of the occupation, about 30 civilians were killed or captured, hundreds of people were injured. The rest of the people managed to reach the Aghdam district after going a few kilometers through a rural mountain road in frosty weather.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict entered its modern phase when the Armenian SRR made territorial claims against the Azerbaijani SSR in 1988.

A fierce war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the war, Armenian armed forces occupied some 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory which includes Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts (Lachin, Kalbajar, Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Gubadli and Zangilan), and over a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced people.

The military operations finally came to an end when Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in Bishkek in 1994.

Dealing with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the OSCE Minsk Group, which was created after the meeting of the CSCE (OSCE after the Budapest summit held in Dec.1994) Ministerial Council in Helsinki on 24 March 1992. The Group’s members include Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belarus, Finland and Sweden.

Besides, the OSCE Minsk Group has a co-chairmanship institution, comprised of Russian, the US and French co-chairs, which began operating in 1996.

Resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 of the UN Security Council, which were passed in short intervals in 1993, and other resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly, PACE, OSCE, OIC, and other organizations require Armenia to unconditionally withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh.

http://en.apa.az/nagorno_karabakh/25-years-pass-since-occupation-of-malibeyli-gushchular-villages-of-azerbaijan-s-shusha.html