Azerbaijan’s Khankendi, 25 years under Armenian occupation

Twenty-five years have passed since the occupation of Azerbaijan’s Khankendi city and its Kerkijahan settlement, which had significant strategic importance for surrounding areas, by Armenian troops.
 
By the capture of the Kerkijahan settlement on 28 December 1991, the occupation of Khankendi was completed.
 
Before the occupation, defense of Kerkijahan was organized by self-defense units formed from villagers, the newly established group of military police and the National Army of Azerbaijan.
 
As a result of Armenians' attack with military vehicles and heavy weapons, those who defended Kerkijahan had to retreat. The civilian population managed to get out of Kerkijahan thanks to the self-defense units’ temporary resistance.
 
As a result of the occupation of Kerkijahan by the Armenian armed groups, 34 of 1,796 habitants of the village, including 3 women and 2 babies, were killed and more than 150 people were wounded. Two high schools, a kindergarten, library, club, telephone exchange building, 10 shops, a clinic, 15 manufacturing plants and other objects of everyday life were destroyed in Kerkijahan.

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