On February 25, 1992, Armenian forces moved to capture the town of Khojaly, battering it with heavy artillery and tanks, assisted by the 366th CIS Infantry Regiment.
The two-hour offensive killed 613 Azeri citizens and critically wounded 487 others.
Kadim Abbasov, 73, is one of the survivors. He fled the town shortly before the shelling but was caught by Armenian forces after being hit by a mortar and wounded in the legs and stomach.
"We were targeted by a hail of bullets. The first shots killed three people who were with us and we ended up being captured," Abbasov told AA. "We had been fighting with a hunting rifle. What can you do with a rifle against machine guns?"
During his captivity, Abbasov was starved for a fortnight and beat every day during his 48-day ordeal at the hands of the Armenian forces.
"They were beating me every day even though I was wounded. We didn't get any food or water for fifteen days. Due to pressure from Red Crescent workers, they capitulated and gave us a cup of boiled green peas and one bread for fifteen people."
Abbasov said he weighed 100 kilograms when he was captured. He was 48 after 48 days.
"The beating and torture went on every day from nine in the evening till four. We were asking them why they were doing this to us. They would only laugh at us."
The Abbasov family lost a daughter in the massacre. Kadim's wife, Melek, said its pain burns to this day.
She told AA that nine people in her family died. The torturers burned the hands of her son-in-law, who was a guitarist.
Her only consolation is to have saved her little grandchild by carrying him on her back, she said.
"I went across an icy cold river and over a snowy hill with him on my back. When I eventually got exhausted and stopped, his uncle arrived and took him. Otherwise, both of us would have died and nobody would have found our bodies."
She said that her nephews who were fighting in the Azeri army captured an Armenian woman and brought her to Melek to exact revenge for her daughter.
"They told me, 'avenge your daughter, do whatever you want.' I couldn't find it in my heart to do it. I just couldn't. We sent her back safe and sound."
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