The First Sparks of the Karabakh War

The beginning of the Karabakh war introduced Khuraman Abbasova to society from another perspective. Her "promotion" started from her headscarf. As a result, she turned into a hero for peacekeepers and a target of criticism for the nationalists.

Some people claim that Khuraman Abbasova never wore headscarves and always had a hat on her head. For instance, in her interview to “Həftə içi” newspaper, the head of the cultural department of Agdam, Chimnaz Aliyeva, a former MP, denies this fact, saying " I am not in agreement with all this. It is true that Khuraman was there, but she never wore a headscarf, it was winter and she had a hat".

In Asaf Quliyev's film about the first martyrs, Sadiq Murtuzayev, who worked as the first secretary of the Party Committee of Aghdam region, confirmed the fact that Khuraman Abbasova threw her headscarf to the young attackers' feet. "On February, 22 the youth of the city gathered in maidan. The president of the country advised to go away. However, unarmed people kept their way not to people's homes but to Khankendi. It was impossible to stop it. The crowd moved up around 11 km.”

“There was 2 km left until Asgeran. The army appeared in front of us. A general, who was commander of the 366th regiment, said that there was a decision and we could open a fire against civilians. The number of people who were on the way to Khankendi was uncounted. People from neighboring districts joined the protest with flags. The secretaries of the Central Committee, Telman Orujov and Hasan Hasanov came. They tried to prevent the crowd. When we tried to prevent the people, 100-150 people crossed over the Qarqar river and left. The news came from Askaran that from each window 2 gunpoints came out, and other people were being unarmed. However, we could not stop those who passed over the river. When they entered Askgeran, they were under fire, 55 people were injured and 2 - Ali and Bakhtiyar died.

After this case people realised the essence of the problem and returned back. Now they tell that Khuraman threw her headscarf there. Truly, we took a headscarf from one woman and gave to her, and then she threw it in order to stop the people. If we did not do that, we would have probably have 10 thousands of corpses. It would be a terrible tragedy, worse than Khojaly".

"There was a hat on Khuraman's head"

The day before that incident, on February 21st, Asaf Quliyev, who participated in that meeting in the centre of Agdam, says that Khuraman Abbasova was not covered in a headscarf. From the video clip of that meeting, it is seen that Khuraman was in a hat. Asaf Quliyev also confirms that the headscarf was thrown under protesters' feet but it did not help:

"On February 21 there was a meeting in Agdam. In general, these meetings in Nagorno Karabakh started from the 12th of February. And the meeting in Agdam was a kind of response to Azerbaijani Leadership. This rally was allowed from Baku and Khuraman Abbasova was very active there, and made a speech from tribune. But the morning event was not planned, or allowed. In the February 21st meeting, Eldar Samadov made a speech from the tribune and told whether the government will reconcile it or go and sort out the affairs with Armenians the following day. This was not in scenarium. This was the initiative of people and this initiative should be prevented because Baku gave an order to prevent it. On February 22nd, the youth gathered. The city council told them to go away (disperse). Part of the people left. Another part of people went to Asgeran. When the city council knew about it, they used all tools in order to stop the people. At that time, Hasan Hasanov and Telman Orucov were in Agdam. They brought the most famous person of Karabakh, Seyid Lazim Aga, who was originally from Agdam. Sadiq Murtuzaev, went down on his knees to beg people not to go. Khuraman Abbasova also came and at that time, she had a hat on her head. For changing the situation, they gave her the headscarf to throw it and make them stop. I was not a witness of that case. But people who were there at that moment told that it affected on people for several minutes- and only for the moment, when the headscarf fell. People stopped and then left, using other ways, however they did not trample it down. Now, they turned this case into a peacekeeping case. At that time, there was a purpose - to perform the tasks given by Baku."

According to Asaf Quliyev's words, Eldar Samadov, who called the youth to stand up, were under pressure from the government. This person later on joined to the army and was one of the active participants of the war.