Grand early 20^th century stone buildings, today sporting luxury brands from Bulgari to Bugatti, line Baku’s miles-long corniche. In reality, it is a Potemkin experience. Behind the façade is deep poverty and even deeper corruption. World Bank statistics show that despite billions of dollars in oil income, Azerbaijanis have, on average, a lower per capita income than their Armenian and Georgian neighbors.

Azerbaijan not only sought to deceive COP29 delegates with a mirage about Azerbaijan’s development, but President Ilham Aliyev already used his inaugural speech to also sell a fake narrative about recent Azerbaijani history, its war with Armenia, and the ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh.

At the core of the Azerbaijani narrative is the myth of the Khojaly massacre when, against the backdrop of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, dozens of Azerbaijanis died in a crossfire outside Khojaly while trying to flee the front line between Armenian and Azerbaijan.

Contemporaneous reports reflect the confusion of the fog of battle. A day after the battle, Reuters cited Azerbaijan’s Interior Minister Tofik Kerimov saying Armenians had killed 100 Azerbaijanis and wounded 250. Armenians do not deny fighting at Khojaly; Azerbaijan had transformed it into a military camp used to launch artillery and rockets at civilians in Stepanakert, a city populated almost entirely by Armenians.

How Many People Died at Khojaly?

Press reports at the time also focused on the fate of the former Soviet 366^th Motorized Rifle Regiment, who found themselves caught between Armenians and Azerbaijanis, and seemingly abandoned by Moscow as the Soviet Union disintegrated. Interviews with the 366^th at the time suggest most soldiers wanted to return to Russia and other newly independent states.

“Both sides here are crazy,” one Russian soldier remarked to the Los Angeles Times. “We don’t want to help either. We just want out.” At a higher level, however, the Russians were frustrated with Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani shelling launched from Khojaly had killed several dozen Russian soldiers in Stepanakert.