KHOJALY GENOCIDE AS A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY

“This merciless and cruel genocide was the most dreadful mass terror act in the history of humankind.”

Heydar Aliyev, National leader of Azerbaijani people.

Thirty-three years has passed since February 26, 1992 event, which went down the history of Azerbaijani people as Khojaly genocide.

This terrible crime against the Azerbaijani population was committed over the night from 25 to 26 February 1992 in the town of Khojaly and involved the extermination or the capture of thousands of Azerbaijanis; the town was razed to the ground; 613 civilians perished, including 106 women and 63 children; 1, 275 Khojaly residents were taken hostage, many of them to this day remain unaccounted for.

“Justice for Khojaly” International Awareness Campaign that was launched in 2008, at the initiative of Heydar Aliyev Foundation. Today, the Khojaly genocide is recognized by parliamentary acts adopted in numerous countries. So far, the legislative bodies of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Honduras, Jordan, Mexico, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Romania, Slovenia, Djibouti, Guatemala and Sudan, as well as from more than twenty states in the United States of America have adopted relevant resolutions. In addition, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Turkic Council have recognized the tragedy as an act of genocide.

We are proud that no single fact exists on the same attitude of Azerbaijani army towards civilians. Our army during the whole history of Karabakh liberation was very deliberate toward civilians and was fighting only with the army of the enemy, and won. As a result of 44 days of Patriotic War Azerbaijan has restored its territorial integrity and international law, liberated the country from occupation.

Serzh Sarkisian, former president of Armenia and then active participant of Khojaly massacre, in his interview to the Thomas de Waal`s book “Black Garden” (translation of Karabakh): “Before Khojaly, the Azerbaijanis thought that they were joking with us, they thought that the Armenians were people who could not raise their hand against the civilian population. We needed to put a stop to all that. And that’s what happened”.

Azerbaijan grateful to all, who on this day joins Azerbaijani people to pray for souls of innocent civilians killed in Khojaly and demand that justice will prevail so that genocide does not happen anymore in any corner of our world!