Azerbaijan marks 10th anniversary of Khojali genocide

Public organizations and opposition parties plea to table Khojali massacre in int’l organizations

Azerbaijan marked the 10th anniversary of Khojali massacre Tuesday, as various undertakings were organized to memorialize the genocide, prayers were read in mosques and funeral meals served.

10 years ago on February 26, the world witnessed the horrible atrocities perpetrated in a town of 7,000 people near Khankandi in Garabagh.

Backed by Russia's shooting regiment 366, Armenian barbarians leveled the Azeri town of Khojali, exterminating all of its population and showing no mercy for women and kids.

This actually represented an act of genocide against the Azeri people. The carnage laid foundation for the occupation of Azeri lands, both as part of the Upper Garabagh Autonomous Republic, which Armenia had laid claims on, and 7 provinces around it.

Meetings and roundtables were held in state entities, political parties and public organizations, demanding that international organizations and foreign states recognize the massacre as genocide.

People representing various strata of the population, state officials, Speaker Alasgarov, Premier Rasizadeh, and MPs, political and public figures, were rushing to lay flowers to the monument to the victims of Khojali in Khatai district of Baku.

The nation paid homage to the victims, standing in silence tribute at 5 p.m. Tuesday.

Delegates from Turkey, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and Azeri Diaspora abroad came to share the grief of the Azerbaijan people.

Background

Armenian armed forces ruined Khojali with unprecedented cruelty in the early hours of February 26, 1992.

The residents of the town were overrun by military hardware, elders, women and kids shot at blank point, captives tortured, and the dead blinded and scalped. The reason was that all of them were Azeri nationals. Actually, it was genocide of Azeris by Armenians.

1275 were taken captive and 613, including 106 women and 33 infants, slaughtered in the bloodbath, while 150 civilians are still unaccounted for. 56 people were subjected to inhuman tortures, 487 (130 babies and 25 infants) handicapped and 8 families exterminated. In a filthy move of human abuse, Armenian barbarians took the beautiful girls of the town hostage.

Khojali used to be a key Azeri town in a strategic position at the crossing of Agdam, Shusha, Khankandi and Askaran near the only airport in Garabagh.

Appeals to the World

On the anniversary of the Khojali genocide, various public organizations and opposition parties in Azerbaijan had addressed the UN and the world’s democracies, suggesting that the Khojali massacre be tabled in international organizations to get a political assessment.

In a roundtable at the Press-Club of Baku Saturday, the United Rally Committee adopted an appeal to the UN General Secretary Kofi Annan, urging to launch an international investigation into the Khojali carnage under the Convention "On Prevention of genocide and its punishment" dated December 9, 1948.

The roundtable decided to supplement the appeal, which will be later signed by all political parties and public organizations in Azerbaijan.

The participants in the event underscored that it was a national issue and therefore both authorities and opposition should stick to a common position. The roundtable suggested that the Khojali carnage be tabled in international organizations, including the CE, to get a political assessment.

In another move to push the genocide into international spotlight, the Women's Coordination Council on Garabagh has made an address to world democracies and their parliaments.

The address says that the whole town was ruined and over 1000 of its residents, including women, elders and kids, brutally killed overnight.

The Council appeals for a political assessment of the bloodbath and its recognition as genocide. The address notes a fifth of the Azeri lands were occupied and a million civilians were left homeless following the Armenian aggression.