Baku, February 22, AZERTAC

Qatar’s newspaper “The Peninsula” has published a statement by the Azerbaijani Embassy in the country on the 27th anniversary of the Khojaly massacre.

“Twenty-seven years passed since Armenian military forces committed genocide act against peaceful inhabitants of the city of Khojaly of Azerbaijan in 1992. This genocide was committed as a part of aggression, long-lasting ethnic cleansing and genocide policy of Armenian chauvinists and their supporters against Azerbaijan, violating the norms and principles of international law, as well as the human rights and freedoms,” the statement said.

It further added: “The massacre committed in Khojaly town on the night from February 25 to 26, 1992, by the Armenian Armed Forces was one of the unprecedented events in the history of humanity due to its cruelty.

This massacre, which took place in late 20th century, was one of most cruel crimes not only against the Azerbaijanis, but also humanity as a whole. The Khojaly genocide has become one of the most terrible and tragic pages of the world and Azerbaijani history.

During the aggression against the people in Khojaly, all elements of the crime of genocide stated in the International Conventions (The UN General Assembly Resolution 96 (I) dated 11 December 1946 & United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide adopted by the Resolution 260 (III) of the UN General Assembly of December 9 1948) were applied.

Khojaly genocide was a criminal act which planned by Armenian military in advance and aimed at mass annihilation of Azerbaijani people on the ground of their nationality. However, unfortunately, this act of genocide against the Azerbaijani civilians in Khojaly have not been yet properly assessed, the organizers and the committers of this crime were not prosecuted and punished.

Armenia continued its aggression against Azerbaijan even after the Khojaly massacre and invaded twenty percent of Azerbaijani territories (Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent seven regions) violating the principles of international law and ignoring international community’s demands to stop aggression. As a consequence, thousands of Azerbaijanis were killed, hundreds of cities, towns and villages were destroyed completely and over one million of the Azerbaijani people became refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), whose main rights and freedoms were severely violated.

Occupied Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent seven regions are a historical and integral part of Azerbaijan. This is re-affirmed once again by the international law, as well as by the UN Security Council Resolutions 822, 853, 874, 884 from 1993, UNGA Resolution on “Situation on the occupied territories of Azerbaijan” dated on March 14, 2008, Resolution 1416 from 2005, Recommendation 1669 from 2009 of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe confirming the occupation of Azerbaijani territories by the Armenian military forces and demanding immediate, unconditional and total withdrawal of all occupant forces out of the territories of Azerbaijan. However, those demands have not been fulfilled by the Armenian side and the historical territories of Azerbaijan still remain under the occupation.

Within last years, a number of actions have been fulfilled to draw the attention of the international community to the realities about Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, including the Khojaly tragedy. In this regard, international campaign ‘Justice for Khojaly’ initiated by Leyla Aliyeva, Vice-President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, is one of the purposeful measures taken for international recognition of the Khojaly tragedy as an act of genocide committed against the people of Azerbaijan. As a result, the parliaments of a number of countries already recognized the crime in Khojaly as a genocide act.

The Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) was the first international organisation that recognised Armenia as an aggressor and the Khojaly tragedy as genocide. Resolution No. 8/42-C adopted by the 42nd session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of OIC member states (Kuwait, May 27-28, 2015) calls upon Member States and OIC institutions to support and actively participate in the events of the ‘Justice for Khojaly’ campaign and exert due efforts for recognition on national and international levels of this genocidal act as crime against humanity as well as for bringing to justice the perpetrators.”

Despite all, the statement concludes, this crime by Armenian aggressors against the Azerbaijani people has not received due condemnation by the world community to date.”