In the name of God!

For 20 years, while expressing the desire and sentiments of millions of citizens of the Republic of Azerbaijan, we have been persistently addressing representatives of the international community irrespective of their religious, linguistic, racial or ethnic background, as well as world leaders, heads of state, parliaments and heads of international organizations responsible for the fate of our planet. We are convinced that there is no people or religion in the world that would deny universal moral values, encourage such inhuman acts as violence, murder and aggression or justify heinous crimes.

Mankind has always treated crimes against humanity with disgust and condemned the murderers who have lost human face. Double standards are totally unacceptable for mankind. However, the Khojaly tragedy, one of the world’s most gruesome crimes we have been telling the world about for 20 years now, has yet to be fully renounced at the international level and its culprits have yet to be brought to book. It is no compliment to mankind that it has been staying indifferent to the fact that Armenian thugs attacked more than 10,000 unarmed and defenseless civilians in the town of Khojaly on 26 February 1992, slaughtered 613 of them without sparing even the elderly, children or pregnant women, took 1,275 people prisoner and subjected them to unseen torture, perpetrated degrading acts on corpses and committed other atrocities. Regrettable and surprising as it might seem, most countries and international organizations have thus far remained tightlipped over this unprecedented crime.

It is a bitter reality that perpetrators of these and other heinous crimes haven’t been brought to account to this day. Armenian extremists have been flouting the decisions of all international organizations, including UN resolutions. Despite that, they have not faced any international sanctions. Moreover, they have occupied 20 per cent of Azerbaijani territory, driven a million Azerbaijanis out of their homes, committed acts of vandalism on occupied Azerbaijani lands, desecrated our cultural monuments, mosques and cemeteries, unleashed material and moral terror against and appropriated our historical documents and assets. The crime of genocide committed in Khojaly was the culminating point of these atrocities. There are eye-witnesses, historical proofs and visual evidence of this bloody crime of the present time - the Khojaly genocide.

Unfortunately, there are people in the present-day world who seem to be less concerned about real crimes of genocide than the acts portrayed as such that have no historical evidence. We are very concerned about the international trend to recognize fake genocides and view actual perpetrators of genocide as its “victims”. Despite the futility of the appeals we have been making for years to provide a legal and political assessment to the Khojaly massacre experienced by the people of Azerbaijan in recent history, in 1992, we are still hopeful that the world will not remain indifferent to the voice of Azerbaijani people who have been subjected to the crime of genocide. We do hope that our fair cause will prevail and historical justice will be done. We are hopeful that Azerbaijan’s efforts to disseminate truth about the genocide committed in Khojaly will expose the true colors of Armenian occupiers who are prepared to descend even to plagiarism in their campaign of false propaganda.

We, religious leaders, wish all nations around the world peace, love and prosperity. We consider it important to remind everyone of our holy duty to God to strive for the restoration of justice. Today, our fellow countrymen want mankind to take a fair stance with the grace of God. If mankind does not heed to this plea for justice, it may itself become victim of injustice and hideousness tomorrow. So we are urging world leaders, parliaments, religious leaders, public and religious organizations around the world again to give a principled legal assessment to the aggression and atrocities of Armenian extremists against the people of Azerbaijan and to recognize the Khojaly massacre as a crime of genocide.

May God assist all of us in committing good deeds, differentiating the good from the evil and being fair.

Sheikh-ul-Islam Haji Allahshukur Pashazadeh

Chairman of the Office of Caucasus Muslims

Aleksandr Ischein

Bishop of the Baku and Azerbaijan Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church

Semen Ikhiilov

Head of the Community of Mountain Jews in Azerbaijan

Vladimir Fekete

Ordinary of the Roman Catholic Church in Azerbaijan