President Ilham Aliyev addressed the Azerbaijani people on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Khojaly genocide:
“Dear compatriots!
20 years have passed since Khojaly genocide, one of the most terrible and bloodiest tragedies of the 20th century, was committed. On the night of February 25-26, 1992, the Armenian army units with the participation of the 366th Motorized Rifle Regiment in Khankendi attacked Khojaly and destroyed the town within a night. 613 people were killed, the bodies were defiled, 1275 were taken hostage. 150 of them are still missing. 63 of those killed were children, 106 women, 70 old people. 8 families were totally exterminated.
In the past two centuries with the view of realizing the idea of “Great Armenia” at the cost of the historical Azerbaijani lands, the Armenian nationalists committed terrorist attacks, massacres, deportation and ethnic cleansing against our people. Khojaly genocide, which was committed before the eyes of the world late in the 20th century, was the bloodiest page of this aggressive policy. The political-legal responsibility for this grave crime lies directly on the then and present leadership of Armenia, separatist regime in Nagorno Karabakh.
Azerbaijani state is conducting purposeful and systematic work for almost 20 years to deliver realities of Khojaly tragedy perpetrated by the Armenian fascists to the world community and to gain international recognition of it as genocide. Numerous civil society institutions, youth and diaspora organizations represented our compatriots are effectively working jointly with the government institutions in this field within the framework of “Justice for Khojaly” campaign. Armenian propaganda machine based on falsehoods is being unmasked and the world’s public opinion begins to accept the realities of Khojaly. The Parliamentary Union of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation recognized this fact as a mass crime against humanity and called upon the member countries to give political-legal assessment to this tragedy. Pakistani and Mexican parliaments adopted resolutions on recognition of this massacre as the genocide act.
The Republic of Azerbaijan plays an important role in the world security system and the international war on terror. Notwithstanding where it takes place, we consider all kinds of racial discrimination, ethnic and religious enmity as a crime against humanity. Our state will further continue working toward reaching objective assessment of Khojaly genocide and occupation of Azerbaijani lands by Armenia, and restoring the historical-legal justice, irreconcilably struggling against all of such cases using all political and legal ways.
Perpetrating the Khojaly genocide, the enemy intended to break Azerbaijani people, to force them to avoid struggling for sovereignty and territorial integrity, to occupy our lands, but this painful tragedy made our people stronger and mobilized our hero sons and daughters for decisive and organized struggle for Motherland and national statehood.
On this nationwide mourning day, I pay tribute to the innocent victims of Khojaly tragedy. May Allah rest their souls in peace. I would like to assure you that the perpetrators of Khojaly genocide will be brought to justice and punished sooner or later. Blood of our martyrs will not remain unrequited”.
APA