By Vestnik Kavkaza
Baku hosted a nationwide rally on the anniversary of the tragic events in Khojaly. On the streets of the capital of Azerbaijan more than 60 thousand people marched, and the column was led by President Ilham Aliyev. Together with all those gathered, he walked a few kilometers before reaching the monument to the victims of the Khojaly events and laid a wreath at the foot of the monument, TV channel Russia-24 reports.
On the night of February 26, 1992, 613 civilians were massacred, 487 people were injured, 1,275 were taken prisoner. Azerbaijan seeks to recognize those events as genocide.
At the initiative of the Vice President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Leyla Aliyeva, in the international campaign "Justice for Khojaly" a new collection has been published. According to Trend, in a video by Leyla Aliyeva attention is drawn to the Khojaly genocide, as one of the tragic events that occurred in the XX century in the world. This address emphasizes the importance of restorative justice for their actions, notes the significance of this point of view multiply in recent years the efforts of the world community to recognize the Khojaly genocide, including resolutions adopted by the legislatures in many states.
"In the early 1990s, Azerbaijan was subjected to the military aggression of neighboring Armenia, with the result that 20 percent of our land to this day is under occupation. This aggression, which led to the war, claimed the lives of 30 thousand people, turned around a million Azerbaijanis into refugees and internally displaced people, thousands of people went missing. As a result of the Armenian aggression, a number of crimes were committed, and the city of Khojaly was the victim of the most brutal and terrifying crimes," Leyla Aliyeva said in a video message to the international community.
"The Khojaly genocide is an example of the courage of people, who gave their lives to save their neighbors, relatives, friends from the massacre. Today, we must mobilize all our will, resistance, to bring the perpetrators to justice, to prevent similar mass atrocities and genocide in the future. It is wrong that, despite the fact that more than 20 years has passed since that time, no one has been prosecuted for the genocide committed in Khojaly. Impunity for the incident is a major obstacle to peace and the restoration of justice in the region. It is encouraging that the campaign launched by us, for international recognition of the genocide committed by Armenians in Khojaly, in recent years has been supported by a number of countries. The Khojaly genocide is recognized at legislature level in several countries. This support inspires us to continue the struggle for justice. It gives us hope that justice will be restored, and the culprits will be brought to justice. We are grateful for the support provided to the campaign, and we believe that even more people will know about this tragedy, and will join the campaign to fight for justice. I encourage everyone to join our campaign to disseminate information in their country of this tragedy. I believe that with your support, justice for Khojaly will be restored," said Leyla Aliyeva.
