Crimes against humanity such as the Bashlibel massacre must never be forgotten, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The ministry recalled that the crime was committed 32 years ago, on April 18, 1993, when the Armenian Armed Forces occupied the Kalbajar district. 18 Azerbaijani civilians from the village of Bashlibel were brutally killed after being discovered in mountain caves where they had been hiding for 18 days after the village was looted. Another 14 people were taken hostage.
"This massacre was part of Armenia's long-standing policy of ethnic cleansing, terror and aggression aimed at expelling Azerbaijanis from their ancestral lands and advancing territorial claims",
the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said.
The ministry emphasized that Baku honors the memory of the victims of the Bashlibel massacre, and drew attention to the fact that such crimes against humanity must never be forgotten or go unnoticed.
