Azerbaijan's main goal is that this bloody crime will never be repeated, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said, answering journalists' questions at a press conference for local and foreign media on the occasion of the 29th anniversary of the Khojaly tragedy, the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza reported.
Ilham Aliyev noted that many international organizations have expressed their attitude to this bloody event, and work will continue in this direction. He recalled that at the time of the genocide, Azerbaijan was almost under an information blockade, there were no modern opportunities. "Especially if we take into account that in those years Azerbaijan did not have such great opportunities in the international arena. In return, the Armenian lobby was active and spread false and distorted information about the war and its events. There were some misconceptions in the international community," the head of state said.
Azerbaijan had to make great efforts to eliminate these ideas and refute them. "We have been consistently carrying out this activity in recent years. As a state, as I mentioned, as public organizations. Of course, I would like to note the activity of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation among public organizations. Various events were held in many countries under the slogan "Justice for Khojaly". Today, there is enough information about the Khojaly tragedy in the world. Our main goal is that this bloody crime will never be forgotten. This should never be repeated in Azerbaijan or in the world," he noted.
"May Azerbaijan never fall into the helplessness of the early 1990s. May Azerbaijan always be able to protect itself and its citizens," Ilham Aliyev stressed.
The head of the state noted the repetition of those steps was observed in the Second Karabakh War: "When bombing Ganja, Tartar, Aghdam, and other cities, the Armenian leadership said that Azerbaijan did it itself. However, the shelling of ballistic missiles was monitored by the satellite. The major powers, especially the co-chair countries of the Minsk Group, were watching the whole scene. Ballistic missiles were launched from the territory of Armenia."
By committing the Khojaly genocide, Armenia, in fact, wanted to break the will of the Azerbaijani people, he added. "And it is no coincidence, answering this question in an interview with foreign journalists, the Armenian leaders, war criminals proudly noted that Armenia had committed this war crime against the civilian population, so that the Azerbaijani people saw that the Armenian leadership could raise its hand against the civilian population. We avenged the victims of Khojaly on the battlefield. In the second Karabakh war, which lasted 44 days, having defeated the Armenian army and liberated our historical lands from the invaders, we also avenged the victims of Khojaly," Aliyev said.
"We will return to Khojaly. There is no other way. And the Armenian side must understand this," Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev concluded.
