February 26, 2020, marks the 28th anniversary of the massacre committed by the Armenian armed forces in Khojaly during Armenia’s aggression against Azerbaijan.
As a result of Armenia’s ongoing aggression against Azerbaijan, about one-fifth of the Azerbaijani territories, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions, have been occupied and more than one million ethnic Azerbaijanis living in these areas, as well as in Armenia, have been subjected to ethnic cleansing.
During this aggression, numerous military offenses, crimes against humanity, and genocide were committed against the civilian population of Azerbaijan, and the Republic of Armenia as the aggressor bears the responsibility for them.
In the course of the war, the capture of Khojaly town was particularly tragic. Before the conflict, 7,000 people lived in this town of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. From October 1991, the city was surrounded by the armed forces of Armenia. Over the night of the 25 to February 26, 1992, following massive artillery bombardment of Khojaly, the armed forces of Armenia, with the help of the infantry guards regiment No. 366 of the former USSR, implemented the seizure of Khojaly. Invaders destroyed Khojaly and, with particular brutality, implemented carnage over its peaceful population.
As a result of the Khojaly genocide, 5379 inhabitants of the city were forcefully expelled, 613 people, including 63 children, 106 women and 70 elderly brutally murdered. Eight families were terminated completely, 487 were injured, 1275 were captured and taken hostage (the fate of 150 of them, including 68 women and 26 children, remains unknown to date). The occupation of Khojaly caused a USD 170 million in damage to President Ilham Aliyev attends the ceremony to commemorate Khojaly genocide victims.
On the night of February 25-26 1992, Armenian occupants committed one of the bloodiest crimes in the history of humanity in the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly.
The statistics of Khojaly genocide are as follows: of 3,000 people who were in the town at the moment of the attack, 613, including 106 women, 63 children and 70 aged people were killed. 487, including 76 children, were severely wounded; 1,275 people were captured and subjected to unprecedented torture; the fate of 197 people remains unknown. Eight families were annihilated. All these people were slaughtered, tortured, and disabled solely because of their ethnic background, only for being Azerbaijanis.
Thousands of Baku residents arrived at the Khojaly memorial in Khatai district on February 26 to pay tribute to victims of the genocide on its 28th anniversary.
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and his first lady Mehriban Aliyeva attended the commemorative ceremony.
A guard of honor was arranged near the memorial.
President Ilham Aliyev put a wreath at the monument.
First lady Mehriban Aliyeva, and state and government officials put flowers at the monument.
