Turkish, Azerbaijani diplomats commemorate Khojaly victims in Ankara

A memorial ceremony dedicated to the 32nd anniversary of the Khojaly genocide has been held at the Turkic World Square in Türkiye’s capital Ankara.

The MPs, diplomats, public figures, as well as Azerbaijani citizens receiving military education in Türkiye attended the event, organised jointly by the Azerbaijani embassy in Ankara and the Kecioren Municipality, Report informs.

Flowers were laid at the monument to the victims of the Khojaly genocide installed in the square as part of the event entitled “We haven’t forgotten, we won’t forget, we won’t let the tragedy be forgotten”.

Chairman of the Kecioren Municipality Turgut Altinok, Azerbaijani ambassador to Türkiye Rashad Mammadov, Turkish MP, head of the Türkiye-Azerbaijan interparliamentary friendship group Samil Ayrim, president of the Türkiye-Azerbaijan Friendship, Cooperation and Solidarity Foundation Professor Aygun Attar, rector of Ankara University Necdet Unuvar attended the commemorative ceremony.  

The event participants called for justice for Khojaly.

The billboards about the realities of Khojaly were installed on Istanbul’s central streets in connection with the 32nd anniversary of the Khojaly genocide.

Moreover, the billboards will be demonstrated to city residents throughout the day, APA reports.

Today, February 26, is the 32nd anniversary of the Khojaly genocide and the occupation of the town of Khojaly by Armenian armed formations with the participation of the 366th Motorized Rifle Regiment of the former USSR.

The Khojaly genocide is the gravest crime of genocide committed against peaceful Azerbaijani people in the course of Armenia’s aggressive war against Azerbaijan. On the night of February 25-26, 1992, in violation of all international legal norms, Armenian armed forces attacked the civilian population of the sieged town of Khojaly with heavy military equipment, killing them with unprecedented brutality and razing the town to the ground.

As a result of crime against not only the people of Azerbaijan but against humanity, 613 civilian Azerbaijanis, including 63 children, 106 women and 70 elders were brutally murdered on grounds of national identity. The Khojaly genocide is one of a series of acts of mass slaughter aiming to crush those who rose up for the defence of their lands from Armenian armed forces’ aggression, to break their will to fight and annihilate the Azerbaijani population of then-time Nagorno-Karabakh.