Ukrainian article chronicles Khojaly genocide, demands global recognition

The Ukrainian website Kyiv Diplomatic has published an article titled "33rd anniversary of Khojaly genocide: What history says," shedding light on one of the darkest chapters in modern history.

The article by Azerbaijani scholars Arif Guliyev, a distinguished doctor of law, professor, diplomat, and academician at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, and Gara Hasanov, Doctor of Philosophy at Melitopol State Pedagogical Institute, presents a detailed account of the Khojaly genocide and its historical context, Caliber.Az reports per local media.

The article chronicles the atrocities of the Khojaly genocide, a massacre committed against the peaceful Azerbaijani population during Armenia's war of aggression against Azerbaijan. The authors emphasize the devastating impact of the genocide, which is regarded as one of the most horrific crimes against humanity.

"The Khojaly genocide ranks alongside such tragedies as the Holocaust, the genocides at Khatyn, Songmi, Lidice, Babyn Yar, Rwanda, and Srebrenica, which left a deep trace in world history as a massacre of civilians," the article states.

"The organisers of the Khojaly genocide, which is a crime against humanity, were the political and state leadership of the Republic of Armenia, and the direct perpetrators were the units of the Armenian armed forces, Armenian terrorist groups in Karabakh, and the personnel of the 366th motorized rifle regiment of the former Soviet army stationed in the town of Khankandi."

The article serves as a poignant reminder of the devastating consequences of war and highlights the need for global recognition of the Khojaly genocide as an atrocity that must not be forgotten. The publication underscores the ongoing importance of remembering and addressing historical injustices in the pursuit of peace and reconciliation.

The Khojaly genocide is the gravest crime 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.

By Vafa Guliyeva