Azernews.Az

By Laman Ismayilova

Important resolutions on Azerbaijan have been adopted at the 44th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) held in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.

Azerbaijan was represented by Ogtay Ibrahimov at the event in the status of foreign minister’s special representative, who spoke on behalf of country’s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, Azertac reported.

A number of resolutions related to Azerbaijan were adopted at the session, including resolutions on Armenia’s aggression against Azerbaijan and the Armenian destruction of Azerbaijan’s religious and cultural heritage in the country’s occupied territories.

Armenia broke out a lengthy war against Azerbaijan laying territorial claims on its South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts.

Overall, since the beginning of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and occupation of Azerbaijani territories, Armenian aggressors destroyed 1,200 historical and architectural monuments, looted 27 museums, over 100,000 items were exported to Armenia. In addition, the Armenian occupiers destroyed 152 religious monuments and 62 mosques, 4.6 million books in 927 libraries, including the Holy Quran and rare Islamic manuscripts.

Moreover, a resolution was adopted on the 25th anniversary of the Khojaly genocide and a resolution welcoming the announcement of 2017 as “The Year of Islamic Solidarity” by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

From October 1991, the town of Khojaly was entirely surrounded by the Armenian Armed Forces. After the massive artillery bombardment of Khojaly, Armenians began assault on the town from various directions on the night of February 25-26, 1992. Finally, the Armed Forces of Armenia, with the help of the infantry guards regiment No. 366 of the former Soviet Union, implemented the seizure of Khojaly.

The invaders destroyed Khojaly and with particular brutality implemented carnage over the peaceful population of the town. As a result, 613 civilians were killed, including 106 women, 63 children and 70 elderly, while 1,000 people were wounded and 1,275 people were taken hostage. The fate of 150 of them remains yet unknown.

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