Azernews.Az

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Tuesday commemorated the victims of the Khojaly massacre perpetrated by Armenians in 1992.
The ceremony of paying tribute to the Ana Harayi (the Call of the Mother) monument in the Khatai district of Baku was attended by officials, foreign diplomats and the public.
Scores of Azeri civilians were slain by the Armenian forces in the Khojaly district with the support of Russian troops on February 26, 1992. 613 people were brutally killed, including 106 women, 63 children and 70 elderly. 1,275 were taken captives, while 487 became handicapped and 150 went missing. The damage inflicted to the economy by the carnage amounted to over $1 billion.
The memorial complex has been overhauled on an instruction of the head of state. The names of those killed are engraved on the stone surface of the nine-meter-high monument. Memorial plaques created based on the photos reflecting the developments of the tragic day are seen on the edifice.
The 16th anniversary of the massacre was commemorated in all countries with the presence of the Azerbaijani Diaspora, including European and Asian states as well as the United States.
Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war in the 1990s. Over 20% of Azerbaijan's territories have been occupied and a million people have become refugees and internally displaced persons as a result of the Armenian aggression.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has issued a statement condemning the carnage.
"The Khojaly massacre is the most horrifying part of the ethnic cleansing pursued by Armenia against hundreds of thousands of Azeri civilians in Azerbaijan's Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh region and adjacent territories," it said in a statement.
It said that as admitted by Armenian officials, the goal of committing this insidious crime was to undermine Azeris' resolve to defend their territories.
"They have failed to accomplish that goal, and Azeris, who cherish the memories of the Khojaly victims, will not give way to further occupation of their lands," the statement said.
The Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), a union of Muslim nations, passed a resolution in March 2007 condemning the Khojaly massacre and terming the developments as mass killings of peaceful residents. The document, presented by the Islamic Conference Youth Forum for Dialogue and Cooperation, was unanimously approved at a meeting of the organization's expert group in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The first legal and political document describing the developments as mass extermination of Azeri civilians, the resolution opened a new stage in the cause of conveying the truth about the tragic developments to the world community.
On March 8, 2007, the Ceyhan municipality of Turkey passed a decision to recognize the Khojaly massacre as genocide. The initiative had been put forth by the municipality leader Huseyn Sozlu.
Investigation into the Khojaly developments is under way. Court warrants have been issued so far to arrest 31 individuals accused of spearheading or having a hand in the perpetration of the massacre, Azerbaijani Military Prosecutor Khanlar Valiyev said.
He said six others would face charges over these crimes soon and the cases would be forwarded to the Interpol for execution.
As for the identity of the wanted persons, Valiyev said they were both civilians and servicemen who had lived in Upper Garabagh, with most of them being citizens of various countries including Armenia and Russia.
The prosecutor said Armenian presidents were not listed among those accused of complicity in the crimes committed in Khojaly.
Khojaly, one of the most ancient settlements in Upper Garabagh located 14km north-east of Khankandi, once had a population of 7,000 people, including Azeris ousted from Armenia and Meskhet Turks driven out of Fergana, Uzbekistan in 1989.