Azernews.Az

BAKU – The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) parliamentary assembly has passed a resolution calling upon Arab countries’ parliaments to recognize as a crime against humanity the Khojaly massacre committed by Armenian armed forces against Azerbaijani civilians during the Karabakh war in the early 1990s, according to the OIC Youth Forum.

The resolution, adopted at the assembly’s session held in Abu Dhabi, UAE on January 16-19, urged the OIC states to "duly assess the crime on the nationwide level".

The proposal to pass the document had been made by Leyla Aliyeva, the youth forum’s senior coordinator, as part of the "Justice for Khojaly" international campaign.

Thousands of Azerbaijani civilians were slain by the Armenian forces in the Khojaly district with the support of Russian troops on February 25-26, 1992. 613 people were brutally killed, including 106 women, 63 children and 70 elderly. 1,275 were taken captives, while 487 became handicapped and 190 went missing.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a cease-fire in 1994. 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory, including Nagorno Karabakh and seven adjacent districts, has been under Armenian occupation since then. OSCE-brokered peace talks have been largely fruitless so far.

The OIC Parliamentary Union comprises lawmakers from the organization’s 57 member states.