Azernews.Az

BAKU – Several members of the US congressional taskforce on Azerbaijan have called on their counterparts to honor the victims of the Khojaly massacre committed by Armenians against Azeris in 1992 during the war over Nagorno Karabakh.

Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania, a co-chair of the working group, labeled the carnage a crime against humanity. He called on congressmen to stand by the Azerbaijani people as they mourn the victims on the 19th anniversary of the Khojaly genocide.

Shuster noted that Azerbaijan is a powerful strategic ally and friend of the United States, saying that US legislators should expose the truth about the developments, which are not known to many.

"Unfortunately, very little attention is being paid nowadays to the bloody Khojaly events, which were covered at the time by The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, The New York Times and a number of major European and Russian news agencies. We should never forget the Khojaly tragedy."

Congresswoman Virginia Foxx of North Carolina said that international rights groups like Human Rights Watch and Memorial termed the Khojaly developments as "the biggest massacre" of the Karabakh conflict.

"This massacre has been repeatedly condemned by the world community. The statement No. 324 issued by 30 members of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly in 2001 described the tragedy by saying ‘the Armenians annihilated the entire population of Khojaly and razed the town to the ground,’" Foxx said, calling on US congressmen to extend deep condolences to Azerbaijanis on the anniversary of the massacre.

Tennessee Congressman Steve Cohen said unfathomable atrocities were committed in Khojaly against women, children and the elderly.

Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas emphasized that every year, Azerbaijan’s Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities come together to condemn the ethnic cleansing perpetrated in Khojaly and call on the international community not to forget the bloody developments.

"We can hear their calls," Johnson said but added that though the tragedy had captured widespread media attention at the time, it has been essentially forgotten since then.

"The memory of Khojaly’s women, men and children should prompt us to denounce such developments," Johnson said.

As the massacre anniversary approaches, the Islamic Conference Youth Forum for Dialogue and Cooperation (ICYFDC) is preparing to send an appeal condemning the Khojaly massacre to a UN war-crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Thousands of Azerbaijani civilians were slain by Armenian armed forces in the Khojaly region 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.