Azernews.Az

BAKU – A Mexican lawmaker has labeled the massacre committed by Armenians against Azerbaijanis in 1992 as genocide, saying the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly "was razed to the ground not by some natural calamity but at the hands of people".

Marco Perez, who heads the Mexican-Azerbaijani inter-parliamentary friendship group, made the statement on Wednesday at a conference in Mexico devoted to the 19th anniversary of the Khojaly massacre, entitled "Never let genocide happen again!" according to the Azerbaijani embassy in Mexico.

Perez expressed confidence that his country’s parliament will not remain indifferent to the carnage and express a fair stance on the issue.

Leonardo Mier, coordinator of Mexico's National Human Rights Commission, said the commission has never been indifferent to such crimes against humanity as the Khojaly massacre and is ready to cooperate in researching the developments. He said it was important to commemorate the people killed as a result of such crimes and occupation of territory and lend a hand to those who suffered physical, moral and financial deprivations in the aftermath of the massacre.

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.