Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

The Khojaly massacre committed by Armenian armed forces against Azerbaijani civilians during the 1990s war is increasingly gaining international recognition.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation recognized the events as an act of genocide and crime against humanity, according to the decision made at the 12th session of the OIC Islamic Summit Conference held in Cairo on February 2-7 and joined by OIC leaders. Azerbaijan was represented at the OIC summit with a delegation led by Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov.

Addressing the summit, OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu stated that Azerbaijan faced large-scale aggression and suffered tremendous injustice -- aggression and occupation of its ancestral territories. "And we are trying to fight this injustice and occupation," he said.

Ihsanoglu also expressed support for the position of Azerbaijan on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

"We have always supported and will support the just position of Azerbaijan on the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, and we are concerned about the presence of this conflict," he said.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since the lengthy war that displaced over one million Azerbaijanis, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions. The UN Security Council has adopted four resolutions on Armenia's withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but Armenia has not followed them to this day.

Ihsanoglu went on to say that Azerbaijan is a very important and close country for the OIC, and that during his work in the organization as chairman, OIC jointly with Azerbaijan took strides and achieved progress in this area.

"I want to note that with the personal support of President Ilham Aliyev, we with the government of your country have done a lot, and I assure you that we will continue to actively work in this direction," the OIC secretary general said.

The OIC leaders' condemnation of the Khojaly massacre was expressed in the clause on humanitarian issues of their final communique adopted at the OIC summit. In the document, the leaders of 57 OIC countries welcomed the "Justice for Khojaly" international campaign, initiated by Leyla Aliyeva, General Coordinator for Intercultural Dialogue of the Islamic Conference Youth Forum for Dialogue and Cooperation.

The mentioned clause calls on the member states to be closely involved in the campaign's activities and make an effort to achieve recognition of this genocide on worldwide scale.

"The position of an authoritative international organization is important for Azerbaijan and Baku appreciates the OIC members' support," Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev said when commenting on the OIC decision.

Abdullayev said that due assessment of the Khojaly genocide in terms of law and policy is gaining increased scope each year within the framework of international organizations, as well as at the level of individual countries, and stressed the importance of this tendency.

"The resolution adopted by the OIC summit urges member countries to recognize the Khojaly genocide," the diplomat said.

The Khojaly genocide was earlier recognized by the parliaments of Turkey, Pakistan and Mexico, as well as the legislative bodies of numerous U.S. states.

Arkansas recently became the last U.S. state to recognize the Khojaly genocide. Following the states of New Mexico, Texas, New Jersey, Georgia and Maine, the Arkansas House of Representatives announced last Friday that it had recognized the Khojaly events as an act of genocide. The draft resolution on the Khojaly massacre had been submitted to the agenda of the House of Representatives by its members Jonathan Barnett and Karen Hopper.

The document notes that the armed forces of Armenia and Russian troops captured Khojaly -- a town in Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region -- on February 25-26, 1992. The Azerbaijani population was subject to massive annihilation, in which up to a thousand people were killed, with most of the victims being women and children.

"The massacre was reported by major news organizations and has been viewed by the Human Rights Watch as a violation of customary law regarding the treatment of civilians in war zones, and numerous governments around the world have condemned the attack," it said.

Signature campaign

On January 25, a petition calling on U.S. President Barack Obama to announce an official memorial day for the victims of war crimes in Khojaly was published on the White House's website.

The 'We the People' petition envisions the collection of electronic signatures to commemorate Khojaly genocide victims on the eve of the 21st anniversary of the tragedy.

The process of collecting signatures for the petition is successfully underway, as the number of signatures has now reached 82,271, nearing the required threshold of 100,000.

Those wishing to participate in the campaign should go to: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/issue-proclamation-commemorating-and-recognizing-war-crime-khojaly-massacre-and-its-victims/W8BbDqYx.

While entering the 'Create an account' section, enter the name, surname, email address and other information. The Zip section can be left blank.

A user receives a letter of confirmation from the official White House website after the registration is complete. The letter includes a code to create a profile on the webpage. It must be entered in the 'Sign in' section after the e-mail address and can be done by clicking on the link in the letter.

After the person clicks 'Log in', the registration is over, and a personal profile will be opened. You can then sign the petition by clicking SIGN THIS PETITION.

Each person can only vote once from his or her computer. If a user attempts to create several profiles and signs up several times, the use of an IP-address of the personal computer registered at the White House will be restricted.

The Khojaly massacre is one of the most heinous and bloodiest events of the 20th century. It was committed in the town of Khojaly, which was situated within the administrative borders of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. Its population constituted over 7,000 people. Because of its communication advantage of having a civilian airport, just before the start of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict it had become a shelter for refugee Meskhet Turks who fled the bloody inter-ethnic clashes in Central Asia as well as Azerbaijani refugees deported from Armenia.

Late into the night of February 25, 1992, the town came under intensive fire from the town of Khankendi and Askeran already occupied by Armenian forces. At night the Armenian armed forces supported by the ex-Soviet 366th regiment completed the surrounding of the town already isolated due to ethnic cleansing of the Azerbaijani population of its neighboring regions. The joint forces occupied the town, which was ruined by heavy artillery shelling.

Under these conditions the towns' residents stepped into the darkness of the night to be met along the away by an ambush of Armenian forces. Several thousand fleeing civilians were ambushed in several locations and, faced with heaving shooting, they tried to find refuge in the nearby forests and mountainous areas. However, punitive teams of the so-called NK defense army reached the unprotected civilians to slaughter them, mutilating and scalping some bodies.

In just a few hours, 613 civilians were killed, including 106 women, 70 elderly and 83 children. A total of 1,000 civilians were disabled. 56 people were killed with outrageous brutality, eight families were totally exterminated, and 25 children lost both parents, while 130 children lost at least one parent, in what became the most brutal punishment of civilians during the three years of the conflict's military phase. Moreover, 1,275 innocent people were taken hostage, while the fate of 150 remains unknown.