Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Chairman of the Caucasus Muslims Office (CMO), Sheikhulislam Allahshukur Pashazade has made a call to world nations, leaders, parliaments and international organizations over the 21st anniversary of the Khojaly genocide committed by Armenian armed forces against Azerbaijani civilians during the 1990s war.

In his call, Pashazade voiced regret that mankind is being inattentive to Azerbaijanis' calls and all international organizations are still keeping silent on this unprecedented crime.

"The people always scorned the crimes against humanity and always cursed the acts of murderers," the Azerbaijani clerical leader said. "However, it should be noted with regret that one of the bloodiest pages in the history of the world - the Khojaly tragedy - has not received due political assessment yet. Today, my countrymen rely on the justice of God and fair treatment of humanity."

Pashazade urged the world community to provide true assessment of the massacre committed by the terrorist state.

"Addressing the heads of state, parliaments, people and international organizations, I call on them to give principled legal assessment to the aggression and atrocities of the Armenian extremists against the Azerbaijani people and recognize the Khojaly tragedy as a genocide against humanity," he said.

Besides, people who hail from Khojaly appealed to the United Nations, the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe over the anniversary of the Khojaly genocide.

"We, as miraculously surviving witnesses of the massacre committed by the Armenian nationalists in the Khojaly town of Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region on February 26, once again appeal to the UN, Council of Europe, OSCE, as well as the world community not to remain indifferent to the genocide committed against humanity," they said in a statement.

The appeal noted that during the past two centuries the Armenian nationalist and extremist circles with the help of their foreign patrons have consistently pursued an aggressive policy against Azerbaijan to realize the delusional idea of ​​"Great Armenia" at the expense of the historical Azerbaijani lands. They regularly committed grave crimes such as ruthless terror acts and massacres, deportations and genocide to achieve this insidious goal.

Earlier, Azerbaijani Ombudsman Elmira Suleymanova sent a statement to international organizations regarding the anniversary of Khojaly genocide, which calls for bringing to justice the Armenian terrorists who committed the Khojaly massacre and their supporters.

The statement reads that international organizations while abandoning double standards must intensify efforts aimed at resolving the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh in accordance with the norms and principles of international law, and that competent international organizations must recognize this tragedy as genocide and sanctions should be imposed on Armenia.

Meanwhile, the Association of Youth of the ruling Yeni (New) Azerbaijan Party (YAP) launched an initiative of sending e-mail appeals in the framework of the "Justice for Khojaly" campaign.

As part of the campaign, the facts about the Khojaly tragedy will be sent to 100,000 e-mail addresses, chairman of the YAP Association of Youth Seymur Orujov said at an event marking the start of the campaign.

He said the appeals prepared in English will be sent to numerous entities of the U.S. State Department and civil society institutions dealing with human rights.

The campaign will be joined by members of the youth organizations of all district and city organizations of the YAP.

The Azerbaijani Students and Alumni International Forum (ASAIF) has also launched an online campaign for appealing to the White House. The campaign aims to prevent Armenian allegations regarding the recent White House Web petition on the Khojaly genocide.

"We believe that the allegations of some Armenian news sources and diaspora organizations regarding the success of two White House online petitions are part of a continued groundless campaign to obscure the realities of the Khojaly Massacre and the illegal occupation of Azerbaijani lands," ASAIF said.

ASAIF said it supports this initiative's purpose in order "to stop the policy of double standards and to call upon the United States to make its position clear" on condemning the illegal occupation of 20 percent of the Azerbaijani lands and respond to the plight of the one million internally displaced persons in Azerbaijan, who were ethnically cleansed by Armenia from their lands.

The US government was urged to throw its weight behind the four UN resolutions ordering immediate withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from the Azerbaijani territory to bring peace to the region.

The US government, as a dedicated supporter of human rights and a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, which is brokering settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, was called upon to make it clear to the government of Armenia that all efforts are to be made "to stop the practice of ethnic cleansing and remove its invading forces within a fixed time-table".

Besides, the YAP and Garadagh District Executive Authorities will co-organize an international conference titled "Justice for Khojaly campaign: International Cooperation and Solidarity within Political and Legal Assessment" in Baku on February 23-24.

As part of the conference, its participants will visit national leader Heydar Aliyev's grave, a monument to the Khojaly genocide victims and a cemetery of the Guba massacre victims.

The Khojaly massacre is one of the most heinous and bloodiest events of the 20th century. Late into the night of February 25, 1992, the town of Khojaly came under intensive fire from the town of Khankendi and Askeran already occupied by Armenian armed forces. At night the Armenian 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 the neighboring regions. The joint forces occupied the town, which was ruined by heavy artillery shelling.

Thousands of fleeing civilians were ambushed by Armenian forces. 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.