Azernews.Az

The permanent mission of Azerbaijan in UN has sent a letter to the Secretary General of the organization, Ban Ki-Moon and the representative offices of other countries in UN due to Khojaly genocide.

According to the news service for the permanent representative office of Azerbaijan, on February 26 the Azerbaijan New York Association in cooperation with the Turkish-American Association and the Federation of Turkish American Associations held two actions of protest in New York over the 21st anniversary of the Khojaly tragedy.

The first action was held outside the permanent mission of Armenia in UN. The action participants demonstrated the placards reflecting the occupation policy of Armenia, chanted slogans and spread books and magazines about the Khojaly genocide among the passersby.

The second action was held outside the UN head office. The action involved nearly 70 people including the Azerbaijani and Turkish youth studying in US.

In completion of the action that lasted for nearly two hours, the leader of Azerbaijan New York Association Erjan Erdelenli read out a letter addressed to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.

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 the Armenian forces. Punitive teams of the so-called Nagorno Karabakh 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 one parent. Moreover, 1,275 innocent people were taken hostage.