Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

A Colombian parliamentary panel has strongly condemned Armenia's hostile policy against Azerbaijan by issuing a resolution on the long-standing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the Khojaly genocide committed by Armenian armed forces against civilians during the 1990s war.

The decision was made by the second committee on foreign affairs and national security issues of the Colombian Congress' House of Representatives on July 30, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said on August 1.

The draft resolution on the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, which was put forward by the chairman of Colombian Congress House of Representatives Penagos Hernan Giraldo, was put on voting in the committee and adopted unanimously.

The resolution condemns the occupation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and seven adjacent regions by Armenia, the crimes committed against the Azerbaijani people, as well as the killing and injuring of civilians, violation of the rights of Azerbaijani citizens, especially genocide in Khojaly, and violation of the 1994 ceasefire reached by the conflict parties.

The six-page resolution urges the Armenian government to fulfill the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council calling for an unconditional and immediate withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from Azerbaijan`s occupied lands in compliance with the internationally recognized borders.

The document condemns and cites the history of the occupation of a part of Azerbaijan's territories and the emergence of more than a million refugees and IDPs as a result of Yerevan's hostile policy, as well as points out the threat posed by the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to peace and security in the region.

The resolution highlights the history of the conflict and provides an insight into the consequences of the genocide committed by the Armenian forces in Khojaly.

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. 613 civilians were killed, including 106 women, 70 elderly and 83 children, and a total of 1,000 civilians were disabled. Moreover, 1,275 innocent people were taken hostage.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since a lengthy war in the early 1990s 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's four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal have not been enforced to this day.