Azernews.Az

A seminar titled "Justice for Khojaly and Lessons for Future" jointly organized by the International Youth Association for Justice and Peace and Habib and Abdurrahman Wahid Centers has been held at the University of Indonesia in Depok, West Java.

The one-day seminar was attended by human rights activists, think tanks, religious leaders, scholars, diplomats and students, AzerTag state news agency reported.

The event jointly organized by the International Youth Society for Peace and Justice (IYSPJ),The Habibie Center, Abdurrahman Wahid Center (AWC), and University of Indonesia’s vocational program to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the Khojaly genocide.

Tamerlan Garayev, Azerbaijani Ambassador to Indonesia, said 613 people were killed, including 106 women, 83 children and 70 elderly persons during the course of a single day of violence in Khojaly.

“It was a heinous crime committed not just against Muslims but against humanity,” Garayev said.

“There is no doubt that what happened in Khojaly in 1992 was an act of genocide. It was a crime against humanity and the perpetrators must be brought to justice,” said Elfansuri Chairah, Head of Komnas HAM's research and study wing.

While expressing his organization’s full support for Azerbaijan, Elfansuri said that Komnas HAM was established mainly to deal with human-rights issues in Indonesia. But he said it could not sit idly by if crimes against humanity, especially at the level of genocide, occurred outside Indonesia.

“As a human rights body, we are ready to raise the Khojaly genocide issue at the regional and international level. We need more data and information from Azerbaijan,” Elfansuri said.

Indonesia, which strongly supports Azerbaijan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, condemned Armenian aggression and asked both Azerbaijan and Armenia to resolve the dispute through negotiations.

“The conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia should be resolved through dialogue. We should make efforts not to allow this kind of genocide in the future,” said Muhammad Syukron, vice director of the Abdurrahman Wahid Center.

Most of the speakers asked the Indonesian government to put more pressure on Armenia to withdraw its troops from Azerbaijan territory. Indonesia, they said, must seek stern measures against Armenia at the UN and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan.

As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.

- - -

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz