“The full restoration of territorial integrity and sovereignty following the second Karabakh-Patriotic War in 2020 and 2023 crowned our efforts to free our lands from occupation over the previous 30 years. As a result, all atrocities and genocides against the Azerbaijani people have been avenged to this day, and the blood of our martyrs did not go unrewarded.
Despite this, we must never forget the historical genocide against the Azerbaijani people -our blood memory. We must work hard to convey these tragedies to a new, youthful, patriotic generation while also ensuring that they are always ingrained in our literature, folklore, and culture as a whole. By passing this history down from generation to generation, we must ensure that our people never have to endure such tragedies again,” Mazahir Afandiyev, Member of the Milli Majlis, told AZERTAC.
“The most devastating genocides in history have occurred since World War II. The Holocaust in Germany against the Jewish people, the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, and the Rwandan murders have all turned into horrific episodes in history. Unfortunately, crimes against humanity and peace have persisted in modern times, leaving Azerbaijan's past marked by bloodshed.
The Khojaly genocide is one of the crimes against the people of Azerbaijan. 106 women, 63 children, and 70 elderly individuals were among the 613 people that perished in the genocide that occurred 32 years ago in February 1992. A total of 1,275 residents were taken hostage, and the fate of 150 people remains unknown to this day. The city was utterly demolished. On that tragic night, 487 Khojaly residents, including 76 children, were severely maimed. 8 families were completely wiped out, 25 children lost both parents, and 130 children lost one parent.
Along with social amenities, private residential buildings, 14 schools, 21 clubs, 29 libraries, three houses of culture, and one local history museum were all destroyed during the city's occupation. In the city, graves, domes, and tombs of the XIV and XV centuries were demolished; the cemeteries were destroyed by vandals-specific methods.
Thus, the standards and tenets of international law were flagrantly violated, and our people were tortured in ways that were morally repugnant. National leader Heydar Aliyev, who has insisted time and time again that the Khojaly tragedy is the blood memory of the Azerbaijani people, has made practical attempts to bring this problem to the attention of the international community and emphasized the need for a true political appraisal of the events.
"In general, the Khojaly genocide directed against the Azerbaijani people is an act of atrocity in the history of mankind with its unthinkable cruelty and inhuman methods of punishment. At the same time, this genocide is a historical crime against all mankind,” said the National Leader. The Milli Majlis passed a resolution "On the Day of the Khojaly Genocide" on February 24, 1994, at the National Leader's suggestion.
In order to honor the memory of the victims of the Khojaly genocide, the president of Azerbaijan issued an order on February 25, 1997, establishing a minute of silence on February 26 at 17:00 each year throughout the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Today, efforts are ongoing to present the world with the facts about Khojaly and to provide an unbiased evaluation of this genocide. Leyla Aliyeva, the vice president of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, has been urging this work since 2008 within the framework of the International Campaign "Justice for Khojaly." Her persistent efforts have inspired our youth to raise awareness of this tragedy on a global scale.
The campaign is currently running successfully in a number of nations. The campaign's actions are supported by 115 organizations and 100,000 individuals. Exhibitions, conferences, seminars, gatherings, competitions, campaigns, and other social media events are all useful methods for achieving campaign objectives.
In this "Year of Constitution and Sovereignty," the people of Azerbaijan remember the Khojaly massacre and our fallen citizens in a new era. We both celebrate the "Great Return" to our freed territories and uplift the spirits of our martyrs by carrying out the perpetuation of their names. The Khojaly people, who were driven from their ancestral lands and homeland, are proudly making a triumphant return to their homelands.
The Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Great Commander, President Ilham Aliyev, laid the foundation for the Khojaly genocide memorial on February 26, 2024, in the liberated city of Khojaly. This was a sign of the respect that the entire Azerbaijani people had for our compatriots who perished in that tragedy.
In addition to the rights of the victims of that bloody night being fulfilled, the victorious people today only want the Khojaly tragedy to be recognized internationally and the murderers of the Khojaly crime to be punished. They also want to prevent future genocides and massacres against humanity,” Mazahir Afandiyev emphasized.
