“This is something that shouldn't happen, but does. There is a long history of war crimes and genocide, sadly, long before even the Geneva Convention in the 1948 Convention against Genocide,” said Stefan Brooks, Associate Professor at the US National Defense University, as he shared his views regarding the 33rd anniversary of the Khojaly genocide.

“And besides, obviously, honoring the victims of this massacre, I think that if awareness is not raised about any genocide, it encourages these type of events to continue. And that the first step towards seeing a world where there is not genocide and war crimes is by raising awareness of genocide and war crimes. I don't see this as simply an issue for only of Azerbaijan. Of course, the victims were Azerbaijan. So it's deeply personal to the people of Azerbaijan. But these victims are also victims of all war crimes and genocide. And so by raising awareness of this tragedy, it can raise awareness of all the victims of war crime and genocide. And hopefully, by doing that, they can unite and create more pressure on the international public opinion and on states so that this doesn't happen again,” the expert added.

Malahat Najafova

Special correspondent