On February 23 Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University (ASOIU) held an event “Khojaly genocide in the context of the 1918 genocide of Azerbaijanis” dedicated to the Khojaly genocide.
Opening the event, ASOIU Rector, Professor Mustafa Babanli described the Khojaly tragedy as being the cruelest and the most horrible tragedy committed against humanity and spoke about the essentiality of this act of genocide committed against civilians. Rector Babanli said the Khojaly genocide is the most brutal among the crimes committed by Armenians against the Azerbaijani people and stressed the significance of promoting this vandal act worldwide as a crime committed against the whole mankind. Rector, Professor Babanli noted that the level of awareness of the world has significantly increased thanks to propaganda works of the Republic of Azerbaijan, especially by “Justice for Khojaly” campaign implemented by the initiative of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation. He pointed at the importance of continuing all these activities until we achieve international legal assessment of criminal offenses of Armenian aggressors.
Addressing the event, Chief of Staff at the Knowledge Foundation under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Professor Isakhan Valiyev as a researcher spoke about the history of Azerbaijanis’ massacre and territorial claims and horrible intentions of Armenians on Azerbaijani lands for hundreds of years. Valiyev informed about the significance of the history of the genocide and emphasized that the true face of Armenians has been proved to the world.
Notably, from February 25 to 26, 1992, the Armenian armed forces, together with the 366th infantry regiment of Soviet troops, committed an act of genocide against the town of Khojaly with the population of up to 7.000 people. As many as 613 people, including 63 children, 106 women and 70 elderly people were killed in the massacre. Eight families were totally exterminated, 130 children lost one parent and 25 children lost both. Some 1.275 innocent residents were taken hostage, while the fate of 150 people still remains unknown.
