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Azerbaijani and Russian experts discuss Khojaly tragedy at Trend News Agency (PHOTO)

Azerbaijan Materials 16 February 2012 20:43 (UTC +04:00)
The activity dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Khojaly tragedy has been held at Trend News Agency. Azerbaijani and Russian scholars and political scientists participated at the event.
Azerbaijani and Russian experts discuss Khojaly tragedy at Trend News Agency (PHOTO)

Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb.16 / Trend E.Tariverdiyeva /

The activity dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Khojaly tragedy has been held at Trend Agency. Azerbaijani and Russian scholars and political scientists participated at the event.

The cycle of events were initiated by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Bulletin of the Caucasus and Trend.

On the Russian side the "round table" was attended by Director General of information and analytical centre of the MSU Alexey Vlasov (moderator), associate professor of the MSU Ismail Agakishiyev, director of the Center for Socio-Political Research Vladimir Yevseyev and on the Azerbaijani side - political scientists Fikret Sadikhov and Ilgar Velizadeh, head of "Novosti-Azerbaijan" news agency Gulnara Mammadzadeh and head of "Interfax-Azerbaijan" Alexander Ivanov.

"The task of historians is the study of the true facts, unbiased assessment of the situation without engaging in propaganda" Mr Vlasov said "Unfortunately, speaking of Khojaly, we can say that the numbers of human tragedies are often replaced by the statistics in the minds of people."

Mr Vlasov said perhaps, it will be possible to understand the reasons for many tragedies occurred during the breakup of the Soviet Union by understanding the causes of what happened.

Mr Yevseyev noted that violent death of any person is a tragedy, and the number of dead does not matter.

"Azerbaijan should pay more attention to coverage of the themes of the tragedy in Khojaly in the electronic media so that the youth, which is the primary user of the Internet, had the opportunity to learn the truth," Mr Yevseyev said.

Gulnara Mammadzadeh said Azerbaijani media should give a balanced response to the active promotion of the Armenian media which deliberately distorts the facts of the tragedy in Khojaly.

"Maybe it makes sense to establish an independent commission of experts, which could make an independent judgment about those terrible events. It is necessary not only for the Azerbaijanis, but whole world should be informed about the tragedy" Ms Mammadzadeh said.

Ismail Agakishiev agreed with this view, noting that Azerbaijan should bring the truth about Khojali to the world community's attention by all means.

Mr Sadikhov spoke about the great work in this direction and stressed the great role of Azerbaijan Youth Organization of Russia headed by Leyla Aliyeva.

Mr Sadikhov also noted that many projects due to which people around the world learn the truth about the tragedy, which can be equated to genocide, are carried out within the organization.

The international media campaign "Justice for Khojaly" (www.justiceforkhojaly.org) was initiated by Leyla Aliyeva on the day of Shusha occupation on May 8, 2008. The campaign aimed to bring the truth about the Khojaly tragedy, and to achieve political and moral evaluation of the tragedy by the world community has successfully been implemented by hundreds of volunteers in over 30 countries around the world.

Mr Ivanov called to tell about the participation of persons who are now in power in Armenia, in the tragedy of Khojaly and other crimes.

"The world must know the true face of those people who are blocking all peace initiatives of Azerbaijan on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict," Mr Ivanov said.

Armenian armed forces with the help of the 366th motor-rifling regiment occupied Azerbaijan's Khojaly city and committed genocide, killing hundreds of innocent people because of their ethnic background on February 26, 1992. As a result, 613 people were savagely killed, 487 were injured, and 1,275 people were taken into hostage. The fates of many of them are still unknown. After the 366th motor-rifling regiment's withdrawal from Khankendi, a major part of the military equipment owned by this military unit was transferred to the Armenian separatists.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts.

Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France, and the U.S. - are currently holding the peace negotiations.

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

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