Azerbaijan, Baku, March 1 / Trend , A.Akhundov/
Azerbaijani Khojali is twinned with Czech Lidice. Corresponding protocols were signed on February 26 in Lidice, the Azerbaijani-Czech society reported.
With the support of the Azerbaijani-Czech society, the State Commission on work with the Diaspora and the Azerbaijani embassy in the Czech Republic in the Memorial complex in Lidice was held an event on 18th anniversary of Khojali tragedy.
Azerbaijani Ambassador to the Czech Republic Tahir Tagizade, chairman of the Azerbaijani-Czech Society Elshan Nazarov, director of the Lidice Memorial Complex Milos Chervenchl and deputy chief executive of Khojali Vahid Aliyev laid flowers at the eternal flame of memory of victims of the tragedy of Lidice.
Addressing the meeting, Chief Executive of the town of Lidice Josef Clima announced the assignment of Khojali as a street name in Lidice.
Also a photo exhibition, prepared by the Heydar Aliyev foundation, and documentary film about the Khojali tragedy were presented at the event.
Armenian troops committed genocide in Khojali on Feb. 26, 1992. The tragedy began early morning. Within hours, over 613 unarmed Azerbaijani citizens were killed. Among them were 106 women and 83 children. About 1,000 people were disabled by shots; 8 families were fully destroyed. A total of 25 children lost both of their parents and 130 children lost one of them. About 1,275 people were taken prisoner and around 150 people went missing. Eight families were completely killed.
Czech Lidice in World War II was virtually wiped out by the German fascists.
Because of the similarity of the two tragedies the memory activities of the Khojali massacre victims were carried out in the Memorial Complex of Lidice in February 2007 for three months.