Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 19
By Elchin Mehdiyev – Trend:
A symposium on the 26th anniversary of the Khojaly genocide will be held at the German Bundestag on Feb. 22, the Parliament of Azerbaijan told Trend on Feb.19.
The event will be attended by the chairman of the parliamentary youth and sport committee Fuad Muradov and MP Rovshan Rzayev.
The symposium will provide broad information on the Khojaly genocide, as well as the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The symposium will be organized by the Azerbaijani Embassy in Germany, the Azerbaijan-German Forum and the German Atlantic Society. Azerbaijani MPs will also hold a number of meetings in the Bundestag and the German Foreign Ministry. The visit will end on Feb.25.
On Feb. 25-26, 1992, the Armenian armed forces, together with the 366th infantry regiment of Soviet troops, stationed in Khankendi, committed an act of genocide against the population of the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly.
As many as 613 people, including 63 children, 106 women and 70 old 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.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.