Speaking at the event with the participation of foreign ambassadors, Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov said that Armenia's aggression against Azerbaijan has been going on for more than 30 years. As a result of the aggression, about 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory was occupied. One of the bloodiest pages in the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the genocide committed by Armenian troops against the Azerbaijani people in Khojaly on the night of February 25-26, 1992 with the direct participation of the 366th motorized infantry regiment of the former Soviet army. Today is the 28th anniversary of that tragedy.
The Deputy Minister noted that, as a result of the Khojaly genocide, 613 civilians, including 106 women, 63 children, and 70 elderly people, were killed with special cruelty, 487 people were injured, 1,275 people were taken hostage and 150 people were missing. These facts have been widely covered in the world's leading media. Relevant legislative acts of the Republic of Azerbaijan assess the crimes committed in Khojaly as genocide following the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. According to the Resolution of the Milli Majlis of February 24, 1994 "On the Day of the Khojaly Genocide", February 26 was declared as the “Day of the Khojaly Genocide”.
He added that the UN Security Council also adopted resolutions in 1993 in response to the use of illegal force against Azerbaijan and the occupation of its territories, noting that attacks on civilians in Azerbaijan and bombings of residential areas, including the mass displacement of civilians are a mass violation of international humanitarian law. In its decision of 22 April, 2010, the European Court of Human Rights described the acts committed in Khojaly as war crimes or crimes against humanity with particularly grave consequences. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation has recognized the fact of genocide in Khojaly and demanded the responsibility of Armenia in this regard.
It was noted that as a result of the measures taken to promote the Khojaly genocide at the international level, including the "Justice for Khojaly" campaign, relevant decisions were made in several countries around the world. The parliaments of Mexico, Pakistan, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Indonesia, Peru, Panama, Jordan, Sudan, Slovenia, Honduras, Guatemala, Djibouti, Paraguay, and Scotland, as well as the legislatures of some US states accepted official documents condemning the Khojaly genocide.