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From the speech of the President of the
Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev at the
opening of the Second Baku International
Humanitarian Forum – Baku, October 4, 2012
Currently, the world's biggest number of refugees
per capita is registered in Azerbaijan. We have over
a million refugees and IDPs who can’t return home
because of the ongoing Armenian aggression.
Our people have seen great tragedies. The Kho-
jaly genocide was perpetrated when a massacre
was unleashed against the innocent people, includ-
ing women and children. The Armenians have de-
stroyed our cultural monuments. Thus, the genocide
has been committed against our people and against
our culture. Those, who carried out this genocide,
this crime, have not yet been adequately condemned
by the international community.
ty and territorial integrity and to forcibly seize our
lands. But this horrendous tragedy has made our
nation even more persistent, mobilized our heroic
sons and daughters for a decisive and organized
fight in the name of the sacred Motherland and na-
tional statehood.
On this national day of mourning I am paying
tribute to the innocent victims of the Khojaly tragedy
and asking God to repose the souls of all our mar-
tyrs. I want to assure you that sooner or later those
who perpetrated the Khojaly genocide will answer
before the court of justice and will be punished worth-
ly. The blood of our martyrs will be avenged.
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Those who committed the Khojaly genocide are
represented in the Armenian leadership today. This
tragedy took place in front of the eyes of the entire
world. In other words, we see it not as some sort of
a myth, such as the totally unfounded myth of the
“Armenian genocide”, but on the basis of real facts.
Videos, photos and testimonies of eye-witnesses –
this is the truth and reality. However, for some rea-
son certain people don’t want to see it, while others
try to portray the Armenians as victims. Of course,
there is a reason for that. The world’s Armenian
lobby and some hypocritical and corrupt politicians
under its control have completely distorted histo-
ry in order to blame Azerbaijan. This injustice has
been continuing untill this day. In the Khojaly geno-
cide the Armenians massacred 613 innocent peo-
ple. Whereas, our fellow citizens resting here were
killed with blunt objects in Khojaly, our country-
men were slain with machine guns and grenades.
Hundreds of people went missing. The Armenians
killed 63 children and 106 women in Khojaly. This
is an unprecedented brutality.
Today, the Azerbaijani state and the public orga-
nizations functioning in Azerbaijan, primarily Hey-
dar Aliyev Foundation, do a lot for the recognition
of the Khojaly genocide as an act of genocide in the
world. I want to highlight the activities of Hey-
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From the speech of the President of the
Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev at the
opening of the Guba genocide memorial –
Guba, September 18, 2013
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From the speech of the President of the
Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev at the
inauguration ceremony – October 19, 2013
There are already excellent opportunities for
achieving the recognition of the Khojaly massacre as
an act of genocide in the world. A number of coun-
tries have already recognized the massacre in Kho-
jaly as an act of genocide. This process should be
continued.
dar Aliyev Foundation in the establishment of the
Guba genocide memorial. Heydar Aliyev Founda-
tion, our Diaspora organizations and, of course, the
government of Azerbaijan are gradually achieving
the goals by unfolding and successfully continuing
the “Justice for Khojaly” campaign. Several coun-
tries have already officially recognized the Khojaly
massacre as an act of genocide, and this process
continues.
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Khojaly genocide is a crime against the
mankind
The policy of genocide and aggression has been
pursued by the Armenian nationalists against our
people for more than two hundred years. This pol-
icy was aimed at driving the Azerbaijanis out of
their lands and creating Greater Armenia, a fiction
of the Armenian historians and ideologists. In order
to implement their offensive and dangerous policy,
they have used different ways and means, including
the falsification of history, political provocations
supported at the state level, aggressive nationalism,
separatism, and aggression against the neighboring
nations, “national-cultural”, religious, political, and
even terrorist organizations established both in Ar-
menia and in other countries, and they mobilized
forces of the Armenian diaspora and lobby.
Following the division of Azerbaijan as a result
of the Russian-Persian wars in the first quarter of
the 19
th
century, massive settlement of the Arme-
nians from Iran and Turkey in Garabagh started and
the demographic situation was artificially changed
there. In 1905, massacre of the Azerbaijanis and rav-
age of hundreds of settlements were committed by
the Armenian nationalists. Under the political and
military leadership of the Armenian-led Baku Com-
mune, a cruel plan aimed at ethnic cleansing of the
Azerbaijanis in Baku was committed in 1918. As a
result, tens of thousands of innocent people were
massacred, houses, cultural monuments, mosques
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and schools were destroyed in Baku, Ganja, Sha-
makhi, Guba, Lankaran, Garabagh, Mugan and oth-
er regions of Azerbaijan.
The policy of genocide and deportation of the
Azerbaijanis was continued with delicate and in-
sidious methods during the Soviet regime, which
proclaimed equality of peoples, a lot of wrong and
unfair decisions in respect to the Azerbaijanis were
adopted. As a result of the unreasonable transfer of
Zangezur, a historical Azerbaijani province, to Ar-
menia in the 1920s, the ancient Nakhichevan was
separated from the rest of the country. Moreover, an
Armenian autonomy was established in the Moun-
tainous Garabagh. The unfair decision of the Soviet
authorities on the deportation of hundreds of thou-
sands of Azerbaijanis from their native lands in Ar-
menia in 1948-1953 allowed the Armenians to create
a mono-ethnic state in the Republic of Armenia.
The outbreak of the Mountainous Garabagh con-
flict in 1988, the Armenian savagery in the territo-
ry of Azerbaijan and the innocent victims of this
savagery were, unfortunately, ignored by the So-
viet authorities and world community. Inspired by
such a reaction, the Armenians committed genocide
and unprecedented crimes against the Azerbaijan-
is. Twenty percent of the territories of Azerbaijan,
including seven provinces around the Mountain-
ous Garabagh - Kalbajar, Lachin, Aghdam, Fuzuli,
Jabrail, Gubadli, and Zangilan were occupied by
the Armenian armed forces. Over one million Azer-
baijanis were driven out of their homeland, while
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tens of thousands people were murdered, injured
and taken hostages. Hundreds of settlements, cul-
tural, educational and health facilities, historical
and cultural monuments, mosques, sacred places,
cemeteries were razed to the ground as a result of
the Armenian vandalism.
The massacres committed by the Armenian ban-
dits in the Azerbaijani-settled Karkijahan, Meshali,
Gushchular, Garadagly, Agdaban and other villag-
es, as well as the Khojaly genocide will remain as a
black spot in the history of the Armenians.
The Khojaly tragedy is one of the most horrible
crimes committed against the Azerbaijani people
by the authors of the chauvinist policy aimed at the
establishment of a mono-ethnic Greater Armenia in
the 20
th
century. Ignored and unharnessed by the
world community and international organizations,
Armenia claims to the Azerbaijani territories, and
since 1905 it led terrible crimes and atrocity wit-
nessed by mankind at the end of the 20
th
century.
On February 26, 1992, the Armenian armed units
supported by the armored vehicles and military of
the Khankendi-based 366
th
Motor-Rifle Regiment of
the former Soviet Union razed the ancient town of
Khojaly to the ground.
First Khojaly was terribly shelled and destroyed
by cannons and other military equipment. Fire
broke out in the town. Later the infantry entered
Khojaly from several directions and committed bru-
tal reprisals against the survived population.
Within a short time the Armenian armed forces
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brutally massacred 613 civilians and injured 421
people.
Those, who escaped the siege, were cruelly killed
by the Armenian military on roads and in the for-
ests. The Armenian bandits scalped the heads, cut
out different organs of the people, gouged out the
eyes of babies, bayoneted pregnant women, buried
or burnt people alive, undermined the corpses.
That night 1275 went missing and taken hos-
tages, the town with the population of 10,000 was
ravaged, its buildings destroyed and burnt down.
The fate of 150 people, including 68 women and 26
children is still unknown. As a result of the trag-
edy, more than 1,000 civilians were wounded and
injured. Among the murdered there were 106 wom-
en, 63 children, 70 old people, 487 persons became
disabled, among them there are 76 teenagers.
As a result of this military-political crime, eight
families completely were annihilated, 130 children
lost one of the parents, while 25 children lost both
parents. Among the victims 56 persons were burnt
alive.
As it was said by the President of the Republic
of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev on the occasion of the
anniversary of the Khojaly genocide, “hundreds of
civilians were murdered and the corpses were in-
sulted with unprecedented tortures without any
military necessity. Children, women, elderly, entire
families were massacred. It was one of the gravest
crimes against humanity due to its atrocity and cru-
elty of those, who committed it.”
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It is hard to imagine that such an unprecedented
savagery took place at the end of the 20
th
century
and was witnessed by the world community!
This act of mass and ruthless destruction was
part of the policy of terror against the independence
and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and a crime
against the humanity as a whole. By committing
a genocide in Khojaly, the Armenian nationalists
wanted to frighten our people and break the spirit
of struggle.
The operation of attack to Khojaly was led by
the commander of the second brigade of the 366
th
Regiment Seyran Ohanian, commander of the third
brigade Evgeny Nabokikh, chief of staff of the first
brigade Valery Chitchyan. Over 90 tanks, infantry
fighting vehicles and other military equipment of
the regiment were involved in the operation. Mili-
taries of the regiment, including Slavik Arutunyan,
Andrey Ishkhanyan, Sergey Beglaryan, Movses
Akopyan, Grigory Kisebekyan, Vachik Mirzoyan,
Vachagan Ayriyan, Alexander Ayrapetyan, mem-
bers of the Armenian armed units, including Karo
Petrosyan, Vitaly Balasanyan, Seyran Tumasyan,
Valera Grigoryan and others took an active part in
the genocide against the civilian population. The in-
volvement of the former chief of department of in-
ternal affairs of Khankandi Armo Abramyan, former
chief of department of internal affairs of Askeran
Mavrik Gukasyan, his deputy Shagen Barsaghyan,
chairman of the Popular Front of the Armenians in
the Mountainous Garabagh Vitaly Balasanyan, head
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of Khankendi prison Serzhik Kocharyan and other
persons in the massacre have also been determined.
Then major S.Ohanyan is now a general and
minister of defense of the Republic of Armenia. A
number of other participants of the crime now hold
various positions in the Republic of Armenia and in
its puppet-state.
Resolution 96 of the UN General Assembly dat-
ed 11 December 1946 underlines that genocide,com-
mitted by ignoring the right to life of human groups
insults the human dignity and deprives mankind of
moral and material strongholds. Such infamous acts
are completely opposite to the goals and objectives
of the UN. Resolution 260 adopted on 9 December
1948 by the UN General Assembly and enacted in
1951, the Convention on the Prevention and Pun-
ishment of the Crime of Genocide defines the legal
basis for the crime of genocide. All participating
countries have confirmed genocide as a crime vio-
lating the norms of international law and agreed to
take measures to prevent and punish the actions of
genocide in war and in peacetime.
The nature and scale of the terrible crime com-
mitted in Khojaly indicate that all the actions of the
crime of genocide defined in the Convention were
applied. Planned in advance, the act of mass and
ruthless destruction was aimed at entire annihila-
tion of the Azerbaijanis living there.
Violations of wartime norms defined by interna-
tional law had no limits in this case. In accordance
with the requirements of international humanitar-
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ian law, the war must be carried out only by the
armed forces of the belligerent sides. Civilians must
not take part in hostilities and be treated with re-
spect. According to Article 3 of the Geneva Conven-
tion relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons
in the Time of War, commonly referred to as the
Fourth Geneva Convention, violence to life and per-
son, in particular, murder of all kinds, mutilation,
cruel treatment and torture, outrages upon person-
al dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading
treatment are prohibited. Article 33 states that no
civilian may be punished for an offense he or she
has not personally committed. Collective penalties
and likewise measures of intimidation or of terror-
ism and reprisals against civilian population are
prohibited. Article 34 also forbids taking civilian
hostages. However, by taking over one thousand
civilian hostages only in Khojaly, the Armenians
demonstrated their disrespect to this principle. The
Armenian armed forces ignored the norms of in-
ternational law and used cruel methods for the de-
struction of civilians in Khojaly. It was a crime of
genocide in accordance with the Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Geno-
cide (9 December 1948).
Those who committed unimaginable brutality
against the Azerbaijani civilians in Khojaly and vio-
lated the Geneva Convention, Articles 2, 3, 5, 9 and
17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
the Convention on the Protection of Women and
Children in Emergency and Armed Conflict, the
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Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of
the Crime of Genocide are still unpunished. Such
impunity can lead to new crimes.
Armenia does not refrain from atrocities. On
the contrary, the genocide committed against the
Azerbaijanis is justified, while the perpetrators of
this tragedy are considered national heroes. The an-
ti-Azerbaijani policy is carried out and state-level
ideological foundations for the occupation of the
Azerbaijani lands are created in Armenia. The fal-
sified Armenian history is encouraged by the au-
thorities in order to raise chauvinistic spirit of the
Armenian youth.
It is very strange that the parliaments of some
countries, which ignored the Khojaly genocide,
have discussed the myth about “the Armenian
genocide” and even adopted unjust decisions on it.
It is one of the reasons of failure of the efforts on
the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict
over the Mountainous Garabagh.
The Armenian historians and politicians try to
bury the fact of mass massacre of Azerbaijanis at
the beginning of the 20
th
century and to confuse the
world community by blowing up and promoting
the 1915 events as the Armenian genocide.
The Azerbaijani territories are still under occu-
pation. The Armenian savages have mercilessly
killed innocent people to achieve their own greedy
purposes.
It is the duty of every Azerbaijani to achieve the
recognition by the international community of the
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Khojaly tragedy as a crime and genocide against
humanity.
The national leader of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev
said in connection with the tragedy: “The Khojaly
genocide is one of the greatest human tragedies of
the 20
th
century. In order to prevent such a massa-
cre in other regions of the world, a serious and pur-
poseful job should be done and the truth about the
Khojaly genocide should be delivered to the world
community.”
We should note that the Khojaly genocide along-
with other national tragedies was politically and
legally recognized after the return of the nation-
al leader Heydar Aliyev to power by the insistent
demand of the people. At the initiative of Heydar
Aliyev, the Azerbaijani parliament adopted on Feb-
ruary 24, 1994 the decision on the Day of the Kho-
jaly genocide, a document with details about the
reasons and perpetrators of the tragedy.
As it is stated in the instruction of the President
of the Republic of Azerbaijan İlham Aliyev on the
“20th anniversary of the Khojaly genocide”: “The
truth about the Khojaly genocide, which is a part
of the policy of ethnic cleansing consistently imple-
mented by the Armenian chauvinist circles against
the Azerbaijanis in the 19-20th centuries, must be
conveyed to the world and to the foreign parlia-
ments. This heinous war crime against the Azerbai-
jani people and humanity in general must receive a
political and legal assessment on the international
scale.”
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From this point of view Heydar Aliyev Founda-
tion has a special role. The Foundation has been or-
ganizing events dedicated to the Khojaly genocide
in 70 countries for many years. The measures of the
organization include conferences, commemorative
events, books, booklets, DVDs, and films.
The international campaign “Justice for Kho-
jaly” initiated by Leyla Aliyeva, vice-president of
the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, chairwoman of the
Russian-Azerbaijani Youth Organization has been
broadening year by year. Hundreds of measures,
such as conferences, seminars, pickets within the
framework of the campaign have been organized
worldwide, including in the EU, the CIS, Asia, and
in the American countries. The Khojaly tragedy was
recognized by a number of international forums
thanks to the campaign.
At the initiative of the Foundation and Youth
Forum, members of the parliament of 31 countries
have recognized the Khojaly tragedy as a crime
against humanity. Flash mobs are organized among
the leading universities in 20 countries. Moreover,
the new phase of the campaign has started, which
includes addressing petitions and appeals to the
heads of states and governments, to the OSCE
Minsk Group, to the UN General Secretariat, to for-
eign parliaments, to international parliaments for
the recognition of the Khojaly tragedy as an act of
genocide and crime against humanity.
The international campaign “Justice for Kho-
jaly” aimed at informing the world community on
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the realities of the Khojaly tragedy and achieving
international recognition of the tragedy is success-
fully carried out by hundreds of volunteers in many
countries.
One of the organizations with practical activities
in this direction is the Association for Civil Society
Development in Azerbaijan. The Association, which
includes a number of leading NGOs of Azerbaijan
has published a book titled “Khojaly genocide (in
documents, facts and foreign press)” in Azerbai-
jani, Russian and English, collected signatures of
one million citizens demanding the recognition of
the Khojaly tragedy as a genocide. We should em-
phasize that the signatures are not only a simple
requirement, but also a moral, political, historical,
and legal document for those, who witnessed the
Khojaly genocide. Thus, the collected signatures
have been submitted to big Azerbaijani and foreign
libraries, as well as to the parliaments of superpow-
ers for the restoration of historical truth and justice.
Another notable project of the Association is the
photo-album “Two Photo-Talks on One Tragedy”
published in English. The book includes pictures
and talks of two famous Azerbaijani photo report-
ers, who recorded the victims of the Khojaly trage-
dy.
The Azerbaijani government pursues a purpose-
ful and consistent policy on informing the world
community on the crimes of the Armenian national-
ists against the Azerbaijanis and achieving the rec-
ognition of the Khojaly tragedy as a genocide.
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