TODAY.AZ / Politics

Book about Khojaly genocide presented in Brussels

22 June 2016 [13:23] - TODAY.AZ

/By Azernews/

By Amina Nazarli

Victims of the Armenian–Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which left about one million Azerbaijani internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees, were remembered on UN World Refugee Day, which is commemorated each year on June 20.

The event took place at the Press Club Brussels and saw presentation of the “Khojaly Witness of a War Crime – Armenia in the Dock” book, a landmark publication from The European Azerbaijan Society (TEAS).

In 2014, the book was for the first time published in English in a London publishing house ITHACA Press. The book was translated into Russian, Turkish and French. This book is the first collection of the Khojaly tragedy issued by well-known publishing houses of the West.

Organized by TEAS Benelux, the event was attended by Ambassador Khazar Ibrahim, Head of the Azerbaijani Mission to NATO; EU and Belgian diplomats; press and NGO representatives; members of the Azerbaijani diaspora; and supporters of international law.

Marc Verwilghen, Director at TEAS Benelux, addressed the ceremony, by quoting from Ban Ki-Moon, UN Secretary-General, who previously acknowledged. “Refugees are people like anyone else; like you and me. They led ordinary lives before becoming displaced, and their biggest dream is to be able to live normally again in their homes and country,” he said.

He noted that today, TEAS Benelux puts on display the fate of over one million Azerbaijanis who fled their homes and lands due to Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, stressing that this is the largest IDP population in Europe, and one of the largest IDP populations per capita in the world.

For over two decades Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions.

Despite the official ceasefire back in 1994, each year the conflict becomes a cause of the deaths of dozens of civilians and military. The latest outbreak of violence on the contact proved that it is impossible to resolve the conflict by keeping a status quo.

He then explained the background to the “Khojaly Witness of a War Crime – Armenia in the Dock” book, saying that Armenia continues to resist accepting responsibility for its actions over Nagorno-Karabakh and on the night of 25–26 February 1992 with the Khojaly Massacre, which was masterminded by Serzh Sargsyan, the current Armenian President, who was a military commander at the time.

Fuad Isgandarov, Azerbaijani Ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg and Head of the Azerbaijani delegation to the EU, said: “I am a witness to and victim of this war. It is for me to make the link between UN World Refugee Day and the Khojaly Massacre. Due to the policies of the former Soviet Union, there was a war between two neighboring countries – Azerbaijan and Armenia. This led to the occupation of approximately 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory, leading around approximately one million Azerbaijanis to become refugees on their own land.

“The Khojaly Massacre and the conflict had an indescribable impact on the civilian population,” he said. “Our war and the massacre concerned civilians, and the concept of the refugee problem primarily relates to civilians. The Armenians fired on peaceful civilian people who were forced to leave their houses, losing members of their families.”

This tragedy happened just 24 years ago, and knowing about this enable us to avoid the future recurrence of such scenarios, Isgandarov said, adding that all organizations acknowledge that the status quo is unsustainable.

Khojaly Massacre became the largest massacre in the course of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Within one night, Khojaly, one of the oldest settlements in Karabakh with a population of about 7,000 people, was razed to the ground.

As many as 613 people were killed, including 63 children, 106 women and 70 old people were killed as a result of the massacre. Eight families were totally exterminated, 130 children lost one parent and 25 children lost both.

URL: http://www.today.az/news/politics/152001.html

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