Colombian Senate assesses Khojaly massacre as genocide

By admin on April 25, 2012 - 2:42 am in News / no comments

The Colombian senate has passed a decision condemning the Armenian occupation Azerbaijani land and classifying the Khojaly massacre as genocide.

The Senate of Colombia passed its decision unanimously, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev told a briefing on Monday, APA reports.

“The annex to the decision gives information about the history of Armenia’s aggressive policy against Azerbaijan, describes Azerbaijan’s position, says that Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven adjacent regions have suffered aggression from Armenia and are still under occupation by the Armenian Armed Forces,” Abdullayev said.

“The decision says that more than one million Azerbaijanis have become refugees and internally displaced people, condemns the violence committed against the Azerbaijanis and violation of their rights. The crimes committed in Khojaly are referred to as genocide in the decision. This means that Colombia is the second country in Latin America after Mexico to assess the Khojaly events as genocide. Prior to this, the decision was discussed at the Colombian Senate’s second committee on foreign affairs and defence issues.

“The decision, which was passed unanimously, is another successful step of Azerbaijani diplomacy towards a legal political assessment of the Khojaly genocide by the international community. We will continue to work on this. This is very important for us,” Abdullayev said.

During the night of 25-26 February 1992, 613 Azerbaijani civilians were killed in an attack by Armenian forces, backed by an ex-Soviet regiment, on the town of Khojaly in Nagorno-Karabakh. Most of the victims perished as they fled the town. The massacre was the largest atrocity of the Armenian-Azerbaijani war over Karabakh.

News.az