On February 22, this year, a conference on the 31st anniversary of the Khojaly genocide was held in the city of Zagreb by the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Croatia, APA reports citing the Embassy.
Officials from the Republic of Croatia’s state institutions, members of the Croatian Parliament, heads of diplomatic corps accredited in Zagreb, representatives from the Republic of Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor General’s Office, heads of Croatian higher education institutions, experts and representatives of think tanks working in the field of international humanitarian law, Azerbaijanis living in Croatia, as well as public and media representatives, attended the conference.
Firstly, a minute of silence was observed to commemorate the victims of the Khojaly genocide.
Speaking at the event, Ambassador Anar Imanov detailed the Khojaly genocide, stating that on the night of February 25-26, 1992, Armenian armed forces invaded the city of Khojaly in Azerbaijan with the help of the Soviet army’s 366th motorized rifle regiment and killed a large number of civilians, primarily children, and women.
The Ambassador noted that the policy of ethnic cleansing against our people has become the state policy of Armenia, that bringing to criminal responsibility perpetrators of such crimes in accordance with the international Convention on genocide is the responsibility of every country, and called on all countries and international structures to unite their efforts and take the necessary measures to bring to criminal responsibility perpetrators of the Khojaly genocide.
The Ambassador stated that every year on February 26th, various events are held in many countries around the world as part of the campaign “Justice for Khojaly,” and that Azerbaijan is taking the necessary steps to bring the facts about the Khojaly genocide to the international community and to recognize this type of crime at the international level.
The event was addressed by Ambassador of Turkiye to Croatia Yavuz Selim Kıran, MP Veljko Kajtazi, member of the Croatia-Azerbaijan Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Group, Ilgar Safarov, senior assistant to the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Azerbaijan on special assignments, responsible members of the Institute of Development and International Relations of Croatia (IRMO) Kreševan Antun Duymović and Matea Roknić, Zagreb University Faculty of Law professor Maja Munivrana, Croatian representative of Baku Multiculturalism Center Imran Srebrenikovic, member of Croatia-Azerbaijan Friendship Society Rosana Svetic. They noted the condemnation of the Khojaly genocide crime by the international community and the importance of punishing the perpetrators in order to prevent such bloody incidents from happening again in the future. The speakers emphasized the importance of drawing conclusions from other genocidal crimes that occurred in addition to the Khojaly genocide, preventing crimes against humanity, and determining the ways of political and legal assessment.
A documentary film depicting the Khojaly genocide made by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation was shown during the event, and booklets published by the “Justice to Khojaly” campaign were distributed to attendees.
Source: Azeri-Press News Agency