The theme of the commemorative events will be, "Where speech ends."
"The Khojaly massacre constitutes one of the most tragic chapters in our history. It was an atrocity against unarmed civilians committed at the end of the 20th century and open murder," a statement from the Azerbaijani Embassy said, reported Today's Zaman.
Hundreds of Azerbaijani civilians from the town of Khojaly were killed on Feb. 25, 1992, during the Nagorno-Karabakh War. According to Azerbaijani officials, as well as human rights groups and other international observers, the massacre was committed by ethnic Armenian armed forces, reportedly with help of the Russian army. The official death toll provided by Azerbaijani authorities is 613 civilians, including 106 women and 83 children.
The commemorative activities will be jointly sponsored by the Azerbaijani Embassy, the Haydar Aliyev Foundation and Ankara's Gazi University. They will be held at Gazi University facilities.
17th Anniversary of Khojaly Genocide Commemorated in Washington
Commemoration ceremony on the occasion of 17th anniversary of the Khojaly Genocide was organized by the non-governmental organizations such as Association of the Turkish Students, American-Azerbaijani Society and American Azerbaijani Women in George Washington University, Washington, APA US bureau reported.
Leader of the Association of Turkish Students Esra Alemdar presented http://justiceforkhojaly.org website launched on the initiative of General Coordinator of the Islamic Conference Youth Forum Leila Aliyeva. Ms. Alemdar said the website would be presented in the Muslim and Western countries and 102 different communities have joined the Justice for Khojaly campaign so far. Esra Alemdar said large data bank about the genocide was placed on the website and petition was sent to the international organizations via Internet.
Representative of the American Azerbaijani Society in Washington Bedir Mammadli said the Khojaly genocide was a bloodiest page of the Azerbaijani history and the name of Khojaly became the synonym of cruel killing of the innocent people. Professor of the Montana University Thomas Goltz emphasized that it is necessary to intensify campaign to cause the United States to know more about the Khojaly tragedy. He said the American society knew more about the Khojaly Genocide than 10 years ago, but the process should be developed. Professor Goltz urged to translate the documentary films about the tragedy to English and to spread it in the post-Soviet countries, Middle East and to introduce it to the education centers researching the history of Turkic peoples. Thomas Goltz is an author of the first article about Khojaly published in the United States.
Following the speeches, the documentary
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
