Turkish parliament remembers 1992 Khojaly massacre

ANKARA: A Turkish parliamentary committee on Monday called on the international organizations to address the Khojaly massacre, which took place in 1992 in Azerbaijan’s now-occupied region of Karabakh during the war with Armenia, with due attention.

“We reiterate, once again, that the international community should assign the warranted importance for this massacre and deliver a justified response in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the United Nations Security Council, the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation,” the Foreign Affairs Committee at the Turkish parliament said in a statement.

The committee, which condemned the massacre "vehemently", said Turkey sympathized deeply with its "Azerbaijani brothers and sisters over this violent attack.”

"We stand in solidarity with our Azerbaijani brothers and sisters in their rightful cause. We, hereby, reiterate our call for the perpetrators of this act to be brought to justice per the international law and for Armenia to withdraw as soon as possible from the Azerbaijani territories it has occupied," the statement read.

The massacre of February 25-26, 1992, is regarded as one of the bloodiest and most controversial incidents of the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan for control of the now-occupied Upper Karabakh region.

On the heels of the Soviet Union’s dissolution, Armenian forces took over the town of Khojaly in Karabakh on February 26, 1992, after battering it with heavy artillery and tanks, assisted by an infantry regiment.

The two-hour offensive killed 613 Azerbaijani citizens, including 116 women and 63 children, and also critically injured 487 others, according to the figures by Azerbaijan.

Some 150 of the 1,275 Azerbaijanis that the Armenians captured during the massacre remain missing to this day.

Karabakh, a disputed territory between Azerbaijan and Armenia -- broke away from Azerbaijan in 1991 with military support from neighboring Armenia, and a peace process has yet to be implemented.

Three UN Security Council resolutions and two UN General Assembly resolutions refer to Karabakh as being part of Azerbaijan, and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe refers to the region as being occupied by Armenian forces.

The Armenian occupation of Karabakh led to the closing of the frontier with Turkey, which sides with Baku in the dispute.