Azernews.Az

By Rashid Shirinov

The West continues to ignore one of the awful crimes of the 20th century - the Khojaly genocide, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus wrote in his Twitter account on February 24.

He stated that the international community should no longer remain indifferent to the inhuman crimes committed on the night of February 26, 1992 in the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly.

Kurtulmus stressed that Armenia must withdraw its troops from the occupied Azerbaijani territories.

"Turkey and Azerbaijan will always support each other,” he added.

Khojaly, the second largest town in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, came under intense fire by Armenia from the towns of Khankendi and Askeran already occupied by the Armenian armed forces in 1992.

As many as 613 civilians mostly women and children were killed in the massacre, and a total of 1,000 people were disabled. Eight families were exterminated, 25 children lost both parents, and 130 children lost one parent. Moreover, 1,275 innocent people were taken hostage, and the fate of 150 of them remains unknown.

Armenia broke out a lengthy war against Azerbaijan laying territorial claims on its South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts.

Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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