23rd anniversary of Khojaly massacre marked in Baku

The 23rd anniversary of the Khojaly massacre was commemorated in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku on Wednesday, February 25. Hundreds of people and officials attended the ceremony, including Foreign Affairs Minister of Turkey Mevlut Çavuşoğlu, on a three-day visit, together with the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, at the Khojaly monument on a hilltop overlooking the city of Baku. Çavuşoğlu condemned the Khojaly Massacre.

Aliyev laid a wreath at the monument while, other participants also laid flowers at the monument.

Following the official ceremony, thousands of people paid their respects with a minute of silence. Mourners gathered in front of the monument and lit 613 candles symbolizing the victims. The mourners said that, Azerbaijan would never forget the massacre.

A group which gathered under the sign "Justice for Khojaly" with candles released 613 sky lanterns near the coast of the sea; the balloons represented the massacre’s victims.

Meanwhile, to commemorate the massacre thousands of people held a rally on the streets on Wednesday night, Feb. 25, the event were organized by non-governmental organizations.

The Khojaly massacre was the killing of at least 163 ethnic Azerbaijani civilians mostly women and children from the town of Khojaly on 25–26 February 1992 by the Armenian and, partially, by CIS armed forces during the Nagorno-Karabakh War.

In addition, about 1,000 people were disabled, 1,275 innocent people were taken hostage, and the fate of 150 of them remains unknown.

According to the Azerbaijani side, as well as the Memorial Human Rights Center, Human Rights Watch and other international observers, the massacre was committed by the ethnic Armenian armed forces.

The Turkish Parliament’s Foreign Policy Committee has also released a statement and urged those responsible for the massacre to be put on trial by international courts.