No: 52, 25 February 2016

On 26 February 1992, troops of the Republic of Armenia which attacked the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly in Nagorno-Karabakh massacred 613 Azerbaijani citizens. Of those massacred, 106 were women, 63 were children and 70 were elderly people. Also, 487 persons, including 76 children were wounded and 1275 persons were taken as prisoners. What befell 150 people who are missing since that date is unknown. As a result of this inhuman aggression against civilians and occupation of twenty percent of Azerbaijani territories, approximately one million of our Azerbaijani brothers and sisters have been forced to leave their homes and become refugees since then.

Turkey commiserates deeply with her Azerbaijani brothers and sisters over this brutal attack and massacre which they suffered 24 years ago and shares their pain. We strongly condemn these massacres carried out by troops of the Republic of Armenia and the occupation of the Azerbaijani territories continuing for years. We sadly observe that this tragedy has not yet drawn well-deserved interest by the international community. We wish God’s mercy upon those who lost their lives in this massacre, respectfully bow before their memories and wish our most sincere condolences to our Azerbaijani brothers and sisters.