Sadia Bajwa,
The 20th century is remembered as the century of human destruction and genocides. Two deadly world wars resulted in the death of millions of people. Besides these wars, the 20th century also saw some tragic genocide events which shattered beliefs of peace and harmony. In 1994, on the day of 10th June, 642 inhabitants of Oradour-Sur-Glance in France were brutally killed. In 1994, the small country of Rwanda in Central Africa became a graveyard for over 1 million people in a time period of one year. Similarly, on 11th of July in 1995, over 8000 men and boys were murdered in Srebrenica, Europe. In the same manner, The Khojaly genocide in Azerbaijan took place on the night of 25th and 26th February 1992. It resulted in the killing of 613 people. From all these genocides, it is evident that victims were targeted only because they belonged to different ethnic groups as French in Oradour-Sur-Glance, Tutsis in Rwanda, Bosnian in Srebrenica and Azerbaijanis in Khojaly.
The relationship between Azerbaijan and Armenia were never warm in the history. Following the signing of the treaties of Gulistan and Turkmenchay in 1813 and 1828, there occurred massive resettlements of Armenians in Azerbaijanis lands. Though the Armenian new settlers constituted a minority in the region, they soon started implementing a strategy of imperialism. The Armenian incomers aimed at political expansion and to achieve that, they devised aggressive plans. Azerbaijan and Armenia, both proclaimed independence on May 28, 1918. After the independence, the two countries fought the war with each other from 1918 to 1921 over territorial disputes particularly in the mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The conflicts between two countries ended when both were annexed by the Soviet Union and became part of USSR in 1922. Although the region of Nagorno-Karabakh was retained within Azerbaijan it was given the status of a self-autonomous region. The division of Azerbaijani land of Nagorno-Karabakh was done in such a way that the Armenian population remained in majority.
In 1988, when the Soviet Union was within the verge of dissolution into 15 new states, Armenia systematically and methodically started to coerce the civilian population of Azerbaijan. By breaching all the international norms and still effective Soviet Union laws, Armenia took hostile actions against Azerbaijan to enact its long-established plan of annexing the administrative region of Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia. Exploiting the political instability in the region as a result of the breakup of the Soviet Union as well as internal disputes in Azerbaijan, Armenia started warfare operations in the Nagorny Karabakh territory of Azerbaijan.
On the night of 25 to 26 February 1992 following the massive artillery bombardments, Armenian armed forces and the paramilitary units carried out an operation and moved in to the town of Khojaly to capture it. Khojaly is a small town of mostly Azerbaijanis ethnic population in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan however strategically an important area. It has the total area of 0.94 sq. km and a population of 23,757 before the genocide. After the attack launched, about 2005 remaining inhabitants of town tried to flee with a hope to safe nearby areas under Azerbaijan’s control. The Armenian forces had spread rumors that allegedly a humanitarian corridor was left open to the peaceful population to leave the town. However, it turned out that claimed corridor was nothing but an ominous trap. As a result of the large-scale massacre committed by the Armenian forces, 613 persons were killed, counting 106 women, 63 children, and 70 elderly people. The town of Khojaly was completely destroyed. The actions of Armenian forces against the civilian population of Khojaly violated norms of International Law. There was a flagrant violation of Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their further protocols as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In the past few years, the international community has taken remarkable steps towards recognition of Khojaly Genocide and peaceful settlement of Nagorny Karabakh conflict. Till date, Parliaments or the Legislative bodies of several countries in the world have adopted parliamentary resolutions to recognize Khojaly Genocide. These countries include Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Czech Republic, Djibouti, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Slovenia, Sudan, and the Scottish Parliament of the United Kingdom. More than 10 states of the United States of America have also recognized Khojaly genocides. Similarly, Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in its Twelfth Session of the Islamic Summit Conference in Cairo, Egypt demanded justice for Khojaly and adopted a resolution at the 44th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire to show solidarity with government of Azerbaijan. The Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs of Pakistan passed the resolution on 2nd February 2017 in National Assembly which condemned the occupation of Azerbaijan territories by Armenia and the genocide committed by Azerbaijani forces in the town of Khojaly.
The region of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding territories seized by Armenia are internationally recognized as Azerbaijani territories. They have been held by Armenian forces since the ceasefire of 1994. Till date, Armenia continues to occupy 20% of the internationally recognized territories of Azerbaijan. The sorrow over Armenian outrage in Khojaly in still not diminished in Azerbaijan even more than 2 decades after the Khojaly genocides. However, the country had wisely chosen the path of development. Despite the constant conflict with Armenia, Azerbaijan has undertaken a phase of rapid socio-economic growth in the recent years. Today, Azerbaijan is seen as one of the most important countries of region and Muslim world. It hosted 4th Islamic Solidarity Games in its capital, Baku in 2017. It also hosted several other important meetings of regional and world leaders like the Heart of Asia conference and the Baku Forums. In addition, Azerbaijan has also initiated major regional and cross-regional projects which have not only contributed to the economy of the country but also of the region.
