The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has adopted a written declaration No 469 dealing with the Anniversary of the Khojaly Massacre prepared by member of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE Ganira Pashayeva and signed by 25 European MPs.
The declaration in particular says: "The Khojaly genocide is one of the most terrible and tragic pages in the history of Azerbaijan. This merciless and cruel genocide was one of the most dreadful mass terror acts in the history of humankind.
On 26 February 2011 it will be exactly 19 years since Armenian armed forces supported by regular Soviet troops of the 366th Infrantry Regiment captured the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly and ruthlessly massacred its peaceful Azerbaijani residents because of their ethnicity. During the Khojaly genocide, 613 persons including 106 women, 63 children and 70 elderly were slaughtered, nearly 1000 civilians of different age became invalid, 8 families were completely annihilated, 130 children lost one parent, 25 children lost both of them. 1275 civilians were taken hostage; the fate of 150 of them is still unknown. Consequently the town of Khojaly was razed to the ground.
Taking the above-mentioned into account, it would be appropriate to undertake a proper legal and political assessment of this crime against humanity."
The Azerbaijani delegation once more raised Khojaly genocide issue at the PACE winter session, informed European MPs on the tragedy and presented book with photographs prepared by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation.

AzerTAc