We, the miraculously surviving eyewitnesses of the monstrous Khojaly genocide committed by Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan on 26 February 1992, once again and with a great hope, appeal to the United Nations, Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the whole progressive humanity, to restate the necessity for the civilized international community to give a legal and political assessment to the Khojaly tragedy.
Supported by their foreign patrons, Armenians, who, in 1978 in Nagorno-Karabakh, erected a monument on the 150th anniversary of their immigration from Iran to Azerbaijan, have pursued consistent annexationist policy against Azerbaijan over the last two centuries, to realize their fantasies of "Great Armenia", at the cost of the historical lands of Azerbaijan. In order to achieve this treacherous goal, they resorted to such inhumane actions as terror, massive massacre, deportation and genocide.
Numerous historical documents clearly prove that in the years 1905-1907, 1918-1920 and 1948-1953, millions of Azerbaijanis were subjected to the ethnic cleansing, genocide and massive annihilation in their historical and ethnic territories in the Caucasus, and were deported from their native lands.
The unsubstantiated territorial claims against Azerbaijan and the Armenian separatism emerged again in 1988 launching the Nagorno-Karabakh provocation having neither historical nor political nor ethnic grounds.
All 250,000 Azerbaijanis living in their historical and ethnic lands in Armenia were deported in 1988-1989, with hundreds of peaceful civilians being brutally killed. As a result, Armenia turned into a mono-ethnic republic that Armenians dreamed of for many years.
Unfortunately, the groundless Nagorno-Karabakh conflict begun in 1988, the Armenian reaction raging in the territories of Azerbaijan, and severe sufferings of the innocent Azerbaijani population, who fell victim to this reaction, were perceived by the leadership of the former USSR and the civilized world with an indifferent silence.
Inspired by the situation and taking advantage of that, Armenians started to commit bloody crimes one after another.
Twenty percent of the territory of Azerbaijan, including seven districts beyond the administrative territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, was occupied by Armenian armed forces, with over a million of Azerbaijanis forcedly ousted form their homes, and tens of thousands killed, injured and taken hostage.
Hundreds of populated areas, thousands of social and cultural buildings, houses, educational and healthcare centers, historical and cultural monuments, museums, mosques, sacred places of worship and cemeteries were razed to the ground or subjected to unprecedented Armenian vandalism.
The massive massacres committed by Armenian gunmen in the early 1990s of the 20th century in the Azerbaijani villages in Karabakh such as Kerkijahan, Meshali, Gushchular, Garadaghly, Agdaban, the terrorist acts carried out in Baku and other cities of the country, and, finally, the Khojaly genocide are the historical crimes, which will remain as a black spot on the conscience of the "oppressed and long-suffering" Armenians forever.
With a sense of bitter regret, we inform you that the list of catastrophes happened in human history such as Khatyn, Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Songmi, which are regarded as the most monstrous tragedies of the 20th century, was supplemented by the Khojaly genocide committed on 26 February 1992.
On the night of February 25-26 1992, Armenian armed groups with the direct involvement of the regiment No 366 of the former Soviet army deployed at that time in the city of Khankendi (Stepanakert) of Nagorno-Karabakh, from 5 directions invaded of the city of Khojaly populated by almost 7 thousand Azerbaijanis (by the time of the attack, there were about 3 thousand people there).
Until that day, the city had been encircled by the Armenian armed groups for over four months, with its population facing serious difficulties in food supply and medical service. There was a large number of wounded and sick people, the old, women and children.
On that night, the rabid Armenian gunmen armed with heavy military weapon belonging to the regiment No 336, wiped the city of Khojaly off the face of the earth. They subjected the unarmed peaceful civilians to massive carnage, brutally killing children, women, and old and sick people.
The Khojaly genocide that Armenians committed in the end of the 20th century became one more historical crime against the civilized humanity. The goal of this monstrous action was to annihilate the whole population of the city.
It was purely by chance that some of Khojaly residents survived to bear witness before the court of history.
As a result of the Khojaly genocide, 613 peaceful civilians were killed and 1275 taken hostage. Fate of 15 of them remains unknown.
Over thousand people, including 76 underage children, became disabled because of various bullet wounds.
Six families were completely annihilated, 25 children lost both parents, and 130 lost one of them.
Fifty-six people were killed with unprecedented brutality: they were burned alive, scalped, beheaded, parts of their bodies were cut off, their eyes were put out, and pregnant women were killed with a bayonet plunged into their stomach.
It is hard to even imagine that the brutality and violence having no analogues in history were committed by human beings in the end of the 20th century before the eyes of the whole world! But the world must know that the authors of this historical crime, which is against not only Azerbaijanis but also the whole civilized humanity, are the "oppressed and long-suffering" Armenians".
We, the residents of Khojaly who have been refugees over 19 years, with pain but also great hope in our hearts, appeal to all peace-loving nations of the world and international organizations.
We do not believe that such influential international organizations as UN, COE and OSCE, as well as the powerful peace-loving nations, are not capable to urge Armenia, the aggressive country, which ignores the international law and the values common to all mankind, to face up to the truth and justice, and oblige it to establish civilized relations with neighboring states.
Non-fulfillment of the 4 resolutions of the UN Security Council on unconditional withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from the occupied lands of Azerbaijan, first and foremost, causes a serious damage to the reputation of this organization.
We support fair position of Azerbaijan state in settlement of the conflict, as well as peacemaking efforts of the leading countries and international organizations. We consider aggressive political course of Armenia as serious threat to peace and security not only in the region, but in the globe. The international community must not be indifferent to this inevitable reality.
We express our confidence that the global community will condemn the military aggression of the Armenia against Azerbaijan, and contribute to restoration of territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, return of more than one million refugees to their homes, and fair and peaceful resolution of the Armenia-Azerbaijan (Nagorno-Karabakh) conflict. 3{nl}

The Appeal was adopted at the general meeting
of Khojaly refugees held on February 3, 2011, Ashagy Aghja settlement, Goranboy

The Republic of Azerbaijan
3 February, 2011