Azerbaijan honors 9 journalists killed during Armenian occupation of Karabakh

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday commemorated nine journalists killed over the course of Armenia's occupation of Karabakh, a region in the southern Caucasus over which the two countries fought a war in 2020.

"We remember and demand justice for 9 Azerbaijani journalists who were killed merely for doing their work in the course of military aggression by Armenia against Azerbaijan," the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said on Twitter, marking the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists.

The Twitter post included the names and photos of the journalists, recounting how and when they were killed.

Relations between the two former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.

In fall 2020, in 44 days of clashes, Baku liberated several cities, villages, and settlements from Armenian occupation, ending in a Moscow-brokered truce. The peace agreement is celebrated as a triumph in Azerbaijan.

The UN General Assembly proclaimed Nov. 2 as the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists in 2013. The date was selected in commemoration of the assassination of two French journalists in Mali in 2013.