Senior Turkish deputy condemns 1992 Khojaly massacre

By Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA (AA) - The Turkish lawmaker chairing the Turkey-Azerbaijan parliamentary friendship group condemned Wednesday the Khojaly massacre against the Azerbaijani civilians on its 28th anniversary and the occupation of the Azerbaijani territories by Armenia.

"The international community should give the necessary importance and reaction to this massacre within the related decisions of UN Security Council, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and Organization of Islamic Cooperation, so that such kind of aggressive actions, which is a bloody mark on behalf of humanity, will not be repeated," Samil Ayrim told the reporters in the Turkish parliament.

Ayrim said that the those responsible for the massacre should stand trial in line with the international law.

"We are repeating our call again that Armenia should immediately retreat from occupied Azerbaijani territories."

The 1992 Khojaly Massacre is seen as one of the bloodiest incidents committed by Armenian forces against Azerbaijani civilians for control of the now-occupied Upper Karabakh region.

The two-hour Armenian offensive killed 613 Azerbaijani citizens -- including 106 women, 63 children and 70 elderly -- and critically injured 487 others, according to Azerbaijani figures.

Also, 150 of the 1,275 Azerbaijanis that the Armenians captured during the massacre remain missing. In the massacre, eight families were completely wiped out, while 130 children lost one parent, and 25 children lost both of them.