The night from 25 to 26 February 1992 went down in the history of the Azerbaijani people as the Khojali tragedy. Contrary to all norms of international law, the Armenian armed forces aided by the 366th infantry regiment of the former Soviet army stationed in Khankandi attacked the sleeping city and committed an act of genocide against the Azerbaijanis.

In the course of that military aggression, Khojali was destroyed by a massive fire of heavy military equipment. A merciless massacre was committed against its civilian population. In a matter of a few hours 613 of our compatriots, including 106 women, 63 children and 70 elderly, were brutally killed. As a result of this carnage, eight families were completely destroyed, 25 children lost both parents and 130 lost one, 487 civilians were seriously injured and 1,275 taken hostage. The whereabouts of 150 hostages are still unknown.

Having perpetrated the bloody Khojali massacre, Armenia went beyond Nagorno-Karabakh and unleashed a large-scale aggression against Azerbaijan. The Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh has claimed the lives of 20,000 of our citizens, more than 50,000 people have been injured and disabled, while 20 per cent of our country has been occupied. Our people found themselves face to face with an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.

Despite the resolutions and decisions of the United Nations Security Council, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and several international organizations on the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh and a search for an objective solution to the problem within the framework of the territorial integrity of our country, the talks held within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group have not yielded any result.

The truth about the Khojali genocide, which is part of the policy of ethnic cleansing being consistently implemented by Armenian chauvinist circles against the Azerbaijanis in the 19-20th centuries, must be communicated to the world and foreign parliaments. This heinous war crime against the Azerbaijani people and humanity in general must receive a political and legal assessment on an international scale.

On the eve of the 20th anniversary of the tragedy, filled with deep sorrow in revering the memories of our compatriots killed in the Khojali genocide and governed by Clause 32 of Article 109 of the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan, I hereby resolve as follows:

1. To task the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Azerbaijan with preparing an action plan to mark the 20th anniversary of the Khojali genocide and ensuring its implementation.

Ilham Aliyev
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Baku city, 17 January 2012