President Aliyev visits Khojaly memorial in Baku

President Ilham Aliyev, First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva, Prime Minister Artur Rasizada and other members of the cabinet and parliament today visited the Baku memorial to victims of the 1992 massacre of civilians in the town of Khojaly.

Aliyev placed a wreath at the memorial.

Armenian forces captured Khojaly on the night of February 25-26, killing 613 people, mostly women, children and elderly.

More than a thousand residents were taken hostage.

The massacre, documented by Human Rights Watch, Memorial and other foreign rights groups, is seen as the single deadliest massacre committed during the war on Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenians captured nearly 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally-recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts during the war, killing 20,000 people and driving out a million. 

Major hostilities ended with a ceasefire in 1994 but the sides have yet to sign a peace agreement.