Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Yousef bin Ahmad Al-Othaimeen has paid his sincere tribute to all who lost their lives in Khojaly atrocity, Eurasia Diary reports citing Trend.

Yousef bin Ahmad Al-Othaimeen has paid his tribute on the occasion of the 28th anniversary of the mass atrocities that took place in Khojaly town of Azerbaijan.

The OIC considers that the Khojaly atrocity was a result of the illegal occupation by Armenia of Azerbaijani territory, the OIC report said.

“The Secretary General referred to the Cairo Final Communiqué adopted by the 12th Session of the Islamic Summit held in Cairo in 2013 and the resolutions adopted by previous sessions of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM), including the 46th Session of the CFM held in Abu Dhabi in 2019, which considered the actions perpetrated against civilian Azerbaijani population in the occupied Azerbaijani territories as war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide,” the OIC said.

The report said that the Secretary General reaffirmed the CFM resolutions calling for the earliest political settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict on the basis of sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of the internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan, in accordance with the generally accepted norms and principals of international law and the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

During the Karabakh war, on Feb. 25-26, 1992, the Armenian armed forces, together with the 366th infantry regiment of Soviet troops, stationed in Khankendi, committed an act of genocide against the population of the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly. As many as 613 people, including 63 children, 106 women and 70 old people were killed in the massacre. Eight families were totally exterminated, 130 children lost one parent and 25 children lost both. Some 1,275 innocent residents were taken hostage, while the fate of 150 people still remains unknown.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.