ISTANBUL

Türkiye on Thursday commemorated the victims of the Khojaly Massacre, the mass killing of Azerbaijani civilians by Armenian forces in 1992 in the town of Khojaly in the Karabakh region.

"We strongly condemn the massacre perpetrated against innocent civilians on 26 February 1992 in the town of Khojaly, located in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan," said the country's Foreign Ministry in a statement.

“The atrocities committed in Khojaly remain a shameful stain on the conscience of humanity. The pain of our 613 brothers and sisters who were brutally killed, as well as those who were wounded, taken captive, and went missing, still weighs heavy on our hearts.”

It added: “We wish Allah’s mercy upon our brothers and sisters who lost their lives during the Khojaly Massacre, and extend our condolences to the people of Azerbaijan.”

What happened in Khojaly

Soon after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Armenian forces took over the town of Khojaly in Karabakh on Feb. 26, 1992, after battering it with heavy artillery and tanks.

The town was the site of a two-hour Armenian offensive that killed 613 Azerbaijani civilians – including 106 women, 63 children, and 70 elderly people – and seriously injured 487 others, according to Azerbaijani figures.

Some 150 of the 1,275 Azerbaijanis that the Armenians captured during the massacre remain missing to this day, with eight families also completely wiped out.

The Karabakh region was the site of mass killings and burials since the First Karabakh War in the early 1990s, during which the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh – a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan – and seven adjacent regions, including Khojaly.

In the fall of 2020, in 44 days of fighting, Azerbaijan liberated several cities, villages, and settlements in Karabakh from some 30 years of Armenian occupation.

Azerbaijan established full sovereignty in Karabakh in September 2023 following an "anti-terrorist operation" after which separatist forces in the region surrendered.

Türkiye was among the first countries to recognize the Khojaly incident as a massacre and has called for justice for its victims.