Foreign ministry of Czech Republic beside the draft resolution on Khodjalu

YEREVAN, February 21. /ARKA/. Foreign ministry of Czech Republic has no connection with the draft resolution passed by the Czech parliament commission for external relations, defense and security on Khodjalu events on February 7.

Azerbaijani mass media reported referring to Azeri foreign ministry spokesman Elman Abdulaev that in its draft resolution the commission condemned “ethnic cleansing” in Khodjalu and called it genocide. At the same time, the document recognized the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, including Nagorno-Karabakh.

“Official stance of the Czech Republic on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict remains unchanged. Czechia backs the efforts of the international community, 

OSCE Minsk Group in particular, to find a peaceful solution to the conflict and follows the policy of developing friendly and mutually advantageous relations with Armenia and Azerbaijan”, said the statement of Czech foreign ministry.

Czech foreign ministry stressed it was unhappily surprised to see information about the resolution posted on the official website of Azeri foreign ministry long before the content was published by the commission itself.

On February 25-26, 1992, Karabakh self-defense military units initiated a military operation to unblock the only airport in the republic near Khojalu village and to neutralize the enemy’s weapon emplacements in the village itself. The assaulting units of Nagorno-Karabakh self-defense force left a security corridor for civilians to leave and the Azeri side was notified of it in advance. But Azerbaijani authorities did not take any actions to withdraw civilians from the combat zone. Moreover, the column of civilians was shot on the territory under Azeri control. Experts believe “Khojalu” was organized by Azerbaijani nationalists for political purposes.

On April 10, 1992, the regular army units of Azerbaijan attacked on the village and ruined it. According to various sources, from 53 to 100 civilians were brutally murdered, 20 of them old women. Their corpses were maimed, beheaded and burned. Some 53 people were taken hostages, including 9 children, 30 of them were murdered. Two weeks later the village was attacked for the second time: the civilians were deported, houses were ransacked and burned.  -0-