The friendship groups of the Azerbaijani and Pakistani parliaments held a joint remote meeting marking the 29^th anniversary of the Khojali Genocide on 24 February.

At the start of the meeting, Leader of the Azerbaijan-Pakistan Interparliamentary Contacts Working Group Ganira Pashayeva welcomed all the participants including the members of the friendship groups on Azerbaijan of the Pakistani Senate and National Assembly.

‘The memory of the genocide in Khojali always aches in our hearts because the Armenian armed forces were destroying and torturing our compatriots mercilessly not sparing even children, women and old people. The town of Khojali was wiped off the face of the Earth. Their demise was simply in their Azerbaijaniness. The former president of Armenia Serge Sarkisyan confirms in the book written by the British journalist Thomas de Waal that those people were massacred specifically because they were Azerbaijani,’ Mrs Pashayeva said.

‘It is our chief goal to bring those who laid that carnage to account for it. It was a crime committed against the Azerbaijanis, but it is also a crime against humanity. We are in need the help of the brotherly and friendly powers so we can bring the world to recognise this genocide and learn the truth about it. Therefore, we are thankful to Pakistan - the fraternal country has always stood by Azerbaijan. We trust that this moral and political support will be with us from now on as well.’

Then, Mrs Pashayeva invited the Pakistani MPs to visit Azerbaijan so they would be able to eyewitness the grim aftermath of the Armenian vandalism in our lands recovered in the 44 days of combat waged under the command of President and Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev.

The members of the Pakistan-Azerbaijan Friendship Group Shazia Khawaja and Farrouh Khan spoke to recall the statements made by their country in connection with the genocide of the Azerbaijani people that Armenia had wreaked in the town of Khojali. The National Assembly members wished the Azerbaijanis killed there would rest in peace and witnessed their confidence that the well-deserved retribution will catch up with the executioners sooner or later. Besides, they thanked Azerbaijan for the support to Pakistan in the international organisations.

The MPs of the Milli Majlis Jeyhun Mammadov, Javanshir Pashazade, Mahir Abbaszade, Sadig Gurbanov and Ulviya Hamzayeva described their country as a model of tolerance whereas mosques and historical monuments had been demolished in the lands formerly occupied by Armenia, they added. The Azerbaijani MPs emphasised that the Khojali Genocide would never be forgotten but was destined to live in the popular memory forever.

According to Leader of the Pakistani Senate’s Friendship Group on Azerbaijan Talha Mahmood and the Senators Shahzad Waseem, Ayesha Raza Farooq and Nuzhat Sadiq, the Khojali Genocide is a dark stain in history. The murder of the completely innocent civilians by the armed forces of Armenia was and remains a crime against humanity and nothing else but an act of genocide, which is how it has been put down by a number of countries including Pakistan. The Senators remarked then that Pakistan had always been and would be by the side of Azerbaijan.

The representatives of Majils-e-Shura Pakistan wished Azerbaijan peace, security and progress.

Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Pakistan Ali Alizade concluded the meeting by thanking both sides’ parliamentarians for their participation and care.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis