ROMA (ITALPRESS) – There were 613 victims – including women, children, elderly – killed in one night, between 25 and 26 February 1992 in the city of Khojaly, Azerbaijan: to remember the massacre, today, was the meeting “Khojaly 34 years later: memory and justice on the way to reconciliation”, hosted in the Sala di Santa Maria in Aquiro at the Senate of the Republic in Rome. To open the work the intervention of the president of the Group of friendship Italian-Azerbaigian Parliamentary Union, Senator Marco Scurria. “You can’t forget what happened, it would be easy to continue crying on you or transmit hatred to the new generations, but it is important to have the courage to move forward and think about horizons of peace and brotherhood. Once you restore the rules, the challenge is to build a better world,” Scurria emphasises. For the Vice-President of the Italian Institute for Asia, Sergio Divina, “the western world should recognize the great sense of responsibility of Azerbaijan which, despite having the possibilities and military capabilities, did not want to make a total war, but persevered in a diplomatic way, appealing to the United Nations that have always recognized the sovereignty of those territories. This turned out to be the winning choice” which then brought “to sanction peace with Armenia”.
The ambassador to Italy of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Rashad Aslanov, recalled “the tragedy experienced by my people that cannot be forgotten. The genocide in Khojaly will always remain in the history of my country: that day we lost 613 civilians, 1,275 were taken hostage and 150 people are still dispersed. Today Khojaly is the territory of Azerbaijan, I am grateful for the help offered by Italy for reconstruction, thanks to which “many people are returning to their homes”. It is important to “do justice for the victims, we do not seek revenge”, he stressed. “Today we live in an environment of peace, we want to bring prosperity and development to the region but we cannot forget” what happened. “To build a lasting and sustainable peace, it is necessary for those who committed these crimes to justice,” he concluded.
– photo xi2/Italpress –
(ITALPRESS).
