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Public march took place in Baku, February 26, to mark the 25^th anniversary of the Khojaly genocide, which entered the human history as Khojaly genocide in the 20^th century.

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and First Vice-president Mehriban Aliyeva participated in the march.

The purpose of the public march, which started from Azadlyg Square and moved towards the monument erected in Khatai district to the Khojaly victims, in which participated over 40 thousand people, was to revere the memories of the Khojaly genocide victims, and convey a message about this barbaric crime committed by Armenian fascists against the humanity to the world society.

With President Ilham Aliyev and First Vice-president Mehriban Aliyeva being among them, the participants of the march started to move towards the monument erected in Khatai district in memory of the Khojaly genocide victims.

Participants of the public march were holding posters and banners in Azerbaijani, Russian, English and French languages, with portraits of the innocent victims of this bloody killing – children, women and elders who had been killed with special cruelty, as well as photos reflecting the horrible scenes of the events committed 25 years ago, calling on to hold the culprits of the tragedy responsible, punish them and give political and legal assessment of the genocide at an international level, giving full names of the victims of the genocide. On monitors installed along the road, on the facades of buildings, calls and slogans such as “The world should recognize the Khojaly genocide!”, “Justice for Khojaly!”, “Do not forget Khojaly!”, “Down with Armenian fascism!”, “Khojaly – A genocide of the 20^th Century”, “Criminals will not escape punishment!”, “Khojaly genocide-25 years” etc. were demonstrated.

 On the night from the 25^th to the 26^th of February, armed Armenian forces, supported by the heavy military equipment and staff of the 366^th infantry deployed in Khankendi, attacked ancient Azerbaijani city Khojaly, and mercilessly killed its civilians.

The Khojaly tragedy has such a bloody statistics: out of 3 thousand town residents, 613, including 106 women, 63 children, 70 elders, were killed with special cruelty, 487 civilians been heavily wounded, 1275 taken hostage and subjected to inhumane tortures, and destiny of 197 people are still unknown. Eight families have been totally annihilated. These people were brutally killed, subjected to tortures and made invalid due to only their ethnicity – Azerbaijanis.

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Guard of honour was lined up and fresh flowers put around the monument to the victims of the Khojaly genocide.

President Ilham Aliyev put a wreath before the monument to the Khojaly genocide victims, and revered the memory of the tragedy victims.

First Vice-president Mehriban Aliyeva, Prime Minister Arthur Rasizadeh, Chairperson of the National Assembly Ogtay Asadov, head of the President Administration Ramiz Mehdiyev , Vice-president of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Leyla Aliyeva , Arzu Aliyeva and Heydar Aliyev put fresh flowers before the monument.

State and government officials, MPs, ministers, heads of committee and companies, representatives of the diplomatic corps, heads of religious entities, as well as residents of Khojaly who managed to escape the massacre put flowers before the monument.