Foreign

Home page

Foreign

Speeches about Khojaly genocide in Turkish parliament

25 February 2009 14:39 (UTC +04:00)

Head of Turkey-Azerbaijan interparliamentary friendship group, member of Justice and Development Party (AKP) Mustafa Kabakci said Armenians committed genocide against Azerbaijanis in Khojaly with support of the 366th Motorized Rifle Regiment of the Soviet army on February 26, 1992. He said 613 Azerbaijanis were killed, 418 wounded, 1274 captured and 150 went missing.
â€œSome martyrs were beheaded during this tragedy, people were burned to death, women, children were killed atrociously. Our people will never forget it. Armenians, who had been our lieges for a millennium, though lived independently in our lands, committed similar murders in Erzurum, Erdahan after the World War I. This shows hatred towards Turkic people. We will continue our efforts for ceasing the occupation of Azerbaijani territories and returning of IDPs to their native lands and keep this issue on the agenda,â€ he said.

Shenol Bal from Nationalist Movement Part (MHP) made speech after Kabakci. Bal called Khojaly tragedy a black spot in the history of mankind. She said according to informal reports, 1300 civilians were killed in Khojaly. She added that despite serious evidences nothing is done for recognition of the genocide and bringing the perpetrators to trial.
â€œThere were people in Khojaly, whose eyes were gouged out, heads were skinned, some parts of their bodies were cut, abdomens of pregnant women were cut. I pray for these Azeri Turks and bow before their soul,â€ she said.
Ms. Bal said genocide against Azerbaijani Turks lasted for 200 years. Hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis were killed and displaced in 1915, 1918, 1920 and afterwards. The parliamentarian from opposition said over 250,000 Azerbaijanis were deported from Armenia in 1988, the occupation of Nagorno Karabakh and 7 adjacent regions and unification of Armenia ended in 1993.

Bal condemned the false intellectuals in Turkey, who are apologizing to Armenians, and reminded about the mass protest in the country against the Israelâ€™s oppression in Gaza. â€œOur nation is always supporting the oppressed people. Prime Minister won the appreciation of even his critics with his behavior in Davos. We expected from the Prime Minister to show the same resolution in the Azerbaijan and Kirkuk issues too. However Turkey is taking now the position aggrieved our Azeri brothers. They intended to force us to forget what had happened and to open borders with Armeniaâ€. Bal said relations and borders between Turkey and Armenia could be established only under the following conditions:

1. Armenians must leave their claims of â€œgenocideâ€, which has no historic background;
2. Armenia must recognize Turkeyâ€™s territorial integrity and to announce it at the international arena;
3. Armenia must unconditionally withdraw its forces from the occupied Azerbaijani lands in accordance with the UN resolutions and return refugees to their homeland.

Then member of the parliament from MHP, former state minister for the relations with Turkic countries Reshat Dogru took the floor. He said last year they prepared draft law on declaring February 26 a â€œDay of Genocideâ€ in Turkey and demanded to discuss and to adopt the draft law.
Ferit Movlut Aslanoglu, Republican Peopleâ€™s Party (CHP), paid tribute to the Azerbaijanis killed in Khojaly and said CHP MP Canan Aritman would deliver speech at the parliament on this issue.