Day of Khojaly Genocide and National Grief

Drawing of a child who survived the Khojaly tragedyOn the night of February 25 to the 26th 1992, Armenian armed formations with the support of heavy equipment and personnel of the 366th Motorized Rifle Regiment of the former USSR, stationed in the city of Khankendi, captured the city of Khojaly.

The assault on the city was preceded by massive shelling from artillery pieces and heavy military equipment, which began in the evening of February 25. As a result, a fire broke out in the city and by five o’clock in the morning on February 26, the city was almost completely engulfed in flames. The population remaining in the city, about 2,500 people, were forced to leave their homes with the only hope of making their way to the city of Agdam, the district center, which is the nearest settlement populated mainly by Azerbaijanis.

But these plans were not destined to come true. Armenian armed formations, with the assistance of the military force of the motorized rifle regiment, defeated the city of Khojaly with special cruelty committed massacre of the civilian population. As a result, 613 people were killed: of them children - 63; women - 106; elderly - 70 people.

8 families were completely destroyed.

25 children have lost both parents.

130 children have lost one parent.

487 people were injured, including 76 children.

The hostages were 1,275 people.

150 people are missing.

Caused colossal damage to the state and personal property of citizens estimated at 5 billion rubles (in prices for 01.04.92 years).

These figures indicate the bloodiest tragedy of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which began in February 1988 with the illegal demands of ethnic Armenians of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region of the Azerbaijan SSR to join the Armenian SSR, which was provoked by the open support of the ruling circles of the Armenian SSR and the tacit consent and inaction of the central authorities of the Soviet Union.