The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan has released a statement on the occasion of the 28th anniversary of the Balligaya massacre.

The statement reads: “Today marks 28 years since the massacre committed by the armed forces of the Republic of Armenia against peaceful Azerbaijanis in the village of Balligaya, Goranboy region of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

As a result of the massacre in Balligaya on August 28, 1992, 24 Azerbaijani civilians including 6 minors, as well as a 6-month-old baby and a 93-year-old woman were brutally killed. The bodies of some of the victims, most of them being children, women, and the elderly were burned. As a result of the massacre, 3 minors lost both parents.

The Balligaya massacre is one of the series of massacres committed by the Armenian armed forces in Garadaghli village of Khojavend region, Khojaly city, and Aghdaban village of Kalbajar region in order to destroy the Azerbaijani population of Karabakh.

The acts of war, as well as crimes against humanity and genocide acts committed by Armenia against the backdrop of the ongoing aggression against the Republic of Azerbaijan, are a gross violation of human rights and international humanitarian law, in particular, the Geneva Conventions of 1949, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

We remind that in addition to the responsibilities of the Republic of Armenia for its activities contrary to the international law, certain acts committed in the context of armed conflict are considered international criminal acts in accordance with the customs and treaty norms of international criminal law, and therefore the persons involved in commissioning of these acts, and those who associated with them and assisted them, are also individually responsible.

We strongly condemn Armenia's purposeful and ongoing policy based on genocide, a crime against humanity, racial discrimination and ethnic cleansing against the Azerbaijani people, and declare that, in order to achieve peace and reconciliation in the context of resolving the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, it is extremely important to put an end to impunity for all war crimes and crimes against humanity, including acts of ethnic cleansing and genocide perpetrated during the Armenian military aggression against the Republic of Azerbaijan, and to restore justice to the victims of those crimes.

The Republic of Azerbaijan will continue to take the necessary steps, using all opportunities and national mechanisms established by national legislation and international law, to provide an adequate legal assessment of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against its civilian population, and bring the perpetrators to justice.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs honors the memory of the victims of the crime against humanity committed in the village of Balligaya.”