Sabina Aliyeva, the Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman) of Azerbaijan, issued a message ahead of the anniversary of the Khojaly genocide and urged for justice for victims.

On Feb. 26, 1992, with the Soviet Union newly dissolved, Armenian forces took over the town of Khojaly in the occupied region of Nagorno-Karabakh after battering it using heavy artillery and tanks, assisted by infantry. A total of 613 civilians were killed by Armenian soldiers in Khojaly, a strategically important settlement originally inhabited by 7,000 people. The attack killed 106 women, 63 children and 70 elderly people. The massacre is seen as one of the bloodiest atrocities by Armenian forces against Azerbaijani civilians in the region.

Aliyeva said that the genocide proved "Armenia’s policy of ethnic hatred and genocide against Azerbaijanis."

"The mass killing in Khojaly constituted severe violations of international conventions such as the Geneva Conventions on the Protection of War Victims, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and grossly infringed upon the fundamental right to life," she said.

"Despite numerous appeals from our side, Armenia has not made any efforts to determine the fate of nearly 4,000 missing persons, and nor has it provided information about the mass graves where our compatriots, who were subjected to torture and killed, are buried. International organizations and the global community must undertake a legal assessment of the Khojaly genocide, widely acknowledged as one of the most significant massacres of the 20th century. It is crucial that those accountable for this grave crime against humanity are brought to the court of justice for prosecution," Aliyeva said in a statement on Thursday.