Turkey's Foreign Ministry on Monday remembered the "Khojaly massacre," which took place in February 1992 when Armenian troops massacred hundreds of Azerbaijani civilians including women and children in Azerbaijan's now-occupied region of Karabakh during the war with Armenia.
In a written statement, the ministry said more than a thousand others were taken hostage during the massacre.
"The fate of the missing people is still unknown today. This inhuman aggression against civilians was engraved in the memories of the international community and deeply wounded the common conscience," it said.
"Turkey commiserates deeply with her Azerbaijani brothers and sisters over this brutal attack and massacre which they suffered 26 years ago and shares their pain. We strongly condemn this massacre and the continuous occupation of the Azerbaijani territories by Armenia," the ministry added.
"We wish God's mercy upon those who lost their lives in this massacre and wish once again our most sincere condolences to our Azerbaijani brothers and sisters."
Presidential Spokesman İbrahim Kalın yesterday remembered the victims, while Parliament also issued a remembrance message.
On his Twitter account, Kalın wrote: "I commemorate our martyrs on the anniversary of the Khojaly Massacre, in which 613 of our innocent Azerbaijani brothers were slaughtered by the Armenian forces in Upper Karabakh in the evening of Feb. 25-26, 1992." In his tweet, Kalın added that Turkey would always stand by Azerbaijan. The Foreign Affairs Committee of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey also condemned the Khojaly Massacre in a statement released on the 26th anniversary of the incident.
"Turkey commiserates deeply with the Azeri brothers and sisters over this violent attack and massacre, which they suffered exactly 26 years ago today in Khojaly and shares their pain wholeheartedly," the statement said. "We vehemently condemn these massacres carried out by the troops of the Republic of Armenia as well as the continued occupation of the Azerbaijani territories for years," it added. Calling on the international community to assign the necessary importance this massacre, the foreign affairs committee added: "We hereby reiterate our call for the perpetrators of this act to be brought to justice per international law and for Armenia to withdraw as soon as possible from the Azerbaijani territories it has occupied." The committee also conveyed condolences to all the people of Azerbaijan.
The massacre of Feb. 25-26, 1992, is regarded as one of the bloodiest and most controversial incidents of the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan for control of the now-occupied Upper Karabakh region. On the heels of the Soviet Union's dissolution, Armenian forces took over the town of Khojaly in Karabakh on Feb. 26, 1992, after battering it with heavy artillery and tanks, assisted by an infantry regiment. When the massacre happened, the population of the town was more than 11,000. The two-hour offensive killed 613 Azeri citizens, including 116 women and 63 children, and also critically injured 487 others, according to Azerbaijani figures; 150 of the 1,275 Azerbaijanis that the Armenians captured during the massacre remain missing to this day.
Every year, commemoration events are being held across Turkey to mark the massacre. Turkey and Azerbaijan are very close allies and share a common Turkic heritage.