26 February 1995

My fellow Azerbaijanis! Dear Muslim compatriots!

We are here in the Taza Pir Mosque to commemorate the third anniversary of the Khojaly genocide.

Throughout their centuries-long history, the people of Azerbaijan have made tremendous strides, conquered significant peaks, and contributed to universal culture. The Muslims have given the world the Holy Qur'an. The age-old history of Azerbaijan has witnessed many tragedies, including aggression from Armenia for the past six years, causing losses and hardships to civilians, and occupation of our territories. But Khojaly Massacre, which is our bleeding wound, is the most tragic result.

A lot of cases of vandalism and massacres have been perpetrated against humanity throughout the history, including the genocide in Khojaly, one of the most brutal ones, committed by Armenian aggressors. This war unleashed by Armenia six years ago did inflict the immense suffering on our people, resulting in the genocide in Khojaly.

It’s Armenia that has launched the war on Azerbaijani soil, and we ought to defend our Motherland. Of course, war means bloodshed, human suffering. Many of our most worthy sons and daughters have become martyrs. However, the massacre in Khojaly committed three years ago is the most terrible result of this war where innocent people, including women, children and elderly people had been savagely maimed or brutally murdered. It is the most painful and darkest page in our history.

The Khojaly tragedy once more demonstrated the real ambitions of Armenian aggressors: it wasn’t only the act of occupation of land, but that of genocide against the entire nation. It was evident during the events in Khojaly. That terrible night, hundreds of Azerbaijanis were tortured and martyred: so, there is much more to be done in healing the wounds of our people. As I noted, attacking, harassing and shooting innocent civilians, including, women, children, sick and elderly residents in their homes at night, killing them mercilessly once again demonstrate how cruel the enemy is.

The Khojaly Massacre, Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan, their vandalism against the peaceful citizens went down into history as one of the world's worst tragedies. All the people that became victims of that tragedy are worthy citizens of Azerbaijan; they fought for the freedom of our nation and became martyrs. Their tragic lives are the examples of heroism and bravery of the people of Azerbaijan.

Many, many Azerbaijanis have become martyrs for the Motherland. We are saddened but also proud over their martyrdom. The Khojaly martyrs also died for the independence and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. We are here to commemorate all of them. We bow down our heads before their memory. I express my condolences to all my compatriots and to the martyrs’ families, their relatives.  May them rest in peace! I wish patience to all Azerbaijanis. We need patience to struggle for Azerbaijan’s independence and territorial integrity forever.

The Khojaly tragedy is our sorrow. Along with it, it is an honourable path of struggle that we have kept to for centuries, taking us to independence. We faced and still face difficulties on our path.  However, nothing can break the will of my people. We should overcome all the difficulties and be more courageous through uniting our strength. We have to understand one reality: as we are masters of our own destiny, then we have to defend our independence to take ahead the path that the God defined for us.

Therefore, today we have to pray for the martyrs, as well as to look straight ahead and stand on our feet proudly. Despite the depth of our grief, we have to look forward to the future. I am sure that the Azerbaijani people will overcome the challenges. The challenges are connected not only with the accusation of our territories and our refugees’ hard living conditions. It is a transitional period for us. Azerbaijan continues to suffer from social and economic crisis. Our citizens face many problems. However, our people have been putting up with such kind of hardships over centuries; we are strong and we can stand against such difficulties in future as well.

We should not lose our confidence. The course we pursue serves the independence and national freedom of Azerbaijan. Our way is our loyalty to our moral values, traditions, religion, language and history. If our loyalty is too high, we will better perceive the reasons of our nowadays’ hard condition; we’ll help each other and, naturally, we’ll be able to stop the enemy. We will liberate our lands and lead the country out of the crisis.

Once again, I wish that the martyrs of Khojaly rest in peace! Let me assure you that the government of Azerbaijan will do everything in its power to protect the people’s rights, our lands and emerge from the current impasse.