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Baku Mayor's Office has annulled the letter of Public Chamber of Azerbaijan to hold processions in connection with the anniversary of the Aghdam events taken place in 1992, which the Azerbaijani side calls “Khojalu”. As the Azerbaijani news agency Turan notes, Baku Mayor's Office said in the response that on February 26 public events are planned to be held in the mentioned place.
Therefore, it is not possible to conduct rallies in the area on February 26.

The report notes that the Public Chamber of Azerbaijan had addressed to the Mayor’s Office for holding a rally from 12:00 to 14:00. 10 000 people were planned to participate in the action.

Azerbaijani website “Haqqin.az”, in connection with the decision of the Mayor’s office of Baku on not allowing the rally over Aghdam events taken place in 1992, writes: “How can we blame the decision of the Moscow mayor’s office and express our surprise concerning the refusal of Russian authorities in authorizing the peaceful rally of Azerbaijanis in Moscow.”

The article notes that, thus, the mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, takes an example form the executive power of Baku.

Yesterday the Moscow mayor’s office has annulled its permission on holding protest in Moscow on 21st anniversary of the events taken place in Aghdam in 1992. As one of the organizers of the rally and co-founder of Azerbaijani-Jewish friendship society Pasha Alev told the Azerbaijani news agency APA, the reason of annulling the rally permission was the interference in internal affair of another country.

On February 26, 1992, during the war in Karabakh, around 200 to 300 people (according to Human Right Watch, and 600 according to the version propagated by Azerbaijan) were killed in unknown circumstances near the city of Aghdam. They have been deliberately withheld by the Azerbaijani authorities in the midst of the military actions. Population of the village of Khojalu, which was a firing point shooting at the blockaded Stepanakert (among five others) was kept in the village for months by force and was not evacuated by the authorities of Azerbaijan deliberately, in order to use them as human shields later.

Residents of Khojalu coming out through the humanitarian corridor, that the self-defense forces of NKR had left open, freely passed more than 10 km and reached the Aghdam city controlled by the Azerbaijani troops. Later, not far from the positions of Azerbaijani troops dead bodies of the villagers were found. The exact death toll remains unknown as the official Baku publishes data contradicting each other. Parliamentary Commission investigating the tragic death of the civilians at Aghdam city was dissolved by the order of Heydar Aliyev, the investigative materials are kept secret.