European Azerbaijan Society creates a petition on the official website of UK Prime Minister

In February 1992, a total of 613 inhabitants in the town of Khojaly – men, women and children – were massacred by invading Armenian military forces. Altogether, more than 30,000 people died in the invasion of Nagorno-Karabakh and its seven surrounding regions, 25,000 of whom were Azerbaijani, but the events in Khojaly were uniquely horrific.

The anniversary of those tragic events was marked in 2009, and again this week, with the tabling of an Early Day Motion (EDM). This is a mechanism whereby MPs can signify the importance of an issue by appending their names to a motion – which is then printed in the Order Paper. The 2009 EDM read as follows:

That this House calls on the Government to recognise:

• the 17th anniversary of the Khojaly massacre and uses it as an opportunity to launch a new international peace effort to resolve the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

• notes that the non-resolution of the conflict is a threat to the whole Caucasus region, in addition to UK investment in Azerbaijan

• believes that the failure in reaching a peaceful resolution is largely due to the nonimplementation by Armenia of UN Security Council Resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 which call for the withdrawal of Armenian troops from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and for the return of the one million Azerbaijani refugees to their homes

• supports the resolution of the conflict while assuring the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, with high autonomy for the people of Nagorno-Karabakh

• highlights the fact that the UK is the largest foreign investor in Azerbaijan, with 5,000 expatriates and a 20 per cent share in Azerbaijani oil.


A 2010 EDM was tabled on 23 February 2010 by Mike Hancock MP.  An EDM to recognise the Khojaly atrocity has achieved cross-party support in Westminster
In addition to the EDM, The European Azerbaijan Society (TEAS) has created a petition on the official website of UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, urging UK citizens to become signatories.

This petition urges the Prime Minister to condemn the Khojaly massacre, and to tell the Armenian government to obey the four UN Security Council Resolutions ordering them to withdraw from the sovereign Azerbaijani territory. Although the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia is often described as a ‘frozen conflict’, regular clashes still occur along the ‘line of contact’. Indeed, last week three Azerbaijani soldiers were killed in skirmishes on the front line.

Through such petitions and parliamentary papers as the Khojaly EDM, we will ensure that this frozen conflict and forgotten massacre are brought to the attention of the world.

The 2009 EDM was signed by the following MPs:

Roger Williams
Frank Dobson
Mark Williams
Brian Jenkins
Claire Curtis-Thomas
Alasdair McDonnell
Norman Lamb
Stephen Dorrell
Alan Simpson
Chris McCafferty
Bill Etherington
Jeffrey Donaldson
Martin Caton
Gwyn Prosser
Jeremy Corbyn
Dr Rudi Vis
John Leech
Roger Godiff
Jim Devine
Ian Gibson
John McDonnell
Mark Durkan
Peter Bottomley
Ann Cryer
David Drew
John Hemming
Angus MacNeil
Mike Hancock
Paul Flynn
Dari Taylor
Bob Russell
Robert Wareing



The European Azerbaijan Society (TEAS)