Azerbaijan Ombudswoman Urges International Recognition of Khojaly Killings as Genocide

On March 2, President Ilham Aliyev inspected a new fleet of municipal garbage trucks assembled at the Ganja Automobile Plant in the courtyard of the Baku Expo Center. Seventy vehicles, each with a capacity of 22 cubic meters and built on chassis supplied by the Minsk Automobile Plant (MAZ), will be distributed to 58 cities and districts across the country.

Many have seen the documentary film "The Endless Corridor" — a journalistic investigation into the Khojaly tragedy. According to the official version, the authors of the film are Lithuanians led by producer Andrius Brokas. However, this is not the case at all. The script for this film was written by Azerbaijanis, and most of the directing, producing and part of the filming was also done by them.

February 21 marks International Native Language Day. Proclaimed by UNESCO in November 1999 and observed since 2000, the day promotes linguistic and cultural diversity as well as the protection of mother tongues. The date commemorates the events of 1952 in Pakistan (now Bangladesh), when four students were killed by police while protesting the ban on the Bengali language and demanding its recognition as an official language.

The Azerbaijani opposition based in Europe has launched a coordinated campaign against the family of President Ilham Aliyev, further intensifying the country’s already polarised political environment and turning it into a venue for personal confrontation.