Azerbaijanis, Turks Protest Khojaly Killings

Azerbaijani and Turkish protesters gathered outside the Armenian mission on February 27.

UNITED NATIONS -- Two dozen Azerbaijani and Turkish protesters gathered outside the Armenian Mission near the United Nations on February 27 to mark the 20th anniversary of Azerbaijan's war with Armenia over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Minevvar Vahabova, a leader of the Azerbaijani Society of New York, told RFE/RL that the protesters demonstrate every year to demand an apology for what Baku says was "genocide" in February 1992 in the Karabakh village of Khojaly.

Human Rights Watch has called the attack "a massacre."

Azerbaijan says ethnic Armenian forces killed more than 600 unarmed civilians and soldiers there.

Yerevan has strongly rejected that characterization and insists some of the retreating Azeri forces were armed.