February 22, 2013 | 15:20

YEREVAN. – Azerbaijan is responsible for the events that occurred in Khojaly on February 25–26, 1992, Armenia’s first Human Rights Defender, “Against Legal Arbitrariness” Foundation Executive Director Larisa Alaverdyan stated during a press conference on Friday.

“Azerbaijan has no ethical and political right to raise matters that are based on lies and distorted facts. Is it not true that, reflecting at the time on the events of Khojaly, first President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ayaz Mutalibov, had stressed that the pogrom [in Khojaly] was orchestrated and carried out by the opposition members of the Azerbaijani Popular Front [Party], whose objective was to overthrow the functioning government?” Alaverdyan stressed.

At the same time, she pointed to the mistakes the Armenian side had committed. As per Alaverdyan, the 1995-1996 initiative that was related to Karabakh appeared in Azerbaijani hands, and before that, however, Armenia was performing successfully with a variety of initiatives to settle the key issue.