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Mr.BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, for years a number of distinguished Members of this House have come to the Floor of this Chamber every April to commemorate the so-called Armenian Genocide--the exact details of which are still very much under debate today almost 90 years after the events. Ironically and tragically, none of these Members has ever once mentioned the ethnic cleansing carried out by the Armenians during the Armenia-Azerbaijan war which ended a mere decade ago.

 Khojaly was a little known small town in Azerbaijan until February 1992. Today it no longer exists, and for people of Azerbaijan and the region, the word ``Khojaly'' has become synonymous with pain, sorrow, and cruelty. On February 26, 1992, the world ended for the people of Khojaly when Armenian troops supported by a Russian infantry regiment did not just attack the town but they razed it to the ground. In the process the Armenians brutally murdered 613 people, annihilated whole families, captured 1275 people, left 1,000 civilians maimed or crippled, and another 150 people unaccounted for in their wake. Memorial, a Russian human rights group, reported that ``scores of the corpses bore traces of profanation. Doctors on a hospital train in Agdam noted no less than four corpses that had been scalped and one that had been beheaded....... and one case of live scalping:'' Various other witnesses reported horrifying details of the massacre. The late Azerbaijani journalist Chingiz Mustafayev, who was the first to film the aftermath of the massacre, wrote an account of what he saw. He said, ``some children were found with severed ears; the skin had been cut from the left side of an elderly woman's face; and men had been scalped.''

 Human Rights Watch called the tragedy at the time ``the largest massacre to date in the conflict.'' The New York Times wrote about ``truckloads of bodies'' and described acts of ``scalping.'' This savage cruelty against innocent women, children and the elderly is unfathomable in and of itself but the senseless brutality did not stop with Khojaly. Khojaly was simply the first. In fact, the level of brutality and the unprecedented atrocities committed at Khojaly set a pattern of destruction and ethnic cleansing that Armenian troop would adhere to for the remainder of the war. On November 29, 1993, Newsweek quoted a senior US Government official as saying ``What we see now is a systematic destruction of every village in their (the Armenians) way. It's vandalism.'' This year, as they have every year since the massacre, the leaders of Azerbaijan's Christian, Jewish, and Muslim communities issue appeals on the eve of commemoration of the massacre of Khojaly urging the international community to condemn the February 26, 1992 bloodshed, facilitate liberation of the occupied territories and repatriation of the displaced communities. And every year, those residents of Khojaly, who survived the massacre--many still scattered among one million refugees and displaced persons in camps around Azerbaijan--appeal with pain and hope to the international community to hold Armenia responsible for this crime.

I am pleased to say that on January 25, 2005 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe overwhelmingly adopted a resolution highlighting that ``considerable parts of Azerbaijan's territory are still occupied by the Armenian forces and separatist forces are still in control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region.'' It also expressed concern that the military action between 1988 and 1994 and the widespread ethnic hostilities which preceded it, ``led to large-scale ethnic expulsion and the creation of mono-ethnic areas which resemble the terrible concept of ethnic cleansing.'' Mr. Speaker, this is not the ringing condemnation that the survivors of Khojaly deserve but it is an important first step by an international community that has too long been silent on this issue. Congress should take the next step and I hope my colleagues will join me in standing with Azerbaijanis as they commemorate the tragedy of Khojaly. The world should know and remember.

REMEMBERING THE TRAGEDY OF KHOJALY -- (Extensions of Remarks - February 18, 2005)   http://thomas.loc.gov

Crual L Eveneman magazine (Paris), March 25, 1992; The Armenians attacked Khojali district. The whole world became the witness of the disfigured dead bodies. Azeris speak about thousand killed people.Sunday Times newspaper (London), March 1, 1992: Armenian soldiers annihilated the hundred families .Financial times newspaper (London), March 9, 1992: Armenians shot down the column of refugees, fled to Aghdam. The Azerbaijani side counted up about 1200 dead bodies. The cameraman from Lebanon confirmed that the rich dashnak community of his country send the weapon and people to Karabakh .Times newspaper (London), March4, 1992: Many people were mutilated, and it was remained only the head of one little girlIzvestiya newspaper (Moscow), March 4, 1992: Camcorder showed the kids with the cut off ears. One old woman was cut off the half of her face. The men were scalped.Financial Times , March 14, 1992: General Polyakov said 103 Armenian servicemen from regiment # 366 stayed in Karabakh . Le Mond newspaper (Paris), March 14, 1992: The foreign journalists in Aghdam saw the women and three scalped children with the pulled off nails among the killed people. This is not Azerbaijani propaganda , but reality . Izvestiya newspaper, March 13, 1992: Major Leonid Kravets: I saw about hundred dead bodies on the hill. One little boy was without head. The dead bodies of women, children, elders killed with the particular brutality everywhere were . Valer Actuel magazine (Paris), March 14,1992: in this autonomous region Armenian armed forces together with the people who are natives of Near East have the most modern military equipment, including the helicopters. ASALA has military has military bases and ammunition depots in Syria and Lebanon. Armenians annihilated Azerbaijanis of Karabakh, implemented bloody massacre in more than 100 Moslem villages . Journalist of British TV company Funt man news R. Patrick who visited the place of tragedy: Crime in Khojali can not be justified in public opinion .