At night from February 25 to 26 the Armenian armed forces occupied the town of Khojaly. The occupation was carried out with active support of several units of the Russian Army's 366th regiment.
Occupation of Khojaly was followed with unprecedented brutalities against the civilian population. In a few hours the aggressors killed 613 innocent and unarmed people. Among them were 106 women, 83 children. 56 people were killed with special brutality. 8 families were totally exterminated. 25 children were totally, and 130 children were partly orphaned. 476 people became disabled persons (of them 76 were minors). 1275 people were taken into hostage and even though afterwards most of the hostages were released from captivity, the fates of 150 of them are still unknown.

The Azerbaijanis are Turkic people living mainly in northwestern Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan, as well as in the neighbourhood states, Georgia, Russia (Dagestan) and formerly Armenia. Commonly referred to as Azeris (آذری - Azərilər) or Azerbaijani Turks (Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan türkləri), they also live in a wider area from the Caucasus to the Iranian plateau. The Azerbaijanis are predominantly Muslim and have a various other heritages inluding Turkic in addition of indigenous Caucasians.