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On February 24, a video conference dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Khojaly genocide and an online presentation of Sakina Turabgizi's book "Khojaly pain: (historical essays)" were held at the National Library with the participation of libraries under the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The director of the National Library, professor Karim Tahirov, opened the online video conference with an introductory speech and greeted the conference participants. Later, the memory of the martyrs of the Khojaly tragedy was commemorated with a minute of silence. During his speech, he said that the Khojaly genocide is the greatest tragedy of the 20th century, a massacre committed against humanity. Such massacres have been committed against the people of Azerbaijan from time to time. At the end of the 20th century, it was unthinkable that such a spitting massacre, such a genocide that froze the human body, would happen in a civilized world.

It is very difficult to talk about this tragedy today. He noted that during the Khojaly genocide, 613 people, including 106 women, 63 children, and 70 elderly people, were killed with unimaginable brutality just because they were Azerbaijanis, 487 civilians were seriously injured, and 1,275 people were taken hostage. During his speech, the director emphasized that as a result of the 44-day war by the victorious Azerbaijani army under the leadership of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Commander-in-Chief Mr. Ilham Aliyev, 9 villages of the Khojaly region - Garabulag, Moshkhmaat, Demirchilar, Chanagchi, Madatkend, Sighnag, Shushakend, Mukhtar, Dashalti - were freed from occupation. We believe that in the near future Khojaly will be fully liberated, and construction work will be done there.

K. Tahirov later said that many books have been published about the Khojaly tragedy. Sakina Turabgizi's book "Khojaly pain: (historical essays)", which we are presenting online today, is one of such significant publications. The director who gave information about the book noted that despite the fact that there are many publications about the Khojaly tragedy, this book is different.

Thus, in the introductory part of the book, information is given about Khojaly and its history, at the same time, the author states her thoughts about the Khojaly genocide in separate essays in the book. The author's historical essays and journalistic thoughts about the great tragedy of our nation - the Khojaly Genocide, based on historical facts, are presented in the mirror of artistic words. Finally, Professor Karim Tahirov said that the majority of such publications play an important role in conveying the truths of Azerbaijan to the readers and the entire public and noted the importance of translating such publications into foreign languages.

In the continuation of the online conference, Adiba Ismayilova, the deputy director of the National Library, said that the tragedy of Khojaly is the most disastrous, the most terrible, the most pathetic page of our 20th century history. The people of Azerbaijan and their state have never and will never forget the tragedy of Khojaly. On the eve of every anniversary, the National Library holds visual events, extensive book exhibitions, and book presentations. This year, as the National Library, a number of events were carried out in accordance with the Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Action Plan of the Ministry of Culture on the thirtieth anniversary of the Khojaly genocide.

He presented the conference participants a virtual exhibition called "Khojali Genocide - 30" (http://anl.az/el/vsb/Xocali_soyqirimi_30/index.htm),

Electronic virtual exhibition in English called "Khojaly genocide" (http://anl.az/el/vsb/Khojaly_genocide_30/index.htm), Electronic digest called "Khojaly Genocide - 30" (http://anl.az/down/Xocali_daycest_2022.pdf),  the electronic database "Tragedy of the 20th century - Khojaly genocide" (http://anl.az/el/emb/Xocali-soygirimi/index.html) prepared by the staff of the National Library.

Also, talking about the electronic database, he said that the database consists of sections such as "Official documents"; "Khojaly Region", "National Heroes of Khojaly", "About the Genocide", "Khojaly Martyrs", "What Witnesses Say", "Confessions from Armenians", "Monuments Destroyed by Armenians", "Justice Campaign for Khojaly", "Recognition of Khojaly Genocide", "Khojali genocide in culture", "Photo gallery" and "Video gallery".

In the continuation of the event, Mehabbat Aliyeva, director of Aghjabedi CLS, Shahla Gambarova, director of the Republican Children's Library named after F. Kocherli, as well as Yegana Ahmadova, director of Sumgayit CLS, spoke about the work done on the Khojaly genocide, as well as during the pandemic the electronic databases prepared by the National Library in this direction. They talked about the importance of the service provided to readers and regional libraries.

At the end of the event, the author of the book "Khojaly pain: (historical essays)" Sakina Turabgizi, member of the Azerbaijan Writers' Union and Journalists' Union, laureate of the "Golden Pen" media award, spoke and expressed her gratitude to the National Library and director Karim Tahirova for organizing such an event in the first place. She emphasized that she was based on historical facts while writing her book "Khojaly pain". She noted that while writing the book "Khojaly Pain" she met with many Khojaly witnesses. During these meetings, she noted how they were constantly subjected to Armenian vandalism, and how brutally Armenians committed genocide against them.