Khojaly is a district located in the mountainous Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. Khojaly has a total area of 940 square kilometres and a population before the conflict of 7,000. Khojaly is situated 10 kilometres to the northeast of Khankendi, on the crossroads of the Aghdam-Shusha and Askeran-Khankendi main roads. Having the only civil airport in the area, Khojaly was an important centre of communications and had become a refuge for Meskheti / Ahiska Turks fleeing bloody inter-ethnic clashes in Central Asia, as well as for Azerbaijani refugees driven out of Armenia.