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Northern Ireland's attorney general has ordered inquests to be reopened into the death of ten people killed by the British army in West Belfast in August 1971.
Eleven people were gunned down by the British army over four days in Ballymurphy during the introduction of interment 40 years ago.
The families of those killed have carried out a long-running campaign for an independent inquiry into the deaths.
The same regiment that carried out the killings murdered a further 14 people in Derry six months later during what became known as Bloody Sunday.
Ten people were shot dead during the shootings and another man died from a heart attack after a soldier forced a gun into his mouth.
The victims' families said the decision by attorney general John Larkin was an important step in their ongoing campaign for justice.
John Teggart, whose father Daniel was one of those murdered, said the original inquests were flawed.
"The evidence of these soldiers was in crafted statements handed to the judge," he said.
"You had witnesses who came to the inquest who weren't called, they weren't cross-examined.
"That's what you had then, but things have changed and we hope to get proper inquests into the deaths of these 10 victims."
SDLP West Belfast MLA, Alex Attwood, said Mr. Larkin's decision underlined the need for a full international inquiry into the atrocity.
"The decision by the attorney general on the Ballymurphy massacre is a step in the right direction," he said.
"This decision vindicates the campaign of the families for truth and justice. This development, however, serves to confirm that it is a public, international inquiry that is needed to give the families the means to truth that their campaign demands."
In a statement, the Ballymurphy Massacre families welcome the decision to reopen 10 inquests.
"We commend the Attorney-General for showing leadership and credibility in announcing that the inquests will be re-opened.
"We feel that when he considered the facts surrounding the sham inquests which took place 40 years ago, his decision was the correct one. We regard the original sham inquests as a serious neglect of duty by everyone involved and leave a lot of questions to be answered," the statement said.
The Ballymurphy killings have long been compared both in Northern Ireland and internationally to the 1960 Sharpeville shotting in apartheid-era South Africa.
