Sumgait Massacres

[MosJan]

showing respect to our fallen hero Gurgen Margaryan RIP!!

[MosJan]

Sumgait Protest!!!

[Yervant1]

18:16 28/02/2014 » SOCIETY

To 26th anniversary of Sumgait ‘‘And it was there where children saved their parents…’’

Panorama.am has already reported that in the frameworks of the project "Ordinary Genocide" the second volume of the collection of "Sumgait tragedy: Eyewitness Accounts” is planned to be published. According to the project manager Marina Grigoryan, publication of the second volume is the continuation of the work that was started immediately after the genocide in Sumgait. At that time, under the supervision of Samvel Shahmuradyan, the testimonies of those who had suffered directly, lost relatives and survived through the terrible tragedy were collected and published. The first volume of the collection was published back in 1989; it was translated into nine languages and was re-released last year.

According to Marina Grigoryan, evidences of more than 50 people, written both 25 years ago and recently have been depicted in the second volume. Besides, the collection includes several newspaper articles dedicated to "Sumgait" and published in the Soviet and world press in different years. The book will come out in Russian in late March.

Marina Grigoryan also noted that the third volume is to be prepared; it will include materials of criminal cases on Sumgait events, as well as the indictment of the USSR Prosecutor's Office of Azerbaijan on the case which was being investigated by the Supreme Court of the USSR in October-November 1988.

In connection with the 26th anniversary of the Armenian genocide in Sumgait Panorama.am continues publishing some of the most terrible and tragic episodes of Sumgait that have been included in the second volume-Brutal simultaneous murder of the brothers Albert and Valeriy Avanesyans.
Vladimir Baluyan evidence: Lived at Sumgait, Builders North Str.bld.13, apt.11
On February 26, protests started to take place in the town. Thousands of Azerbaijanis gathered at Lenin Street, in the square. Almost half of the town was there. They were openly speaking and shouting, “Down with Armenians”. That same night the attacks on Armenian departments began. I myself witnessed how they overturned a car with the driver inside and then burnt it together with the driver. The car was burning. Everyone saw that. The Police were standing and simply watching. The Police during those days didn’t intervene at all; they pretended that nothing was happening as if being afraid of thugs themselves. I was told that frequently the police told the bandits where Armenian houses were and sent them there.
The facts prove that everything was planned beforehand. The bandits stood at the streets, stopped the cars and if the driver was an Armenian they dragged him out of the car and started to beat, slaughter, kill but if the driver was an Azerbaijani they allowed him to go.
The Azerbaijanis, on the first day, were warned to turn off lights in the apartments, while on the second day ordered to keep lights switched on as the Armenians started to turn off their lights. In that way they learnt where Armenians were living and were Azerbaijanis.
I saw with my own eyes how they were walking with a list on their hands and one of them was reading: in such house and on such floor an Armenian was living. Then they started to go from entrance to entrance in different groups. For instance when they learnt that an Armenian was living on the second floor, 20-25 people were sent there.
There were 24 apartments in our house; in 7 of them Armenians were living. Our neighbors learnt and informed us that at night bandits would break into the house. One Armenian young man went to a military unit and made a deal to take all the Armenians of our house there. At night around three o’clock the bandits tried to attack the military unit but didn’t manage to do that. In the morning the commander called to the town committee of the party and told them that Armenian refugees are in their unit but they couldn’t t keep us in military unit. We were taken to the town committee by the guards. We spent there a day and then we were driven out. We were simply required to leave the place. They formed a corridor on the road, on both sides of which were tanks. By that road we, guarded by paratroopers, were transferred to the club on the opposite side of the road. There, we somehow settled on the floor.
On the following morning I learnt from my Azerbaijani friends that my wife’s brothers (Albert and Valeriy Avanesyan, 32 and 30 years old respectively) were lying dead in front of their house. I went there with my friend on his car. The corpses were not in the yard anymore, they had been taken to the morgue. Their father and mother, themselves beaten, were sitting in the yard and crying. I learnt about the circumstances of the murder from them. It was impossible to enter their apartment: there was already nothing there: everything was destroyed.
The parents told me that the bandits entered their apartment at night. Their sons were struggling, trying to keep the door closed but didn’t manage to do that as the amount of bandits were high: 50-60 people, armed with crowbars, stones, fittings.
And it was there where the children saved their parents. They sent them to the third floor, to the Russian neighbors while themselves went into the yard to distract the bandits. If they had gone to the neighbors as well, the bandits would have followed and killed all of them. One of the brothers ran in one direction and the other into another, while the bandits split into two groups (15-20 people) and followed them. The neighbors were sting on the third floor and looking how they slaughtered the boys.
The neighbors told that the bandits threw stones on the brothers then started to spurn their faces, their bodies. They hit Alik’s head by a crowbar then started to beat with a knife and then poured water on his face to see whether he was alive or not. When he regained consciousness, came to himself a little bit, they started to finish off with him: threw stones on him, spurned him….So, they killed him right on front of the house entrance.
The neighbors called police three times and they were told that police would be there soon. However, the police came only in four- five hours.
Then, I went to morgue and saw how the murdered laid stacked on each other. There were many naked people, many women with cropped hair, young girls completely shaved. It was clear that the bandits scoffed at them, cut their hair in the apartments and then took them out into the yard. I saw about 18 corpses in the morgue. The day following I went back to take the bodies of the boys but I was not allowed. I was told that the bodies had been taken to Baku.
All the bodies in the morgue were mutilated and desecrated; particularly the heads and faces were seriously damaged. The bandits beat especially that parts of the body so as the blood would pour over the face and it would become impossible to recognize the bodies. Judging by the wounds those people were beaten by stones, pipes, crowbars, iron cables.
In the club I heard that about 600 people were killed, while recently I learnt about 310. A countryman came to me from Sumgait and told me that in the town committee they saw the list with the names of 310 killed Armenians.
March 11, 1988.
Yerevan
Panorama.am doesn’t publish the photos of murdered Albert and Valeriy Avanesyans for ethical reasons. Additional materials and photos are available on the website karabakhrecords.info.

On 26-29 February 1988 in terms of actual complicity of local authorities and inaction of the USSR government mass pogroms of civilians were organized in Sumgait city of Azerbaijani SSR, accompanied with unprecedented brutal murders, violence and pillaging against the Armenian population of the city. Armenian pogroms in Sumgait were carefully organized. At the meetings, which began on February 26 in the central square, city leaders openly called for violence against the Armenians.

On February 27 protests which were attended by hundreds of rioters turned into violence. Armed with axes, knives, specially sharpened rebar, rocks and cans of gasoline and with the pre-compiled lists of apartments where Armenians lived the rioters broke into the houses, turning everything upside down there and killing the owners. In the same time, people were often taken out to the streets or to the courtyard for jeering at them publicly. After painful humiliations and torture the victims were doused with gasoline and burnt alive. On February 29 army troops entered Sumgait but without an order to intervene. Only in the evening, when the mad crowd began to attack the soldiers the military units took up decisive steps.

The exact number of victims of Sumgait pogroms is still unknown. According to official data, 27 Armenians were killed; however there is ample evidence that several hundred Armenians have been killed in the city in three days. There is also evidence that the riots were coordinated by the Azerbaijani KGB. Executioners of Sumgait were subsequently declared as national heroes of Azerbaijan.
Documentary “Ordinary Genocide: Sumgait 1988.”

Source: Panorama.am

[Yervant1]

SPEECH BY HON. FRANK PALLONE, JR. OF NEW JERSEY IN THE HOUSE OF REPS

US Official News
March 2, 2015 Monday

Washington: SPEECH OF HON. FRANK PALLONE, JR. OF NEW JERSEY IN THE
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2015

Washington

The Library of Congress, The Government of USA has issued the
following Speech:

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the Sumgait
pogroms--violent riots that resulted in the murder of hundreds of
Armenians. This was perhaps one of the most gruesome atrocities in
a series of hostile acts against the Armenian people.

In 1988, Armenians living in the town of Sumgait in Azerbaijan
were burned alive, thrown from windows and senselessly murdered by
Azerbaijanis. Hundreds of people were killed, raped, and maimed simply
because they were Armenians.

The police forces turned a blind eye towards the situation and allowed
the crimes to continue for three days without intervention. Since then,
Azerbaijan has sought to cover up these crimes and rewrite history.

As we prepare to observe 100 years since the Armenian Genocide,
these more recent acts of violence against Armenians remind us that
the work towards peace in the region continues.

Today, we recognize the anniversary of the Sumgait pogroms and to
call attention to the work we have ahead of us. We have a shared
responsibility to speak out when groups of people are targeted with
oppression and violence just because of their ethnicity.

Along with my colleagues on the Congressional Armenian Issues Caucus,
I continue my efforts to try and shed light on these events so that
those lives lost are not forgotten. We will continue to promote mutual
understanding and security through the Caucasus region.

It is my hope that we can all join together in condemning acts
of violence in the past, and renew our commitment to vigilance in
the future.

[Yervant1]

SPEECH BY HON. BRAD SHERMAN OF CALIFORNIA IN HOUSE OF REPS

US Official News
March 2, 2015 Monday

Washington: HON. BRAD SHERMAN OF CALIFORNIA IN THE HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES Friday, February 27, 2015

Washington

The Library of Congress, The Government of USA has issued the
following Speech:

Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, earlier this month I met with a constituent,
Marat Khoudabakhshiev, whose family barely survived pogroms perpetrated
27 years ago today against the Armenian residents of then-Soviet
Azerbaijan. He recounted how Azerbaijanis who had lived alongside
Armenians for generations suddenly turned violent against them,
causing Armenian families like his to flee their homes for safety.

Over three days, February 26th to 28th, 1988, a pogrom was perpetrated
against the Armenian residents of Sumgait in then-Soviet Azerbaijan.

Armenians were attacked and killed in their apartments and on the
streets. Although official figures reported 30 deaths, it is believed
that hundreds were murdered and injured as a result of the pogrom.

The violence against the Armenians in Sumgait was prompted by a vote,
which took place one week prior by the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh,
to unify the region with Armenia--the beginning of the Karabakh
movement. In the days immediately after this vote Azeri civilians
and local officials in the city of Sumgait held rallies calling for
"death to Armenians".

On the night of February 27, 1988, Armenian residents in Sumgait were
targeted and indiscriminately raped, mutilated and murdered. Calls for
help from Armenians were ignored by local police and city officials.

Journalists were shut out from the area. The violence raged on for
three days before Soviet troops were able to put an end to the pogrom.

Witnesses of the horrific massacres later testified that the attacks
were planned, as civilians had gathered weapons and the exits of the
cities were blocked in advance to prevent Armenians from escaping. The
homes of Armenians were marked so that the Azeri mobs could easily
target them.

Unfortunately, the perpetrators of the pogrom succeeded in their
ultimate goal--driving out Armenians. Fearing more violence, Armenian
families fled Sumgait. Later that year, another anti-Armenian pogrom
occurred in Kirovabad, Azerbaijan from November 21st to 27th, which
also forced hundreds of Armenians to flee the region. In January of
1990 violent mobs targeted the Armenian community of Azerbaijan's
capital, Baku.

This year also marks the 100th anniversary of the commemoration of
the first genocide of the 20th century, the Armenian Genocide. It is
imperative that we honor the memory of Armenians killed in the pogroms
of Sumgait, Kirovabad, and Baku, as well as the Armenian Genocide. If
we hope to stop future massacres, we must acknowledge these horrific
events and ensure they do not happen again.

Recognizing the ethnic-cleansing of the Armenians from Azerbaijan is
an important step. However, we need to do more--we need to demonstrate
to Azerbaijan that the United States is committed to peace and to
the protection of Artsakh from coercion.

As the current government of Azerbaijan grows even more hostile towards
Armenians, we must call for an end to all threats and acts of violence
by Azerbaijan's government against the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh.

Congress should strengthen Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act
by removing the President's ability to waive U.S. law prohibiting
aid to Azerbaijan because of its continuing blockade against
Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh. In 1992, Congress prohibited aid to
Azerbaijan because of its continuing blockade against Armenia and
Nagorno Karabakh. However, in 2001, Congress approved a waiver to
this provision, and administrations have used the waiver since then
to provide aid to Baku. Azerbaijan should not be provided aid from
the United States as long as they continue a policy of threats and
blockades against Artsakh.

I urge the Administration to remove all barriers to broad-based
U.S.-Nagorno Karabakh governmental and civil society communication,
travel and cooperation.

[Yervant1]

WASHINGTON: HON. KATHERINE M. CLARK OF MASSACHUSETTS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MONDAY, MARCH 2, 2015

US Official News
March 3, 2015 Tuesday

Washington

The Library of Congress, The Government of USA has issued the
following Speech:

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, February 27 marked the 27th
anniversary of harrowing violence against the Armenian community in
Sumgait, Azerbaijan.

I am proud to stand today with the Armenian-American community,
including many of my constituents in Massachusetts, in remembrance
and mourning of this unspeakable tragedy.

In February of 1988, anti-Armenian rallies through Azerbaijan gave way
to waves of ethnically-motivated violence, death and destruction. In
the aftermath of these terrible events, Azerbaijan's Armenian community
all but disappeared, with thousands displaced, culminating in a war
against the people of Nagorno Karabakh.

That war resulted in almost 30,000 dead on both sides. Hundreds of
thousands of refugees were forced to flee their homes. And to this
day, those who lost their lives or were displaced by this violence
still seek resolution and justice.

Many displaced Armenian families have sought refuge in America,
and are now making vital contributions in the Fifth District of
Massachusetts. Proudly, our diverse District is home to one of the
largest Armenian communities in the nation. Together, our community
is a thriving example of strength and perseverance in the face of
extreme adversity.

Like the persecution of too many others before it, the lessons of
the Sumgait Pogrom must not be forgotten.

We have a moral obligation to promote tolerance and justice, and we
have a duty to recognize the atrocities that have kept us from our
common goal.

[Yervant1]

Washington: SPEECH OF HON. KATHERINE M. CLARK OF MASSACHUSETTS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MONDAY, MARCH 7, 2016

US Official News
March 8, 2016 Tuesday

Washington: The Library of Congress, The Government of USA has issued
the following Speech:

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, February 27 marked the 28th
anniversary of harrowing violence against the Armenian community in
Sumgait, Azerbaijan.

I am proud to stand today with the Armenian-American community,
including many of my constituents in Massachusetts, in remembrance
and mourning of this unspeakable tragedy.

In February of 1988, anti-Armenian rallies through Azerbaijan gave way
to waves of ethnically-motivated violence, death and destruction. In
the aftermath of these terrible events, Azerbaijan's Armenian community
all but disappeared, with thousands displaced, culminating in a war
against the people of Nagorno Karabakh.

That war resulted in almost 30,000 dead on both sides. Hundreds of
thousands of refugees were forced to flee their homes. And to this
day, those who lost their lives or were displaced by this violence
still seek resolution and justice.

Many displaced Armenian families have sought refuge in America,
and are now making vital contributions in the Fifth District of
Massachusetts. Proudly, our diverse District is home to one of the
largest Armenian communities in the nation. Together, our community
is a thriving example of strength and perseverance in the face of
extreme adversity.

Like the persecution of too many others before it, the lessons of
the Sumgait Pogrom must not be forgotten.

We have a moral obligation to promote tolerance and justice, and we
have a duty to recognize the atrocities that have kept us from our
common goal.

[Yervant1]

29 years pass since Armenian pogroms in Sumgait

11:03, 27.02.2017

http://www.groong.com/news/attachments/msg595349/pngBXzYJfOBPD.png

In late February 1988, large-scale massacres because of ethnicity were committed in Sumgait, Azerbaijan.

On February 27 of that year, the situation went out of control in this town, which is just 25 kilometers from the Azerbaijani capital city of Baku.

Several thousand Azerbaijani nationalists started burning the homes of the local Armenian population and killing the homeowners.

According to official data alone, 32 Armenian residents of Sumgait were killed, and hundreds of others suffered severe injuries and became disabled.

The February 27-29, 1988 Sumgait pogroms, about which Azerbaijan is silent to this day, were the first harbingers of the Azerbaijani neo-fascism.

These massacres were followed by the Azerbaijanis’ pogroms of the Armenians in Kirovabad—today’s Ganja—and in Baku, deportation of the entire Armenian population in Shahumyan Region, and incitement to war; all in response to the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) people’s demand to exercise their right to self-determination.

https://news.am/eng/news/375661.html

[Yervant1]

http://panorama.am/news_images/580/1737293_3/f58b7fe47cd9b3_58b7fe47cd9f1.thumb.png

Politics 15:13 02/03/2017 Region

Armenians call on Netherlands to condemn Azerbaijan’s anti-Armenian policy

The Joint Armenian Organization held a big protest in front of the Azerbaijani embassy in The Hague in memory of the victims of the pogroms in Sumgait and other Azerbaijani cities in 1988, the Organization reports.

The Deputy Director of Europe Department of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Adriaan Palm, met the delegation of the Joint Armenian Organization in the Netherlands. Reportedly, the traditional demonstration took place despite the extremely adverse weather conditions. Many Armenians protested against Azerbaijan’s anti-Armenian policy.

According to the information, the delegation handed Palm a letter addressed to the Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders. During the meeting, the deputy director and the Armenian delegation discussed many important issues, including the last escalation of the Karabakh conflict.

In the letter, the Dutch government is asked to participate in the prevention of a large-scale war in the Karabakh conflict area and to make an effort in order to achieve the peaceful resolution of the conflict, whether on its own initiative, or at EU level. “First of all, this depends on the observance of the ceasefire, which is regularly violated by Azerbaijan and cannot be established without the presence of international observers,” the letter reads.

Besides, the authors of the letter also call on the Dutch government to condemn publicly the Azerbaijani aggression and the overt demonstration of racism towards the Armenians.

The delegation asked about the official Hague’s position on the Russian-Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin’s extradition from Minsk at the request of the Azerbaijani authorities because of his visit to Artsakh. The delegation also informed Palm about the recent Azerbaijani requests for three members of the European Parliament, who visited Artsakh as observers in the Constitutional referendum.

On 26-29 February 1988 in terms of actual complicity of local authorities and inaction of the USSR government mass pogroms of civilians were organized in Sumgait city of Azerbaijani SSR, accompanied with unprecedented brutal murders, violence and pillaging against the Armenian population of the city. Armenian pogroms in Sumgait were carefully organized. At the meetings, which began on February 26 in the central square, city leaders openly called for violence against the Armenians.

On February 27 protests which were attended by hundreds of rioters turned into violence. Armed with axes, knives, specially sharpened rebar, rocks and cans of gasoline and with the pre-compiled lists of apartments where Armenians lived the rioters broke into the houses, turning everything upside down there and killing the owners. In the same time, people were often taken out to the streets or to the courtyard for jeering at them publicly. After painful humiliations and torture the victims were doused with gasoline and burnt alive. On February 29 army troops entered Sumgait but without an order to intervene. Only in the evening, when the mad crowd began to attack the soldiers the military units took up decisive steps.

The exact number of victims of Sumgait pogroms is still unknown. According to official data, 27 Armenians were killed; however there is ample evidence that several hundred Armenians have been killed in the city in three days. There is also evidence that the riots were coordinated by the Azerbaijani KGB. Executioners of Sumgait were subsequently declared as national heroes of Azerbaijan.

http://www.panorama.am/en/news/2017/03/02/Netherlands-Azerbaijan/1737293

[Yervant1]

http://panorama.am/news_images/580/1738833_3/f58ba8d2b5efc2_58ba8d2b5f005.thumb.png

Politics 13:47 04/03/2017 Region

Romanian media reports: Pogroms of Armenians in Sumgait were embodiment of Azerbaijani leadership's policy of xenophobia and ethnic cleansing

It is endemic for the leadership of Azerbaijan to voice only their own interpretation of history in a way that easily resembles to the Goebbels-like ideology: “if you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it,” statement of the Embassy of Armenia in Romania reads.

Reportedly, since the waning years of the USSR, the people of the self-determined Nagorno-Karabakh have been fighting for the recognition of their status guaranteed by the international law. The lawful demands of the people of Artsakh to exercise their right to self-determination were met with anti-Armenian pogroms in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait — 26 km away from Baku. Those events, carried out under the motto “Death to Armenians”, were the embodiment of Azerbaijani leadership's policy of xenophobia, ethnic cleansing and deportation of Armenians.

Those atrocities were the very reason Andrei Sakharov, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, wrote “even if some doubted it before Sumgait, no one sees a moral opportunity to insist on territorial unity of NKAO and Azerbaijan after this tragedy happened.”

“If official Baku's response to the aspiration of people of Nagorno-Karabakh to exercise its right to self-determination were pogroms and ethnic-cleansing of the Armenian population, the reaction to the implementation of that right in 1991, based on then existing USSR legislation and norms of international law was the large-scale war against the newly-independent Artsakh, accompanied by gross violations of the international humanitarian law,” the authors emphasize.

According to the statement, exactly 25 years ago Azerbaijani Armed Forces commenced the months-long shelling of the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh — Stepanakert, which at that time had become a shelter for the refugees fleeing the pogroms in Sumgait, Baku and other cities in Azerbaijan. On February 13 of 1992, in violation of international conventions, Azerbaijan started using BM-21 “Grad” multi rocket launchers on the residential areas of Stepanakert. Khojaly was one of the seven firebases, used for the shelling of Stepanakert. Even back in Soviet time Khojaly had an important strategic importance, as it was situated on the crossroad connecting Stepanakert to other regions of Nagorno-Karabakh. Moreover, in 1970s the only airport of Nagorno-Karabakh was built next to Khojaly, which during the Artsakh's blockade was the single gate point to the outside world. Thus, by 1992 it became evident that the neutralization of Khojaly fire point was an imperative for the physical preservation of the population of both Stepanakert and Nagorno-Karabakh as a whole. The operation to neutralize the Khojaly fire point started on February 25, 1992.
For months, the Nagorno-Karabakh self-defense forces had been informing the Azerbaijani side through all the possible means about this operation, its objectives and the humanitarian corridor left for the evacuation from Khojaly.

“Azerbaijan continues to distort the facts surrounding the bloody events near the city of Aghdam, which they call the 'Khojaly tragedy'. The mere facts of those events raise many questions, and the Azerbaijani leaderships, even after 25 years, still prefers to keep the answers behind seven locks,” the statement reads.
Ramiz Fataliev, Chair of the Committee Investigating the Events of Khojaly: “Four days left until the events of Khojaly. On February 22, in the presence of the President, the Prime Minister, the Head of the KGB and others, a National Security Council session took place at which a decision was taken not to evacuate people from Khojaly.”

Here's an excerpt from the words of Azeri journalist Cingiz Mustafaev, a witness to the events: “On 29th [of February], when I was heading to Aghdam from another side, from the village of Umudlu, in a military helicopter, I saw that in 10 kilometers from Khojaly and approximately in 700 meters from our military post, dead bodies of our people were scattered on the ground. What horrified me the most was when I was filming these corpses, there were around 10 people from our side, strolling around easily in military uniforms. I was told that there were no corpses, it was impossible to get there, there were Armenians and there was shooting. But when we eventually landed there on our helicopters, three helicopters unexpectedly and immediately flew to Aghdam; those 10 people left, too. I still cannot understand why in 700 meters from our posts, where there were our soldiers roaming calmly, nobody was picking up these dead bodies?”
Mustafaev also speaks of the main crime committed during the Aghdam events — the mutilation of bodies, discovered couple of days after the events. “Who has done all this? I was filming here just yesterday, there was nothing like that there.”

It comes as no surprise that there is zero tolerance in Azerbaijan towards the doubt, suspicion or investigative journalism on the official version of those events. Those who dare to speak openly about these events, were either killed like Cingiz Mustafaev, or imprisoned like journalist Eynulla Fatullayev, or exiled like the first President of Azerbaijan Ayaz Mutallibov.

During the interview with Czech journalist Dana Mazalova published in April 1992 Mutallibov stated that the militia of the Azerbaijani National Front actively obstructed and actually prevented the evacuation of the local civilian population from the military operation zone through the mountain passages specifically left open by Karabakh Armenians. The hope and intention of the Azerbaijani opposition was to utilize civilian losses of such a magnitude to instigate a popular uprising against the Baku regime and seize the reins of power.
Besides, more than 700 residents of Khojaly did not leave the village and were taken to Stepanakert, where they were provided with food and medical aid. Two days later, they were transferred to the Azerbaijani side, without any preconditions

“The Azerbaijani leadership has not answered yet to those questions raised by Azerbaijanis themselves. Meanwhile it has almost mastered the art of distorting the abovementioned facts in order to blame others for their crimes and escape the responsibility, while attempting to create a fictional counterbalance to the massacres that it has perpetrated against Armenians in Sumgait, Baku, Kirovabad, Maragha,” the authors write.

The Sumgait events created a precedent of impunity and even of glorification for the killings of peaceful Armenian citizens, something we witnessed later on during Armenian massacres elsewhere in Azerbaijan. The leadership of Azerbaijan continues to inject hatred against Armenians. It encourages such crimes as the brutal murder of Gurgen Margaryan, who in 2004 was axed in his sleep by Ramil Safarov, when the two were enrolled in NATO training course in Budapest. The killer was later proclaimed a national hero of Azerbaijan.
Even recently, during the April 2016 aggression against Artsakh, the world witnessed the results of the state-run policy of Armenophobia in Azerbaijan. The ISIS-style beheading of Kyaram Sloyan and two other Nagorno-Karabakh serviceman, or the brutal murder and mutilation of elderly family in Talish village, as well as the decoration of the perpetrators of these war crimes by the President of Azerbaijan is abhorrent and should be condemned by the whole international community.

On 26-29 February 1988 in terms of actual complicity of local authorities and inaction of the USSR government mass pogroms of civilians were organized in Sumgait city of Azerbaijani SSR, accompanied with unprecedented brutal murders, violence and pillaging against the Armenian population of the city. Armenian pogroms in Sumgait were carefully organized. At the meetings, which began on February 26 in the central square, city leaders openly called for violence against the Armenians.

On February 27 protests which were attended by hundreds of rioters turned into violence. Armed with axes, knives, specially sharpened rebar, rocks and cans of gasoline and with the pre-compiled lists of apartments where Armenians lived the rioters broke into the houses, turning everything upside down there and killing the owners. In the same time, people were often taken out to the streets or to the courtyard for jeering at them publicly. After painful humiliations and torture the victims were doused with gasoline and burnt alive. On February 29 army troops entered Sumgait but without an order to intervene. Only in the evening, when the mad crowd began to attack the soldiers the military units took up decisive steps.

The exact number of victims of Sumgait pogroms is still unknown. According to official data, 27 Armenians were killed; however there is ample evidence that several hundred Armenians have been killed in the city in three days. There is also evidence that the riots were coordinated by the Azerbaijani KGB. Executioners of Sumgait were subsequently declared as national heroes of Azerbaijan.

On February 26, 1992, during the Karabakh war, around 200 to 300 people (according to Human Rights Watch, and 600 according to the version propagated by Azerbaijan) were killed in unknown circumstances near the city of Aghdam. They were deliberately withheld by the Azerbaijani authorities in the midst of the military actions. The authorities of Azerbaijan intentionally kept the population in the village for months by force and did not evacuate them in order to use them as human shields later as the village was one of the firing points for shooting at the blockaded Stepanakert (among five others).

The residents of Khojaly, coming out through the humanitarian corridor the self-defense forces of the NKR had left open, freely passed more than 10 km and reached the Aghdam city controlled by the Azerbaijani troops. Later, dead bodies of the villagers were foundnot far from the positions of Azerbaijani troops. The exact death toll remains unknown as the official Baku publishes data contradicting each other. Parliamentary Commission investigating the tragic death of the civilians at Aghdam city was dissolved by the order of Heydar Aliyev, the investigative materials are kept secret.

http://www.panorama.am/en/news/2017/03/04/Romanian-media-reports/1738833

[Yervant1]

Panorama, Armenia

Nov 18 2017

Politics 18:28 18/11/2017Armenia

The Sumgait pogrom still requires much study

“Azerbaijani’s impunity paves the way for continuation of the crimes,” Larisa Alaverdyan, the Head of "Against Illegal Arbitrariness" NGO told on Saturday at a discussion named “Sumgait 30. Unpunished crime again Humanity” held in Yerevan.

Alaverdyan, who served as the first human rights defender of Armenia, called on the IR experts, specialists of the international law and political scientists to make use of the collected materials and hold Azerbaijan responsible, thus exercising justice.

The manager of the project “An Ordinary Genocide” Marina Grigoryan, present at the discussion, reminded that the series of documentaries in the framework of the project has been published since November 2010 and Sumgait has been one of the main directions and topics of the project.

“Several books were published, a documentary was filmed, a website was launched and most importantly a vast archive of the Sumgait crime was created. We managed to preserve unique video recordings that were at the brink of elimination, revealed research materials and new photos - all of which come to prove an irrefutable fact that Sumgait was orchestrated by Azerbaijani authorities and special services and was a coordinated crime directed specifically toward the Armenians,” Grigoryan explained.

The expert next stressed that Sumgait is yet to be explored and studied as evidenced by the archive and trial materials.

“We plan to realize two projects ahead of the 30th anniversary of the Sumgait pogroms with the first being a collection of eyewitness accounts by Azerbaijanis. The project will feature eyewitnesses who speak about the brutalities as recorded by Azerbaijanis themselves. The second project is a film about Sumgait children who witnessed the sufferings of their relatives,” Grigoryan informed.

https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2017/11/18/The-Sumgait-pogrom-still-requires-much-study/1867301

[Yervant1]

Aravot, Armenia

jan 28 2018

‘Teenagers involved in Sumgait Armenian massacres’: Marina Grigoryan

http://www.aravot-en.am/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Sumgait_genocide.jpg

The next documentary on the massacres of Armenians in Sumgait on February 27-29, 1988, in the Azerbaijani SSR, which holds the provisional title “Sumgait children”, is being prepared within the framework of the “Ordinary Genocide” project.

During the discussion titled “Face of Nationalism and Xenophobia, 30 years ago and now” held at the Armenian Institute for International and Security Affairs, author of the “Ordinary Genocide” project Marina Grigoryan talked about it.

“Testimonies were heard during the trial that there were children and teenagers among the Azerbaijani murderers. The facts testify that the teenagers had the main role in those massacres. Perhaps the reason is that teenagers would avoid responsibility, but we think that in this way, they have “taught” Armenophobia to the younger generation”, Marina Grigoryan expressed conviction.

According to her, there is evidence that teenagers and children have participated in the killings of Armenians.

Marina Grigoryan also mentioned that there are factual data that the massacres of Armenians in Sumgait were organized at the state level.

Luiza SUKIASYAN

http://www.aravot-en.am/2018/01/28/206841/

[Yervant1]

Panorama, Armenia

Feb 22 2018

Politics 18:40 22/02/2018Armenia

Marina Girgoryan proposes to issue int'l arrest warrants against Azeri perpetrators of Armenian pogroms

Marina Girgoryan, the project coordinator of “Ordinary Genocide” series, called for the Azerbaijani perpetrators responsible for massacres of Armenians in Sumgait, Baku and Maragha to be brought to justice by issuing international arrest warrants against them.

She made the proposal at today’s parliamentary hearings titled “The Sumgait pogroms: Armenophobia as state policy of Azerbaijan” dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Sumgait pogroms.

“I wander why until now, when 30 years have passed, an international arrest warrant has not been issued through Interpol against any of those Azerbaijani perpetrators, whose named are known. One of them is Shahin Tagiyev, the commander of Gurtulush battalion, who has been declared the first hero of Azerbaijan for committing the Maragha massacres, is today enjoying life in Sweden,” she said.

“I have proposed to have an international arrest warrant issued against him, but unfortunately the proposal was implemented,” Girgoryan highlighted.

She also stressed the need to issue an international arrest warrant against another Azerbaijani perpetrator Ayaz Mutalibov, who was Azerbaijan’s prime minister during the Armenian massacres in Baku in January 1990.

Marina Girgoryan highlighted the Azerbaijani officer who beheaded Armenian serviceman Kyaram Sloyan during the 2016 April war must also be placed on Interpol wanted list.

“This is a crucial issue. Punishing those perpetrators will also help to prevent such crimes. These are just three names; I could have announced more names, and we obtain all the necessary evidence to prove the crimes of those people,” she said.

https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2018/02/22/Marina-Girgoryan-Armenian-pogroms/1909833

[Yervant1]

I guess with this logic, Armenians also carried the Genocide in 1915! Absurd!!!!!

EurasiaNet.org

Feb 22 2018

Azerbaijan Officially Embraces Conspiracy Theory Blaming Armenians for Own Pogrom

Armenia's president, meanwhile, backed another discredited claim that Azerbaijanis massacred their own civilians in a war crime 26 years ago.

Joshua Kucera Feb 22, 2018

This February marks the 30th anniversary of the events that launched the still-simmering war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and the milestone has been marked by politicized, conspiratorial distortions of history that illustrate how far the region is from an honest reckoning of what happened.

On February 22, Azerbaijan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Prosecutor General’s Office held a joint event marking the February 1988 pogroms in the city of Sumgayit, in which mobs rampaged for days, beating and killing Armenians. The violence came just days after Armenian representatives in the then-Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast voted (while their Azerbaijani colleagues boycotted) to ask to leave Soviet Azerbaijan and join Soviet Armenia.

The Sumgayit attacks were carried out by local Azerbaijanis, “due to a combination of what we now call 'fake news' about alleged Armenian atrocities against Azerbaijanis, enraged crowds, and a cowardly local leadership, and were made worse by a lack of decisiveness in the Kremlin,” wrote Thomas de Waal, a Caucasus scholar at Carnegie Europe, in a recent commentary marking the anniversary.

But the Azerbaijani official event told a different story, in which “Armenians living in Sumgayit tried to provocatively burn down their homes and property and blame Azerbaijanis,” according to a local media account of the event. An investigation by the prosecutors office claimed to find that a “diversion group” of 20-25 people who “weren’t residents of Sumgayit and were speaking in Armenian among themselves” instigated the attacks, said Nadir Mirzayev, a senior investigator.

The Armenians were in turn supported by the Soviet central authorities who, in this version of events, carried out other such nationalist provocations around the USSR. “The similar unrest and provocations were carried out by the KGB in Osh (Kyrgyzstan), Fergana (Uzbekistan), Tbilisi (Georgia), Vilnius (Lithuania) and other peripheral parts of the Soviet Union,” the Azerbaijani MFA said in a statement issued on the anniversary.

This is not a new conspiracy theory, but it appears to be the first time it's been embraced so formally by the government. “There's never been this sort of announcement, especially on such an official level,” wrote Azerbaijani journalist Shahin Rzayev in a public Facebook post.

Also not new is Azerbaijan's efforts to deflect attention from Sumgayit by emphasizing another February tragedy, the massacre by Armenian forces of hundreds of Muslim civilians in the village of Khojaly in 1992. Baku has exerted substantial efforts in recent years to gain international recognition of the massacre, which it often refers to as a “genocide.”

In Baku's rhetoric, however, it's the Armenians who are deflecting. “Over the years, Armenian separatists have been referring to Sumgayit events in order to justify their aggressive policy, the Khojaly genocide and other crimes committed in Azerbaijan,” said Eldar Sultanov, the prosecutor's office spokesman, speaking at the Baku event.

This year, an “action plan” put together by the presidential administration called for marking Khojaly by “holding press conferences, commemorative ceremonies at embassies, consulates and diaspora organizations of Azerbaijan in foreign countries, ensuring media coverage of these events both within the country and abroad.” The Center for Strategic Studies, a state think tank, also took the occasion to launch a new book, Armenian Fraud. The History Based on Fraud.

Armenia has responded to all of this with distortions of its own. At a February 22 hearing in Armenia's parliament on the Sumgayit massacres, speaker of parliament Ara Babloyan said that “Azerbaijani fascism surpasses Hitler's in its cruelty.”

The historical conflict spilled over into the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe last month, as well, when Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan spoke and was challenged by an Azerbaijani official to account for Khojaly. Sargsyan denied that Armenians had carried out the attack, and referred to a discredited theory blaming Azerbaijan itself for the massacre. “Why do you need to call something that never occurred and was never carried out by the Armenians a ‘genocide?'” he asked.

https://eurasianet.org/s/azerbaijan-officially-embraces-conspiracy-theory-blaming-armenians-for-own-pogrom

 

 

[Yervant1]

Armenian Weekly

Feb 27 2018

‘The Pain is Still Just as Sharp’: Remembering Sumgait 30 Years Later

By Anna Astvatsaturian Turcotte on February 27, 2018

Special to the Armenian Weekly

Feb. 27 marks the 30th anniversary of the Sumgait pogrom—the targeted attacks on the Armenian population of the seaside town in Azerbaijan, during which widespread looting, rape, and murders ravaged the Armenian community and left up to 200 dead.

An Azerbaijani mob rushes toward the Armenian neighborhood in Sumgait, Feb. 1988 (Photo: karabakhrecords.info)

The Sumgait pogrom also marked the beginning of the violent stage of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan—a conflict that, three decades later, remains unresolved.

Less than two years after Sumgait, another pogrom against the Armenians civilian population began in Jan. 1990, in the Azerbaijani capital Baku. Between Jan. 12-19, 1990, hundreds of Armenians throughout the city were beaten, tortured, killed, and up to 200,000 were expelled from the city for good. Anna Astvatsaturian Turcotte and her family were among those, who were exiled from their homeland.

The following is an excerpt from the book Nowhere, a Story of Exile, which was based on Turcotte’s diaries. The excerpt is followed by the author’s recollections of that day, 30 years later.

(R to L) The author and her mother in the summer of 1988 in Baku (Photo courtesy of Anna Turcotte)

***

March 14^th finally arrives. Many people come to visit us, making themselves at home in our garden. They are relatives, friends and neighbors. Papa is preparing the meat and vegetables for the shashlik. Mama carries plates of different dishes and salads up the stairs to the garden. It is a little windy, but it doesn’t bother anyone because wind is a given feature on any occasion in Baku.

Mama lets me wear my hair down, which I never do; it is always in one thick, long braid down my back. I feel like an adult.

Uncle Novik’s family is there, his daughters are my favorite cousins, because we have become so close having lived together for eight whole years. Many relatives from both of my parents’ sides keep piling into our garden. My parents’ friends also show up. To me, they are like aunts and uncles because they are as close to us as relatives.

My cousin Lena, the daughter of my father’s cousin Tolik, is exactly my age. We are good friends.

The author (L) and her cousin Lena ® (Photo courtesy of Anna Turcotte)

Uncle Tolik’s mother is my Grandfather Yegishe’s sister. Her name is Maria and she is very short and old. Her hair is long and gray. She braids it and puts it in a bun, then hides it under a scarf. She reminds me of Grandma Tamara, even though she looks nothing like her. But there is something of Grandma Tamara in her. Both women are Armenian and were old friends, when Grandma was still alive. They speak Russian with a distinct Armenian accent. Their clothes—especially the dark cotton scarves, tied in the back of their heads – are worn in the same style as by most elderly Armenian women.

I wait for my Uncle Tolik, his daughters and Aunt Maria, as I call her. Everything is ready for us to sit down and celebrate.

“Where are Uncle Tolik and Aunt Maria? Weren’t they going to come?” I ask my mother.

“No, jana (sweetie in Armenian),” she answers, “Didn’t you know that they moved to Russia?”

“No, I didn’t know,” I answer in total surprise, “No one told me, where did they go?” I am not aware now that Uncle Tolik and his family, including his mother, Aunt Maria, would be the first of our clan to leave Baku.

Later I learn by listening in on the adults talking why they are the first to leave. Uncle Tolik is an engineer in a highly industrialized city in Azerbaijan, Sumgait, putting in a few weeks there and coming home to spend some time with his family, then back to Sumgait, which was right up the coast of the Caspian Sea, and so on. Around February, when he goes back to Sumgait to work, he sees something that changes his life forever. The streets are full of rubble with the remnants of things laying everywhere, like piles of furniture and clothes. He arrives there right after the lynching of Armenian residents of the city. He remains in town for a few days and hears eyewitness accounts of the massacres. Later, when he relates these events to my parents, it all sounds unreal. It couldn’t be happening to us, here, in this day and age!

The terrifying story that lingers in my mind’s eye is that of a teenage Armenian girl who is thrown out of a third-floor balcony after being stripped of her clothes and repeatedly raped. Still breathing, laying on the street, she is beaten with iron rods by the Azeri mob and her broken, naked body is set on fire to the cheers of the enraged crowd.

Astvatsaturian Turcotte kept a diary during those years, which she published in June 2012 in a book titled Nowhere, a Story of Exile (Photo courtesy of Anna Turcotte)

“The worst thing about this was that the Soviet Army that was supposed to protect Armenian families in the city from these rioting mobs, stood and watched people being robbed, humiliated, thrown out of their houses, beaten, raped, burned and killed.” Uncle Tolik tells my parents right before his family leaves the city. “The massacre did not end until late in the morning.”

After the mobs are brought under control, from his office in the Kremlin, Mikhail Gorbachev lies to the people of his nation and says that the troops were two hours late getting to Sumgait when in fact they were the silent witnesses to the atrocities.

My parents couldn’t understand what was happening. Uncle Tolik’s move was so abrupt, so unplanned. In our culture people rarely ever moved away. Violence of this nature made no sense to any of us. It must have been an isolated event, my parents reasoned; it could never happen in our civilized Baku.

Somehow, that birthday was unlike any other that I could remember. We had fun and enjoyed good food, but something was missing, aside from an important family gone from our celebration for the first time ever. There was a feeling of tension and an altogether different atmosphere tinged with apprehension—a vague feeling, that someone was watching us.

I had the same feeling in school, even though nothing seemed to have changed. Perhaps it was only in my mind, but there was something hostile in the air, biding its time.

***

Three decades later, my words strike me by their raw innocence. The pain is still just as sharp as it was back in 1988—and it lingers as it does every birthday, with the memory of that day.

I wrote these words as a 10-year-old child, so hurt by a beloved uncle’s absence from my birthday party. What seemed like a small childhood disappointment turned into a lifetime of loss.

I was not merely losing an uncle; eventually, I would end up losing everything and gaining eternal questions—questions my parents couldn’t answer then and still cannot answer now.

The author (center) and her parents in Baku, 1983 (Photo courtesy of Anna Turcotte)

My birthdays were never the same after my traumatized uncle Tolik gathered his family—his wife, his two daughters, and his aging mother—and fled to never return to the city Armenians built. At the time, I did not quite understand the enormity of the change in the air. This change was about to bend the trajectory of our lives across the ocean to the other side of the planet. There was something sinister about the atmosphere as we all dined in the garden, as the adults whispered, and as the Artsakh movement was picking up speed.

And then things began to unravel.

For the next 19 long months, we lived through every painful and terrifying episode of our remaining lives in Baku, mentally going back to that unthinkable three days in Feb. 1988, when young women were burned and old men were cut and the masses of Armenians left their multi-generational homes in the seaside city of Sumgait.

***

Turcotte’s Nowhere, a Story of Exile is available for purchase on Amazon in English and Russian.

https://armenianweekly.com/2018/02/27/the-pain-is-still-just-as-sharp/

[Yervant1]

ARMINFO News Agency, Armenia
February 28, 2018 Wednesday


Speaker: The absence of condemnation of Sumgait events caused ethnic
cleansing of Armenians in Azerbaijan

Yerevan February 28

Alexander Avanesov. The National Assembly of Armenia, at a meeting on
February 28, a minute of silence honored the memory of the innocent
victims of the Sumgayit massacres.

As the Speaker of the Parliament Ara Babloyan noted in his speech,
hundreds of Armenians were brutally killed in the Azerbaijani city of
Sumgait 30 years ago as a result of a crime organized at the state
level. The crime, planned and implemented by the Azerbaijani
authorities 30 years ago, has not yet received the appropriate
political and legal assessment from international structures.

"The absence of condemnation of the Sumgait events caused ethnic
cleansing of Armenians in Azerbaijan, and led to mass pogroms in
Kirovabad, Baku, Maragh and other Armenian settlements of Azerbaijan,"
the head of the Armenian parliament said, adding that the purpose of
mass pogroms organized by the Azerbaijani authorities was to scare
Armenians genocide and force them to abandon the national liberation
movement. Ethnic disorders in the city of Sumgait began on February
27, 1988, and lasted three days, accompanied by massive violence
against the Armenian population, looting, murder, arson and
destruction of property. According to the British journalist Tom de
Waal, who published the documentary book "Black Garden" about the
history of the Karabakh conflict in 2005, these events became "the
first in the modern Soviet history an outbreak of mass violence" .

According to official data of the Prosecutor General's Office of the
USSR, during the riots 26 citizens were killed Armenian nationality,
more than one hundred people were wounded. According to unofficial
estimates, the number of Armenians killed is hundreds. As stated in
the materials of the human rights center "Memorial", the lack of
timely investigation of the circumstances of the pogroms, the
establishment and punishment of the guilty parties led to further
escalation of the Karabakh conflict.

[Yervant1]

PanArmenian, Armenia

March 14 2018

Canadian lawmaker commemorates Sumgait pogrom

http://media.pn.am/media/issue/253/079/photo/253079.jpg

March 14, 2018 - 17:29 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Canadian lawmaker MP Emmanuella Lambropoulos recently commemorated in the Commons the 30th anniversary of the Sumgait pogrom, in which the ethnic Azerbaijan population attacked members of the Armenian population of the town of Sumgait, The Suburban reports.

The tragic event, which commenced on the eve of February 28th, 1988, resulted in the death of 200 Armenian men, women, and children and is considered to be the start of the Karabakh War.

Azeris planned and orchestrated the brutal massacres which targeted Armenians solely for their heritage following their peaceful protest calling for historic Armenian lands to be liberated.

The MP said the attacks took place in February 1988.

"This was a time marked by serious acts of violence, riots, and widespread looting during which Armenian civilians were attacked and killed," she explained. "This unprecedented violence shocked the entire world.

"Thirty years later, Armenians are commemorating these tragic events in which many lost their lives. This anniversary reminds us of what a privilege it is to live in a country where diversity and inclusion make us strong and where various ethnic and religious communities can participate equally in our country's political life. This anniversary also reminds us that, as Canadians, we have a duty to condemn all acts of violence and to play an active role in promoting and preserving peace in Canada and around the world."

http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/253079/Canadian_lawmaker_commemorates_Sumgait_pogrom

[Yervant1]

PanArmenian, Armenia

Jan 15 2019

Azerbaijan ramps up anti-Armenian hysteria – Elibekova

On January 13-19, 1990, the Azerbaijani authorities organized and carried out mass massacre of the Armenian population in Baku. About a quarter of a million of Armenians, on the ground of the national affiliation, were subjected to violence and deportation. Expert in Azerbaijan Anzhela Elibekova told Panorama.am Azerbaijan is not prone to recall the tragic events.

“The propaganda works in the following way; they mark January 20 as a tragic date when the Soviet tanks entered Baku to set order and prevent the massacres of the Armenian population. Azerbaijanis present it as an act of suppression of the nation’s aspirations to freedom,” Elibekova said. In her words, all of the facts and evidences of the Baku pogroms are well documented, however despite the Sumgait pogroms, the perpetrators were not brought to justice, enabling the Azerbaijani propaganda to completely distort the reality and blame Armenians and the Soviet KGB in the events which is a total absurd.
The expert reminded that over the past century three massacres (1905, 1918 and 1990) of Armenians were recorded in Baku.

Asked about the measures Armenia should take in order to prevent from future massacres, Elibekova said: “It seems to be a complex task as we are unable to control the level of anti-Armenian histeria in Azerbaijan. What we can do maximum is to reach out to the international community and alarm about the situation where the anti-Armenian hysteria intensifies, murderers - the likes of Safarov and citizens posing with a severed head of a soldier (Kyaram Sloyan) are still glorified. Regretfully, I have no idea how we can influence developments inside the country.”

As to the possible pressure by the international community, Elibekova referred to the lack of mechanisms.

“When human rights are violated in the country, the freedom of press is suppressed there are European structures Azerbaijan members to apply to. There are number of human rights watchdogs and international media outlets periodically voicing concerns. In case with Armenophobia they, however, remain silent. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) launched proceedings over a case concerning the killings and the brutal torture of Armenian soldiers and civilians during the April war, which clearly states Armenophobia was the key motivation behind those crimes. Once the proceedings are over and the Court documents the fact of Armenophobia in its ruling we will gain a solid international legal assessment of the fact,” Elibekova explained.

A mass pogrom of Armenian population was committed in Baku from 13 to 19 January 1990 as a culmination of the genocide of the Armenians in Azerbaijan unfolded between 1988 and 1990. After the Sumgait pogroms (26-29 February 1988), persecutions, beatings, particularly cruel killings, public mockeries, pogroms of separate flats, seizure of property, forcible expulsions and illegal dismissals of Armenians started in Baku. Only some 35 or 40 thousand Armenians of the community of 250 thousand remained in Baku by January 1990; they were mainly disabled people, old and sick people and the relatives looking after them. The pogroms took an organised, targeted and mass nature since 13 January 1990. A large amount of evidence exists about the atrocities and killings committed with exceptional cruelty, including gang rapes, burnings of people alive, throwing people out of balconies of higher floors, dismemberments and beheadings.

The exact number of the victims of the genocide of the Armenians in Baku still remains unknown. According to different sources, between 150 and 400 people were murdered, and hundreds were left disabled. The pogroms went on for a week amid a total inaction of the authorities of Azerbaijan and the USSR, as well as the internal troops and the large Baku garrison of the Soviet Army. Those who managed to avoid death were forced into deportation. The Soviet troops were deployed to set order in Baku only on 20 January 1990.

https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2019/01/15/Elibekova/2058950

[Yervant1]

Panorama, Armenia

Feb 25 2019

Artsakh Ombudsman urges the international community to give a proper legal assessment to Sumgait pogroms

Human Rights Ombudsman of the Republic of Artsakh Artak Beglaryan issued a statement on the 31st anniversary of the massacres of Armenians organized by Azerbaijan in Sumgait in February 1988. The text of the statement is presented below:

After 1988 February peaceful demonstrations taken place in Artsakh with the demand of reunification with Armenia, on the 27-29th of February, in the city of Sumgait the Soviet Azerbaijan organized and carried out massacres of the Armenian population, accompanied by brutality, torture, ill-treatment, allegations of mass killings, group rape, etc. For their national affiliation 18,000 Armenians of Sumgait were subjected to violence, which resulted in massive breaches of their rights to life, not being tortured and discriminated against, liberty and security, property, fair trial, among others.

The massacres of Armenians in Sumgait was organized at the state level, which is proven by many facts. During demonstrations prior to the massacre, the city authorities pushed the crowd into open violence, which in the following days turned into violent acts, oriented to the premade lists of the addresses of Armenians. There are numerous evidences that the Azerbaijani police was not only absolutely inactive in terms of prevention, but also in many cases assisted and directed the assassins' groups. Though the city of Sumgait was on a distance of only 25 kilometers from the capital city Baku, the Soviet Army interfered and stopped the massacres only three days later. Ilias Ismailov, Azerbaijan SSR acting Prosecutor General in 1988, stated in 2003 the following: “Those responsible for inciting the pogroms (in Sumgait), are now sat in Milli Majlis [Azerbaijani Parliament] with parliamentary mandates in their pockets” (Source: ‘Zerkalo’ Newspaper, Azerbaijan, 21 February, 2003).

The Azerbaijani and USSR authorities made every effort to hide the main cases of murders, stating only 26 victims. Meanwhile, film director Andrey Konchalovsky says in his "Heydar Aliyev: The Burden of Power" film, shot by Azerbaijan's order: "Over a night, more than 100 Armenians have been killed in industrial center Sumgait." Russian diplomat and writer Victor Krivopuskov writes in the book titled “The Resisting Karabakh”: "It occurred rarely that anyone would be killed by a knife or an axe straight away. Before the great tribulation, it was a mockery of suffering. They did not spare the elderly or the children. Several hundreds of Armenians have been killed in three days. To clarify the exact number of the dead was impossible.”

On the events taken place in 1988 in Azerbaijan, on the 7th of July, 1988, the European Parliament passed a resolution condemning the massacres of the Armenians of Azerbaijan, which says: "Taking into account the fact that the autonomous region of Nagorno-Karabakh has historically been part of Armenia (80% of the region's population is Armenian), as well as the fact of the unilateral decision to give this region to Azerbaijan taken in 1923, taking into consideration the fact that the massacres of Armenians in Sumgait and violence in Baku caused a worsening political situation in Azerbaijan, which is a danger for Armenians in Azerbaijan, (European Parliament) condemns the violence and pressure on the Armenian protesters in Azerbaijan.” Andrei Sakharov, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, said: “If anyone was in doubt before Sumgait whether Nagorno-Karabakh should belong to Azerbaijan, then after this tragedy no-one can have the moral right to insist that it should” (Source: “The Open Letter to M. Gorbachev,” “Nezavisimaya Gazeta” newspaper, 27 October, 1992). More detailed facts and comments about the Sumgait massacres can be found on the karabakhrecords.info website.

The crime against humanity organized in Sumgait was a response to the peaceful demonstrations of the Artsakh Armenians aimed at the realization of their right to self-determination. Besides, the Azerbaijani authorities, as an example of the Armenian-populated Nakhijevan, continued to implement the policy of ethnic cleansing of Armenians, which was intensified especially after the Sumgait events. Within the framework of that ethnic cleansing, during 1988-1990, thousands of Armenians were killed and about 500,000 Armenians were deported from Azerbaijani Kirovabad, Baku and other cities, as well as from the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, with knowledge and permission of the USSR authorities.
In subsequent years (including during the 1991-1994 Azerbaijan-Karabakh war), Azerbaijan continued the policy of ethnic cleansing of Armenians, according to our analysis, which is in full compliance with the legal formulation of the genocide perpetrated under the UN 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Moreover, our research shows that apart from the depatriation of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijani Armenians, their rights to property and free movement, among others, have also been violated on a continuous basis. Many of these Armenians still bear the physical, psychological and material consequences of that policy.

Those committed crimes have not received relevant legal assessment and have remained unpunished, which led to the implementation of the official anti-Armenian hatred policy pursued by the Republic of Azerbaijan. The victims of that policy are not only Azerbaijani Armenians and the population of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh), but also all Armenians worldwide, as well as foreigners visiting Artsakh. As a reminder, the Artsakh Republic Human Rights Ombudsman published a special report in 2018 on the Azerbaijani anti-Armenian hatred policy, presenting concrete examples of its manifestation and relevant international law analysis.

An active stage of manifestation of Armenophobia in the Azerbaijani society was also recorded in April 2016 - during the large-scale attack of Azerbaijan on Artsakh. The Human Rights Ombudsman, within the framework of his fact-finding mission, presented a report in 2016 on killings, beheadings, tortures and other cases of war crimes and human rights violations against civilians and military servicemen of Artsakh. It is noteworthy that the Azerbaijani servicemen, who have committed such crimes, were later rewarded and encouraged by the Azerbaijani authorities.

The Ombudsman urges the international community to give a proper legal assessment to the 1988 February massacres in Sumgait, in accordance with the fundamental principles and norms of international law, as well as to take action to end the ongoing anti-Armenian hatred policy. This path of racial hatred not only contradicts the well-known principles of international law, but also takes the two peoples away from conflict resolution and lasting peace.

https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2019/02/25/Artsakh-Ombudsman/2077673

[Yervant1]

News.am, Armenia

Feb 27 2019

Armenians hold protest march in Hague (PHOTO)

22:48, 27.02.2019

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Representatives of the Armenian community held on Wednesday protest march under the motto "For the sake of peace in Artsakh.”

The participants of the protest rally held near the Azerbaijani embassy demanded the Azerbaijani authorities to recognize the 1988 pogroms in Sumgait and other Azerbaijani cities.

The Armenian organizations also urged Dutch politicians to support the EU, the Minsk Group, and publicly condemn Azerbaijan's aggression and open-minded racism against Armenia and Armenians.

https://news.am/eng/news/498727.html

[Yervant1]

Panorama, Armenia

Feb 28 2019

Politics 18:53 28/02/2019 Armenia

Sumgait pogroms have no expiration date – President Sarkissian

Armenian President Armen Sarkissian today paid tribute to the memory of innocent victims of the Sumgait pogroms perpetrated by Azerbaijan in 1988. The president laid flowers at the monument in Tsitsernakaberd Memorial complex.

“Today, all Armenians are commemorating the innocent people who fell victim to the massacre occurred on February 27-28 in 1988. In reaction to peaceful demonstrations of the Artsakh Armenians wishing to realize their right to self-determination, the Soviet Azerbaijan responded with mass bloody massacres against Armenians. Based on ethnic hatred, hundreds of our compatriots were killed, assaulted and forcibly displaced. The Sumgait pogroms have no expiration date and we should exert every effort the perpetrators of the horrific crime are condemned, acknowledged as well as properly assessed by the international community,” the president said.

https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2019/02/28/Sumgait-pogroms/2079543

[Yervant1]

News.am, Armenia

Feb 28 2019

Armenian diplomat at UN: If Azerbaijanis were sincere, they should have addressed Sumgait pogroms

22:00, 28.02.2019

Armenia’s representative to the UN delivered a speech during the 40th session of the UN Human Rights Council, which took place in Geneva on February 28.

In response to the speeches of Turkish and Azerbaijani foreign ministers, Armenia’s representative said the statement by Turkish minister was motivated by nothing more than inferiority complex combined by stubborn desire to portrait his country as a regional power.

Today’s Turkey is far from being a country ruled by democratic principles and is the least country in the world to have the right to speak about violation of human rights, as thousands of journalists, human rights advocates, academy and opponents of the government are either in jail or in exile.

As to the Azerbaijani foreign minister’s statement, it was noted that if Azerbaijan was sincere and fair in its goals, instead of presenting their narrative of the so-called “Khojali events” they should have addressed the Armenian pogroms in Sumgait which marked the beginning of massacres and ethnic cleansing of the Armenian population in Baku, Gandzak and Nagorno-Karabakh.

Instead of anti-Armenian propaganda, Azerbaijan should make efforts to protect universal human rights, including the rights of nations for self-determination which Azerbaijan fights forcefully since its inception.

Summing up her speech, Armenia’s representative noted that either Turkey, or Azerbaijan before taking this podium and delivering speeches on human rights it would have been much better for the human rights protection if they worked even with minimal efforts to improve their own record.

https://news.am/eng/news/498939.html

[Yervant1]

News.am, Armenia

Feb 28 2019

Canadian MP: Sumgait massacres set precedent for xenophobia towards Armenians

23:37, 28.02.2019

Canadian MP Bob Saroya delivered a strong statement, remembering the victims of the Sumgait Pogroms that fell victim for the self-determination and independence of the brave people of Artsakh, the Armenian National Committee of Canada reported.

He described the pogroms as “an act of systematic massacre and hate crime against Armenians”.

“These massacres set a precedent for xenophobia, hatred and discrimination toward Armenians in Azerbaijan that unfortunately continues to this day and impedes the Artsakh peace process,” he said.

 

https://news.am/eng/news/498952.html

[Yervant1]

Armenpress.am

We knew for sure – they came to kill us: Ishkhan Trdatov survived the horror of the genocide in Sumgait

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16:01, 9 March, 2019

Ishkhan Trdatov is one of the 18 thousand of Armenians who survived the horror of the genocide in Sumgait. Besides this, he is a true hero - someone who fought back against the members of the pogrom mobs along with his neighbors for more than 6 hours. They were able to protect their families, rescue their children. Despite this, what they have witnessed 31 years ago does not let go from them, fails to be forgotten…

Today Ishkhan presents the story to us the way it has happened...

“Before the events in the morning we, together with my wife and two sons, were going to my brothers’ at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. We were just leaving home, when Aydin’s wife, an Azerbaijani woman came to us: “I beg you, do not go Ishkhan. I know you and your wife very well. Do not go out of the neighborhood. If you do, they will kill you. They have already started to kill.

Everything started on the 27^th, you know, I think Sumgait was targeted purposefully. The first attempt was planned to be in Kirovabad where an entire city block was inhabited by the Armenians and nothing could be done there, and when they came to Sumgait it was just what they wanted.

 

About 18 thousand Armenians lived there, but they all lived scattered; 2 or 3 Armenian families in one building. Before they broke into our entrance, they went to 5^th flat right in front of our building. We saw what was going on there... They took Cherkez Grigoryan out of the house from the 1^st flat, beat her, left her lying next to the entrance and went upstairs. That’s when I told my father to get an axe immediately. He was a carpenter but there were two axes at home.

When they walked into the entrance, we saw a crowd with an impressive number of people - they wouldn’t fit in the entrance all at once. There were about 200-300 people outdoors as well. They were also many children and teenagers from 12-14 years of age and even children. Most of them were natives - I could tell from the conversations.

Those who were not able to get to the entrance were throwing stones at the windows of all Armenian flats. I had never seen such kind of stones in our city and I assume it was brought beforehand. … There was an arbor in front of our house, and a free space, you could pass –that’s where they were spilling the stones brought from the production zone of Sumgait Pipe Rolling Plant.

What happened in the neighboring 4th, 5th and 6th flats was something terrible.

After that, they made it to our entrance. The first thing I heard was someone screaming that Armenians live in the 12th and 8th flats.

Our flat was the 6th and the 12th flat belonged to the Huseynovs. I had an instant thought - maybe we'll be lucky?

Me and my father beat the first attack back and made them ran off to the 1st floor. My wife Elmira threw a mix of pepper and salt into their eyes when they barged the 2nd time and it made them go back another time.

After some time our upstairs neighbors - Raffik Tovmasyan and his father-in-law Hrant Adamyan joined us. Thus we were already 4 men. By that time I was able move wife with children to the neighbor's house.

Every 20-25 minutes 2-3 people came upstairs in order to break into our flat. My dad, mom and I were able to hold them back together. Then they tried to squeeze through from our balconies. I can still totally picture the moment when I saw someone’s hand with an axe on the handrail. I hit him with the axe and he fell of screaming. I heard voices from the street saying I was a monster and that they will burn me alive but before that they will burn my children in front of me, rape my wife and burn me later. It was something horrible. Yes, and I say, get to me to start with…But in the end, of course, it was all horrible…

There was no doubt that they will kill us. Either we kill them, or they will. I had only one thought – I have to protect my family and that’s all.

Surprisingly our telephones were not turned off as it happened to most Armenians in Sumgait then. And we called wherever we could – both the police and the ambulance…“Flashes are all over the city, we cannot promise you anything. We will come as soon as we are free”, the police told us. I mean, they did not refuse directly, but it was clear that they will not come as I saw a few policemen through the window standing by the crowd. They were just standing and watching.

About 2-2.5 hours later I saw a few people going up again but this time leading naked woman in front of them. I recognized her – it was Sveta Grigoryan, Volodya Grigroyan’s wife. All her body was covered with traces of cigarette butts. They smoked the cigarettes and doused them on her body, do you get it? She came to our door and asked to let her in. I told her I can’t do it because if I do so, the ones following her will break into our house. She turned and went back. Then we heard her heart-rending screams from the street.

Then we heard some noise. My father told me they’re breaking over here through the wall. Thus they were not able to break into the entrance and the balcony but they had to think of something else, they had to get to us. Me and dad went to our bedroom, ripped the carpet on the wall and saw a hole at about 80 cm distances from the floor and suddenly a scrap popped out. But the wall was really solid and they did that little aperture for almost 1 hour. I think it was 20 x 40 in size.

Actually they were able to pull out a brick from the wall by that hole. I heard something gurgling and pouring into the flat. I couldn’t smell it as my nose was broken. My father ordered to go away from the wall and as soon as I moved they threw a match from the hole. Everything was burnt down – they poured petrol.

We had a bath full of water and my mom started pouring it out immediately. But I caught some fire. It harmed my face. I didn’t have any scars before. All of the scars are from Sumgait – 16 scars on my face, head and legs…

When the fire broke out they called the Fire department. Instead of helping us, they put the stairs on the wall pointing to the roof in order to get to us from the 5^th floor. No one risked climbing – all of them knew that they’ll get hurt.

In the meantime I sent my mom to the neighbors. By 11pm it was just 4 of us, 4 men – me, Rafik Tovmasyan and Hrant Adamyan. There was no doubt – they wanted to kill us. They continued going up and down but couldn’t come up from the 2^nd floor using the entrance doors to shelter behind and threw them at our staircase when running back.

I had about 40 liters of diesel oil in the balcony which I poured into everything they threw at the staircase and lit them up. This way we blocked their road. That’s the reason they called a fire truck…

At the same time they came up with ultimatums saying they have already burnt my neighbor from the 2^nd floor and will do the same with me. Besides this, they told me they have burnt a young boy and killed his father and that all of this is waiting for me and my father. I figured it was Arthur Aramyan who was living on the 2^nd floor.

What happened during these 6 hours cannot be described or be forgotten. I was all in blood. Then they started throwing bricks, the ones I mentioned before, at our windows. Those were not ordinary stones – they were mixed with an iron. One of those hit me on the face and broke my teeth literally breaking into 2 pieces. I fainted.

Regained consciousness and felt that the floor was wet. I’m lying face down, I remember, there were some blankets and mattresses above me. Wanted to stand up but couldn’t even move. No voices around me, no sound, just a deathly silence. I was trying to understand what was going on with me, maybe I was even dead. Then somehow I came out the matrasses and blankets and went straight to the 5^th flat. I still had an axe in my hand. I hit the door with it a few times and shouted: “Shovkat, Shovkat”. That was the name of my neighbor.

It turns out Elmira, my wife, was there with children but did not hear anything. My neighbor had covered them under blankets and other clothes leaving them alone and they stayed there till the morning.

It was the night of the 28th of February. I went up to the 5th floor where my mom was hiding. The neighbor opened the door, looked at me surprised and asked, ““How is it, are you alive?”. She was a Talysh from Lenkoran. I said, “As you can see, I am”. She told me to drop the axe and come in. I followed her. She called the police. And she called the police. Here came the military and the police chief. I started yelling at them saying, “You, jerk, I'll get the axe and kill you!”.

The Colonel tried to calm me down and explained, “They gave us the order too late”. This means the military was in the city as well but didn't have any order to be involved in anything.

Both I and my mother were taken to the hospital. My mother was bandaged in the head in the hospital; from there she went to my brother barefoot. You know, what’s that, it was about 4 o’clock in the morning.

The neurosurgeon who operated on me told me that 20 years later I will realize the consequences these events had on me. Turned out he was right - it’s already 10 years that I have problems with my health.

Then I got to know that my father and Rafik were both killed - they were taken outside and murdered there. No one told me about it at first. My father’s head was severed by an axe. He died in the hospital, they say.

My uncle took my father from morgue. He then told me that he saw many bodies and most of them in a horrible state.

Our flat was burnt down, everything was stolen, was caused a damage of 28 thousand rubles but we did not receive a single penny despite the fact that I had the decision preceded by the USSR prosecutor’s office. Not like here, the Turks received all after the earthquake, all that they needed. But what was done with the Armenians, no one paid that money, didn’t even thought of it.

They initiated criminal proceedings but the trial didn’t take place. No one was punished.

They say time wounds heal. But that’s not true. It’s been more than 30 years now but I remember even the small details. Sometimes it seems like everything happened yesterday...

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/966951.html?fbclid=IwAR2BPed-_6hA2qepX6-XdPmuFzOoJIW1TfZIX0WS_rB9gFC5-3g6ZlqBMb0

[Yervant1]

Armenpress.am

United States embassy commemorates victims of Sumgait pogrom

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10:05, 27 February 2023

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 27, ARMENPRESS. The United States embassy in Armenia paid tribute to the memory of the Armenians who were killed in the 1988 Sumgait pogrom.

“Today, we join with Armenians mourning and acknowledging all who lost their lives in Sumgait in 1988,” the United States embassy said in a statement released on social media.

In late February 1988, Azerbaijanis began a state-sponsored massacre of the Armenian population in Sumgait, which became known as the Sumgait pogrom.

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1105073.html?fbclid=IwAR3iVMcnKzqMPL18loRps_yt6I1_B5zIgPNHH7JWO2ykLfCWSPZcKYeCMMs