ArmInfo. February 1988 was a turning point both for the further course of the Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, and for the security, stability and further development of the South Caucasus. This is stated in the statement of the Armenian Embassy in Georgia, circulated in connection with the 30th anniversary of the Sumgayit pogroms.
The Armenian diplomatic mission recalled that in February 1988 the Azerbaijani authorities reacted to the just desire of the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh to withdraw from the composition of Azerbaijan, which was expressed by peaceful rallies, by the organization of violence against the peaceful Armenian population, in those cities of Azerbaijan where Armenians lived in large numbers.
"From that moment on, the development in the region was practically predetermined - the escalation, which in Azerbaijan itself and in Nagorno-Karabakh, later developed into attacks on civilians from bandit groups that had been set up by the Azerbaijani authorities, and then by the regular army. According to official data, 32 victims of the Armenian pogroms continued for three days, and according to independent sources - hundreds of Armenians.As a result of open support and connivance the Serbian authorities with respect to the insulting of the apartments and streets of the city were killed by women, men, elderly people.Although 30 years later, when you read horrific eyewitness accounts, it is impossible to get used to the idea that a human being is able to act in this way with another person , who yesterday was his neighbor, colleague, acquaintance, and these days the most fundamental human right, the right to life, was violated. People became targets and were killed because of their nationality. The motto of the frenzied crowd was one: "The Armenian has no right to life." And Soviet military units within their own country took three days to get to Sumgait and put an end to these atrocities, while it was enough for them even one night to reach the country of the socialist camp of Eastern Europe and Afghanistan, "the statement of the Armenian Embassy says.
At the same time, the statement notes that even after 30 years from these events, no answers have been given to the questions - who was behind all this, who was directing the crowd and, for what purpose? "Sumgait was one of the first manifestations of nationalism and the extremist position of Azerbaijan's political elite." It became clear that the hatred towards Armenians among the Azerbaijani society was hidden only by the thin veil that was torn. Armenianophobia was also directed against the historical and cultural values of the Armenian people, as a result which in Azerbaijan was leveled with unique monuments dating back many centuries, unfortunately, that wave of violence, which began in Sumgait, was continued (in Ganja), and in many other settlements, with a large Armenian population, The European Parliament responded to the Sumgait massacre, which, in the resolution adopted on July 7, 1988, qualified it as pogroms directed against Armenians, in themselves a threat to security for In addition, the European Parliament in its resolution condemned the violence against Armenians and expressed its support for the demand of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh for reunification with Armenia. Two years later the European Parliament reacted to the Armenian pogroms in Baku and adopted another resolution, in which it confirmed this position,- Armenian embassy statement says.
The office also recalled that in July 1988, the US Senate approved changes to the 1989 law on financial compensation for external actions that related to Nagorno-Karabakh, which called on the Soviet authorities to respect the legitimate aspirations of the Armenian people and it was recorded that dozens of Armenians were killed and hundreds wounded during the pogroms that occurred several months ago.
"Perhaps even more appalling than these atrocities was the fact that both in Azerbaijan and the whole of the Soviet Union, the authorities did all the concealment of the truth about Sumgait.This atmosphere of impunity and permissiveness once again confirmed that behind these pogroms there was a state The further development of the events showed that the Sumgayit way of solving the problems became the main one for the Azerbaijani leadership.In May, the forced deportation of Armenians from Shushi began, in November a wave of Armenian pogroms passed throughout Azerbaijan. Alas, the past 30 years after the Sumgayit pogroms show that the style of action of the Azerbaijani authorities has not undergone any changes, moreover, the continuous Armenian-hate rhetoric, the preaching of hatred led to the dehumanization of Armenians in the eyes of the Azerbaijani The heroization of such a cold-blooded murderer as Safarov, the use of artillery against innocent children during the four-day April war, the brutal murder of the elderly and the maiming of the old rupov say that crimes in the spirit of Sumgait have become part of the policy of the Azerbaijani authorities. So long as the authorities and society of Azerbaijan are not confronted with those tragic pages of their history that are thirty years old, it will be impossible to talk about security, peace and stability in the region, "the Armenian embassy in Georgia summed up.