ArmInfo.In 1988, from 27 to 29 February in the city of Sumgayit, the Azerbaijani authorities carried out pogroms of the Armenian population and their forcible relocation. This is stated in the statement of Artsakh's parliament received in ArmInfo in connection with the pogroms carried out in Sumgait in 1988.
The statement, in particular, states: "Exceptionally because of their national identity, thousands of Armenians were extremely cruelly killed and forcibly resettled, most of whom were women, children and the elderly.A wave of genocide also spread over Gandzak, Baku, the northern part of Artsakh, as well as to other Armenian-populated regions of Azerbaijan. The crimes against the Armenian population of Azerbaijan continued from 1988 to 1990. These crimes have become the official policy of Baku, and have become a real threat to the Armenian population of Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh.
It is the national liberation movement, aimed at restoring national dignity, violating rights and preserving its identity, once again revived in Artsakh.Paying tribute to the memory of our compatriots who died in Sumgait and condemning discrimination, any manifestation of intolerance and xenophobia of the faction and deputies of the National Assembly of the Artsakh Republic claim that impunity of the acts of genocide committed by Azerbaijan led to massive new crimes and against the Artsakh people.
Deputies reaffirmed their commitment that the rights of Armenians subjected to violence and deportation should be restored. They called on international human rights organizations to recognize and condemn the Armenian Genocide in Sumgait. Artsakh's people's representatives called on Azerbaijan to face its past, to abandon bellicose rhetoric and to stop the anti-Armenian state policy continuing in the country. It should be noted that from February 27 to February 29, 1988, the first brutal pogroms of the Armenian population took place in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait, accompanied by mass violence, robbery, murder, arson and destruction of property.
The Sumgait pogroms were a landmark event and a turning point in the escalation of inter-ethnic conflict in the South Caucasus, which caused the first flows of Armenian refugees from Sumgayit to Stepanakert (NKAO) and Armenia. According to official data of the Prosecutor General's Office of the USSR, 26 Armenian citizens and 6 citizens of Azerbaijani nationality died during the riots, more than a hundred people were injured. According to unofficial estimates, the number of killed Armenians is in the hundreds.