Press release on the 25th Anniversary of the Sumgait Pogroms distributed by the Delegation of the Republic of Armenia to all OSCE Permanent Delegations

05 March, 2013

Press Release
25th Anniversary of the Sumgait pogroms

Mass murders and pogroms of Armenians took place from 27 to 29 February, 1988 in Sumgait, a city located less than 30 kilometers away from the Azeri capital Baku. For three days, upon the silent agreement of the authorities and complete inaction of the law enforcement agencies people were being murdered, raped and maimed for the mere reason of being Armenian. Dozens of killed, hundreds of maimed and thousands of Armenians expelled from Sumgait became the first victims of Azerbaijan’s policy of terror aimed at the Armenians of Karabakh who in the preceding week had officially declared their intention to exercise their right to selfdetermination.

In spite of the peaceful and legitimate nature of those manifestations in Nagorno Karabakh, from the very beginning Azerbaijan rejected dialogue, resorted to the language of threats and intimidation and pursued policy of violent oppression of the free will of the people.

The Sumgait massacre was condemned by various voices of the international community. Among them the resolution of the European Parliament dated July 7, 1988 defined it as anti-Armenian pogroms which constituted threat to safety of Armenians living in Azerbaijan. However, the consecutive governments of Azerbaijan preferred silencing the truth about the Sumgait tragedy, concealing its true causes. The impunity granted to its masterminds paved the way for ethnic cleansing carried out throughout Azerbaijan. It reached its climax during the bloody massacres and mass deportations of Armenians of Baku in January 1990, which later led to a full-scale military aggression against the population of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

The recent official campaign of intimidation initiated against the Azerbaijani prominent writer Akram Aylisli, who referred to the anti-Armenian massacres in Sumgait, Baku and Nakhichevan in his novel "Stone Dreams", indicates that the Azerbaijani Government is not ready to acknowledge the grievances of the Armenian victims despite the genuine desire of reconciliation and peace expressed throughout its respective society.

25 years later we pay tribute to the innocent victims of the Sumgait tragedy and hope that memory towards innocent victims will bring together divided peoples towards peace and reconciliation.

MFA RA
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