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Silence: 20 Years Have Passed Since Sumgait

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  • Silence: 20 Years Have Passed Since Sumgait

    SILENCE: 20 YEARS HAVE PASSED SINCE SUMGAIT
    Haik Demoyan

    KarabakhOpen
    28-02-2008 17:48:28

    The genocide in Sumgait has already been included in encyclopedias
    and is defined as a massacre and mass displacement of the Armenian
    population of Sumgait planned and perpetrated by the Azerbaijani
    circles on February 27-29, 1988.

    The purpose of the crime was to prevent the possibility of the
    settlement of the Karabakh issue, intimidate the Armenians with the
    prospect of new bloodshed and force Artsakh to give up the national
    liberation struggle. On the eve of the pogroms the Azerbaijani party
    functionary E. Asadov threatened to "punish" the Armenians by an
    invasion at Nagorno-Karabakh. On February 26, the day before the
    start of the pogroms, in a meeting with the Armenian intelligentsia,
    Mikhail Gorbachov said "worried" about the security of the 200 thousand
    Armenians living in Baku, relating the given factor to the claims
    of the Armenians of Artsakh for unification of the Nagorno-Karabakh
    Autonomous Region and Soviet Armenia.

    In order to kindle passions, false rumors were circulated in Sumgait
    that in Armenia allegedly pogroms of Azerbaijanis and looting is
    underway. In particular, the TV address of the prosecutor general
    of the USSR Katusev about the death of two Azerbaijanis during the
    events in Askeran was a clear provocation.

    The crime had been planned beforehand. Evidence to this is the list
    of addresses of Armenians, the scenario written beforehand and the
    division of roles (killers, looters, arson of property, elimination
    of traces of crime), iron sticks and other equipment produced long
    before, distribution of alcohol and narcotics. Besides, telephones
    in the houses of Armenians were disconnected, the Police and the
    Ambulance Station idled, a system of signs was used for marking the
    places where Armenians lived, etc.

    The Azerbaijanis behaved differently during the monstrous crime. Some
    of them hid their Armenian neighbors, and saved a lot of people,
    others pointed to the places where the Armenians were hiding.

    The results of 3 days of pogroms were horrible, the perpetrators were
    cruel: dozens were killed, most of them were tortured and burned to
    death, many were raped, mostly adolescents, 18 thousand people became
    refugees, 200 houses of Armenian were robbed and ruined, dozens of
    kiosks, shops, production facilities were destroyed, dozens of cars
    were burned and crashed.

    On February 29 Soviet troops were deployed in Sumgait but violence
    and murders continued all through that day. The troops did not have
    an order to use weapon and could not help the Armenians. Only in the
    evening did they crack down on the mob and stopped pogroms.

    49 were tried and only one was sentenced to capital punishment. The
    others were accused of murder, rape, pogrom, without ruling out the
    motive "hooliganism". Instead of trying all the criminals together
    they filed different suits and scattered them to different cities of
    the country.

    Trials breached the regulations and violated the rights of the
    sufferers.

    After the collapse of the USSR most cases of the perpetrators of
    the genocide were dismissed, and they were acquitted. The crime was
    not condemned officially, and no condolences were offered to the
    sufferers. The absence of an adequate evaluation of the crime caused
    a surge of pogroms in different cities of the USSR. The police and
    law enforcers also avoided punishment. The exact number of victims
    of the Genocide in Sumgait is not known.

    The USSR office of prosecutor general stated relying on data provided
    by the office of the Azerbaijani prosecutor that 27 citizens of
    Armenian origin died in Sumgait.

    Arakelyan Arshak Levon Arushanyan Razmela Atanes Arushanyan Vladimir
    Avanes Avagyan Lola Pavel Avagyan Yuri Bagrat Avanesyan Albert Manvel
    Avanesyan Valeri Manvel Aramyan Artur Armo Aramyan Armo Ashot Babayan
    Arshak Aslan Babayan Elena Markos Grigoryan Emma Shirin Danielyan
    Nikolay Artem Danielyan Seda Osip Tovmasyan Rafik Hambardzum Ghambaryan
    Alexander Alexander Martirosov Garry Artem Melkumyan Edward Soghomon
    Melkumyan Igor Soghomon Melkumyan Irina Soghomon Melkumyan Raisa
    Arsen Melkumyan Soghomon Margar Melkumyan Piruza Arakelovna Movsesova
    Hersilia Bkhshi Sargsyan Shahen Gerasim Trdatov Gabriel Aram

    However, the facts are sufficient reason to doubt the official
    information.

    Witnesses say there were over 70 unidentified bodies at the morgue. The
    chair of the USSR Council of Ministers N. Rizhkov voiced doubt
    about the real number of victims. Some of the victims were buried
    in Baku, there were cases when the cause of death was concealed or
    falsified. The Armenians of Sumgait who escaped the pogroms went to
    Russia and other countries of the CIS.

    Although the international community has not defined the massacres in
    Sumgait as a genocide yet, it was condemned by the European parliament
    (resolution 1988), the U.S. Senate (1989) and the parliament of
    Argentina.

    On March 8, 1988 a memorial to the victims of Sumgait was put up
    at the Memorial of Stepanakert, and a khachkar was erected near
    the Memorial to the victims of the Genocide of Armenians in 1915
    (Tsitsernakaberd, Yerevan).
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