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news.am, Armenia
Feb 27 2010
Armenian pogroms in Sumgait first sign of Azerbaijan's neo-fascist policy
10:07 / 02/27/2010By Ivan Gharibyan
Today, February 27, is the 22nd anniversary of the first ethnic
pogroms in the Soviet Union's history. On February 27-29, 1988, just a
few days after the council of the people's deputies of the
Nagorno-Karabakh autonomous region decided to submit a request for the
region to secede from the Azerbaijani SSR and form part of the
Armenian SSR, unprecedented events in the multinational state's
history occurred in Sumgait.
The situation in the city, with lumpenproles constituting a major part
of its population, was being exacerbated for several days. One more
factor that complicated the situation was the absence of Jahangir
Muslimzade, Head of the Sumgait Committee of the Communist Party ' he
was on holiday. A day before the pogroms first Secretary of the
Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan Kyamran
Bagirov, and Chairman of the Council of Ministers Hasan Seyidov tried
to `cool the passions.' But the passions were running high at the
Chemical Industry Workers' Club in Sumgait, and the two top-ranking
officials had to leave through the back door.
On December 27, the wave of popular unrest swept over the streets. The
Azeri poet Khydyr Alovlu, a staunch supporter of the `national leader'
Heydar Aliyev, played a key provocative role in the events. He is the
person that held high posts in the Sumgait city administration later,
when the Aliyev clan came to power in independent Azerbaijan.
According to Azeri sources, at a rally on February 27, Khydyr Alovlu,
who considered himself a poet, cried out `Death to Armenians!'
Jahangir Muslimzade, who was attending the rally, lost control of the
situation. The local authorities and law-enforcers did not act. The
local Komsomol organization had to apply to Baku for help in
preventing a riot and murders.
The Armenian pogroms in Baku proved to be cold shower for the Kremlin,
which was completely confused by the events that were taking place for
the first time in the multinational state! According to official
information, 32 Armenians were tortured to death, and hundreds of them
were severely injured and disabled.
The Armenian massacre in Sumgait on February 27-29, 1988, which fact
is being passed over in silence in Azerbaijan, proved to be the first
sign of Azeri neo-fascism that was raising its head and later was rife
and rampant resulting in Armenian massacres in Baku and Kirovadad,
deportation of the Armenian population from the Shahumyan region, war
unleashed in response to the Nagorno-Karabakh people's demand for the
right to self-determination.
Strangely enough, but even all the aforementioned facts are not the
most terrible. Much more terrible and dangerous is the Azerbaijani
leaders' policy of sowing seeds of hatred toward the neighbors in
their own people by distorting historical facts and misinterpreting
the events of 1988-1994. The Aliyev clan's style is far from being
ingenious: they invented the `Khojali genocide' to consign the Sumgait
pogroms to oblivion. But the civilians killed in Khojali were actually
victims of a filthy domestic political struggle in Azerbaijan, which
fact is never mentioned in Baku. And irrefutable evidence, including
the statements by the then president of Azerbaijan Ayaz Mutalibov, is
available. The same can be said of the Armenian pogroms in Baku on
January 13-19. To hold back the truth, the Azeri leaders present the
entry of troops to Baku to prevent the annihilation of non-Muslim
population as Azerbaijan's national tragedy.
It cannot be helped. The Azeri authorities continue their policy of
turning their own people into a herd of cattle bereft of reason,
without any knowledge of history. As the saying was in Nazi Germany
`Our Fuehrer thinks for us.' This must be President Ilham Aliyev's
logic. By means of the mass media under his full control he is doing
his best to develop the personality cult of his deceased father.
The only thing for us to do is to bow our heads before the innocent
victims of the Sumgait pogroms organized by the Azeri cutthroats 22
years ago and thank the individual Azerbaijanis who, risking their own
lives, saved their Armenian friends and neighbors.
T.P.
http://news.am/en/news/15447.html
Feb 27 2010
Armenian pogroms in Sumgait first sign of Azerbaijan's neo-fascist policy
10:07 / 02/27/2010By Ivan Gharibyan
Today, February 27, is the 22nd anniversary of the first ethnic
pogroms in the Soviet Union's history. On February 27-29, 1988, just a
few days after the council of the people's deputies of the
Nagorno-Karabakh autonomous region decided to submit a request for the
region to secede from the Azerbaijani SSR and form part of the
Armenian SSR, unprecedented events in the multinational state's
history occurred in Sumgait.
The situation in the city, with lumpenproles constituting a major part
of its population, was being exacerbated for several days. One more
factor that complicated the situation was the absence of Jahangir
Muslimzade, Head of the Sumgait Committee of the Communist Party ' he
was on holiday. A day before the pogroms first Secretary of the
Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan Kyamran
Bagirov, and Chairman of the Council of Ministers Hasan Seyidov tried
to `cool the passions.' But the passions were running high at the
Chemical Industry Workers' Club in Sumgait, and the two top-ranking
officials had to leave through the back door.
On December 27, the wave of popular unrest swept over the streets. The
Azeri poet Khydyr Alovlu, a staunch supporter of the `national leader'
Heydar Aliyev, played a key provocative role in the events. He is the
person that held high posts in the Sumgait city administration later,
when the Aliyev clan came to power in independent Azerbaijan.
According to Azeri sources, at a rally on February 27, Khydyr Alovlu,
who considered himself a poet, cried out `Death to Armenians!'
Jahangir Muslimzade, who was attending the rally, lost control of the
situation. The local authorities and law-enforcers did not act. The
local Komsomol organization had to apply to Baku for help in
preventing a riot and murders.
The Armenian pogroms in Baku proved to be cold shower for the Kremlin,
which was completely confused by the events that were taking place for
the first time in the multinational state! According to official
information, 32 Armenians were tortured to death, and hundreds of them
were severely injured and disabled.
The Armenian massacre in Sumgait on February 27-29, 1988, which fact
is being passed over in silence in Azerbaijan, proved to be the first
sign of Azeri neo-fascism that was raising its head and later was rife
and rampant resulting in Armenian massacres in Baku and Kirovadad,
deportation of the Armenian population from the Shahumyan region, war
unleashed in response to the Nagorno-Karabakh people's demand for the
right to self-determination.
Strangely enough, but even all the aforementioned facts are not the
most terrible. Much more terrible and dangerous is the Azerbaijani
leaders' policy of sowing seeds of hatred toward the neighbors in
their own people by distorting historical facts and misinterpreting
the events of 1988-1994. The Aliyev clan's style is far from being
ingenious: they invented the `Khojali genocide' to consign the Sumgait
pogroms to oblivion. But the civilians killed in Khojali were actually
victims of a filthy domestic political struggle in Azerbaijan, which
fact is never mentioned in Baku. And irrefutable evidence, including
the statements by the then president of Azerbaijan Ayaz Mutalibov, is
available. The same can be said of the Armenian pogroms in Baku on
January 13-19. To hold back the truth, the Azeri leaders present the
entry of troops to Baku to prevent the annihilation of non-Muslim
population as Azerbaijan's national tragedy.
It cannot be helped. The Azeri authorities continue their policy of
turning their own people into a herd of cattle bereft of reason,
without any knowledge of history. As the saying was in Nazi Germany
`Our Fuehrer thinks for us.' This must be President Ilham Aliyev's
logic. By means of the mass media under his full control he is doing
his best to develop the personality cult of his deceased father.
The only thing for us to do is to bow our heads before the innocent
victims of the Sumgait pogroms organized by the Azeri cutthroats 22
years ago and thank the individual Azerbaijanis who, risking their own
lives, saved their Armenian friends and neighbors.
T.P.
http://news.am/en/news/15447.html