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FOREIGN POLICY JOURNAL: THE POLICY OF POGROMS IN SUMAYIT LATER UNFOLDED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE COUNTRY BY AZERBAIJANI AUTHORITIES
Panorama.am
03/05/2012
The tragic events of the "Bloody Sunday" in January 1972, when
mostly unarmed civilian protesters were killed on the streets of
Derry in Northern Ireland, might be much similar to the events in
Azerbaijani city of Sumgayit in 1988. There, Armenians were being
executed for the sake of their ethnic origins, just because few
days before, the legislature in the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous
Oblast capital Stepanakert applied with a petition to the Kremlin
to re-join Soviet Armenia, says the online analytical publication
"Foreign Policy Journal" in an article titled "A War That Has Been
Neglected Since 1994."
The publication notes that the policy of pogroms against Armenians
later unfolded in Baku, Kirovabad, and other cities and villages of
Azerbaijan in the late years of the Soviet Union's existence. And
although the Soviets staged some prosecutions to punish anti-Armenian
pogroms in Sumgayit (and not anywhere else), only few suspects got
prison terms for "hooliganism and mass riots." Instead of blaming
and shaming for the ethnic cleansings, most suspects were freed in
the courtrooms or sentenced to conditional terms.
And before conflicting diplomats and mediators may come to terms for
conflict resolution, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Nagorno Karabakh are
still fighting, the article continues. The Armenian Defense Ministry
reported on April 27 that the Azerbaijani army has been shelling with
sniper and artillery fire the borderland villages of Tavush region
in Armenia, including onto a school and kindergarten. Three soldiers
of the Armenian army have been killed, another one wounded.
Azerbaijani officials and the media indirectly confirmed the incident.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry asked the Personal Representative
of OSCE CiO to dispatch an emergency monitoring mission to the
Armenia-Azerbaijan border. The two OSCE observers were already in place
on April 30 and recorded the incidents, it is said in the publication.
Ahead of parliamentary elections in Armenia on May 6, this situation
affects the domestic political stability and threatens the national
security more than ever, leaving for this tiny country in the Caucasus
no other option than to engage militarily, "Foreign Policy Journal"
writes.
The President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, has already manifested
an "inevitable" and devastating answer to punish for the ceasefire
violation, while OSCE Minsk Group co-Chairs rushed to urge the parties
"to abstain from retaliatory measures," but didn't utter anything
about strengthening the ceasefire regime monitoring capabilities.
"This is exactly the time when the international community should
urge Azerbaijan to comply with long-negotiated confidence-building
measures - pulling back snipers and allowing installation of ceasefire
violation mechanisms to avoid any new escalation that the region is
obviously rushing into," says "Foreign Policy Journal."
From: Baghdasarian
Panorama.am
03/05/2012
The tragic events of the "Bloody Sunday" in January 1972, when
mostly unarmed civilian protesters were killed on the streets of
Derry in Northern Ireland, might be much similar to the events in
Azerbaijani city of Sumgayit in 1988. There, Armenians were being
executed for the sake of their ethnic origins, just because few
days before, the legislature in the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous
Oblast capital Stepanakert applied with a petition to the Kremlin
to re-join Soviet Armenia, says the online analytical publication
"Foreign Policy Journal" in an article titled "A War That Has Been
Neglected Since 1994."
The publication notes that the policy of pogroms against Armenians
later unfolded in Baku, Kirovabad, and other cities and villages of
Azerbaijan in the late years of the Soviet Union's existence. And
although the Soviets staged some prosecutions to punish anti-Armenian
pogroms in Sumgayit (and not anywhere else), only few suspects got
prison terms for "hooliganism and mass riots." Instead of blaming
and shaming for the ethnic cleansings, most suspects were freed in
the courtrooms or sentenced to conditional terms.
And before conflicting diplomats and mediators may come to terms for
conflict resolution, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Nagorno Karabakh are
still fighting, the article continues. The Armenian Defense Ministry
reported on April 27 that the Azerbaijani army has been shelling with
sniper and artillery fire the borderland villages of Tavush region
in Armenia, including onto a school and kindergarten. Three soldiers
of the Armenian army have been killed, another one wounded.
Azerbaijani officials and the media indirectly confirmed the incident.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry asked the Personal Representative
of OSCE CiO to dispatch an emergency monitoring mission to the
Armenia-Azerbaijan border. The two OSCE observers were already in place
on April 30 and recorded the incidents, it is said in the publication.
Ahead of parliamentary elections in Armenia on May 6, this situation
affects the domestic political stability and threatens the national
security more than ever, leaving for this tiny country in the Caucasus
no other option than to engage militarily, "Foreign Policy Journal"
writes.
The President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, has already manifested
an "inevitable" and devastating answer to punish for the ceasefire
violation, while OSCE Minsk Group co-Chairs rushed to urge the parties
"to abstain from retaliatory measures," but didn't utter anything
about strengthening the ceasefire regime monitoring capabilities.
"This is exactly the time when the international community should
urge Azerbaijan to comply with long-negotiated confidence-building
measures - pulling back snipers and allowing installation of ceasefire
violation mechanisms to avoid any new escalation that the region is
obviously rushing into," says "Foreign Policy Journal."
From: Baghdasarian