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ANCA: Azerbaijani authorities try to divert attention from anniversary
of Sumgait events by its hostile agitating campaign
13:53 16/02/2013 » SOCIETY
On the eve of the anniversary of Sumgait pogroms, Armenian National
Assembly of America (ANCA) issued a statement in which was said that
Azerbaijani government is trying to divert attention from the
anniversary of the Sumgait events by its hostile agitating campaign.
`The Azeri government, which has been spreading a virulent
disinformation campaign agitating for war by condoning the slaying of
Armenians, as with the pardon of the murderer Ramil Safarov who axed
to death an Armenian officer in his sleep at a NATO Partnership for
Peace training exercise in Hungary, and ramping up tensions along the
ceasefire line, is aiming to distract attention from the upcoming 25th
anniversary of the atrocities that mark the beginning of the pogroms
against Armenians in Azerbaijan and Nagorno Karabakh,' the statement
says.
Twenty-five years ago, in the Azerbaijani town of Sumgait (Sumgayit),
longtime Armenian residents were brutally targeted on the basis of
their ethnicity and subjected to unspeakable crimes. According to a
March 1988 article in The Economist, "reports of atrocities, including
the murder and mutilation of pregnant Armenian women and newborn
babies in a maternity hospital, have not been denied. Other reports
speak of gangs of young Azerbaijanis hunting down Armenian families
and committing murder, rape and robbery." The Azeri government never
saw to the punishment of the perpetrators, the ANCA states.
The Assembly mentions that February 28, 2013, marks the 25th
anniversary of the pogroms committed by the Azerbaijani authorities
against its Armenian population and the beginning of the escalation of
violence against the Armenian minority across the entire country of
Azerbaijan and against Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh, culminating in
the violent expulsion of 200,000 Armenians from the Azeri capital city
of Baku in January 1990.
`Despite the Azeri government's assertion that the violence was due to
spontaneous riots, the pogroms in Sumgait, Kirovabad (now Ganja),
Baku, and elsewhere, were a retaliatory attempt to silence and thwart
the rights of the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh who lawfully
approached their government on the basis of a new openness in Soviet
society ushered in by President Gorbachev's policy of glasnost and
perestroika,' the statement says.
It says that, instead of respecting the legal rights of Armenians,
Azeri mobs targeted Armenians as a group and subjected them to gross
human rights violations reminiscent of practices and policies
resulting in the attempted annihilation of the Armenian population in
neighboring Ottoman Turkey earlier in the century.
`The Sumgait pogrom was widely reported and roundly condemned, but the
violence was never contained. Increasingly anti-Armenian forces acted
with impunity and the pogroms spread across Azerbaijan leading to the
military campaigns of the late 1980s to 1994 to deport the Armenians
of Nagorno Karabakh until a ceasefire agreement was signed by
Azerbaijan, Nagorno Karabakh, and Armenia,' the Assembly reminds.
The statement notes that Hidayat Orujev, a leader of the Communist
Party of Azerbaijan, days before the massacre of Armenians in Sumgait,
stated in an address to the governing Council of the Nagorno Karabakh
Autonomous Region: "If you do not stop campaigning for the unification
of Nagorno Karabakh with Armenia, if you don't sober up, 100,000
Azeris from neighboring districts will break into your houses, torch
your apartments, rape your women, and kill your children."
The Organization says that Mr. Orujev was appointed State Advisor for
Ethnic Policy by the late President Heydar Aliyev of Azerbaijan and
head of Azerbaijan's State Committee for Religious Affairs by current
President Ilham Aliyev.
`The Sumgait pogroms are a reminder of the need to respect the ethnic
and cultural identity of all people without discrimination and
violence,' concluded the Assembly in its report.
Source: Panorama.am
of Sumgait events by its hostile agitating campaign
13:53 16/02/2013 » SOCIETY
On the eve of the anniversary of Sumgait pogroms, Armenian National
Assembly of America (ANCA) issued a statement in which was said that
Azerbaijani government is trying to divert attention from the
anniversary of the Sumgait events by its hostile agitating campaign.
`The Azeri government, which has been spreading a virulent
disinformation campaign agitating for war by condoning the slaying of
Armenians, as with the pardon of the murderer Ramil Safarov who axed
to death an Armenian officer in his sleep at a NATO Partnership for
Peace training exercise in Hungary, and ramping up tensions along the
ceasefire line, is aiming to distract attention from the upcoming 25th
anniversary of the atrocities that mark the beginning of the pogroms
against Armenians in Azerbaijan and Nagorno Karabakh,' the statement
says.
Twenty-five years ago, in the Azerbaijani town of Sumgait (Sumgayit),
longtime Armenian residents were brutally targeted on the basis of
their ethnicity and subjected to unspeakable crimes. According to a
March 1988 article in The Economist, "reports of atrocities, including
the murder and mutilation of pregnant Armenian women and newborn
babies in a maternity hospital, have not been denied. Other reports
speak of gangs of young Azerbaijanis hunting down Armenian families
and committing murder, rape and robbery." The Azeri government never
saw to the punishment of the perpetrators, the ANCA states.
The Assembly mentions that February 28, 2013, marks the 25th
anniversary of the pogroms committed by the Azerbaijani authorities
against its Armenian population and the beginning of the escalation of
violence against the Armenian minority across the entire country of
Azerbaijan and against Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh, culminating in
the violent expulsion of 200,000 Armenians from the Azeri capital city
of Baku in January 1990.
`Despite the Azeri government's assertion that the violence was due to
spontaneous riots, the pogroms in Sumgait, Kirovabad (now Ganja),
Baku, and elsewhere, were a retaliatory attempt to silence and thwart
the rights of the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh who lawfully
approached their government on the basis of a new openness in Soviet
society ushered in by President Gorbachev's policy of glasnost and
perestroika,' the statement says.
It says that, instead of respecting the legal rights of Armenians,
Azeri mobs targeted Armenians as a group and subjected them to gross
human rights violations reminiscent of practices and policies
resulting in the attempted annihilation of the Armenian population in
neighboring Ottoman Turkey earlier in the century.
`The Sumgait pogrom was widely reported and roundly condemned, but the
violence was never contained. Increasingly anti-Armenian forces acted
with impunity and the pogroms spread across Azerbaijan leading to the
military campaigns of the late 1980s to 1994 to deport the Armenians
of Nagorno Karabakh until a ceasefire agreement was signed by
Azerbaijan, Nagorno Karabakh, and Armenia,' the Assembly reminds.
The statement notes that Hidayat Orujev, a leader of the Communist
Party of Azerbaijan, days before the massacre of Armenians in Sumgait,
stated in an address to the governing Council of the Nagorno Karabakh
Autonomous Region: "If you do not stop campaigning for the unification
of Nagorno Karabakh with Armenia, if you don't sober up, 100,000
Azeris from neighboring districts will break into your houses, torch
your apartments, rape your women, and kill your children."
The Organization says that Mr. Orujev was appointed State Advisor for
Ethnic Policy by the late President Heydar Aliyev of Azerbaijan and
head of Azerbaijan's State Committee for Religious Affairs by current
President Ilham Aliyev.
`The Sumgait pogroms are a reminder of the need to respect the ethnic
and cultural identity of all people without discrimination and
violence,' concluded the Assembly in its report.
Source: Panorama.am