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SUMGAIT POGROMS WERE PRE-ARRANGED - OPINIONS
TERT.AM
16:54 ~U 27.02.13
The Armenian pogroms of Sumgait were well-plotted by the Soviet
Azerbaijani government and elite, Hrayr Ulubabyan, a co-author of a
book devoted to the tragic killings, has told reporters.
According to him, the atrocious killings committed in the Azerbaijani
city 25 years ago, amounted to a real crime of genocide, the atrocious
acts corresponding to all the clauses of the 1948 Genocide Convention.
Ulubabyan, who is an authorized delegate of the families of people
killed in the tragedy, said the genocide per se lasted four days. He
recalled that a day before the massacres, Sumgait hosted a rally that
had brought together Azerbaijani officials voicing anti-Armenian calls.
"They irritated and provoked the people against the Armenians in
just one day and then left them enclosed. And the crashing and
smashing began. They started tearing things apart in the streets on
27 [February] to break into houses and on the 28th they had all the
addresses to go to houses to rape and kill people. The troops made no
intervention as they had no instruction to do so; they were instructed
to refrain from intervention," he said.
Ulubabyan added that a miserable decision to condemn the atrocities
was all the Soviet government did to respond to the anti-Armenian
policies of Azerbaijan.
Gevorg Danielyan, an advisor at Armenia's Constitutional Court also
attending the news conference, said that USSR General Secretary
Mikhail Gorbachev's subsequent statement (saying that the Soviet
government did not manage to prevent the crime) is not true as the
Armenians in Sumgait continued to be murdered even after the troops'
entrance into the city.
Danielyan noted that the perpetrators, who officially faced charges
over the murder of just 26 people, were first tried as hooligans and
later - at the Soviet Azerbaijani Communist Party's Central Committee
session - described as errants.
Ulubabyan added that he has disagreed to the reported number since
1989. "I have published a material and proved - with death certificates
and in all other possible ways - that more than one hundred Armenians
were killed. But I do not know the exact number," he said.
As for legal solutions, both speakers agreed that the issue is a
very complicated one, with raising the world community's awareness
remaining the only option for seeking justice.
From: Baghdasarian
TERT.AM
16:54 ~U 27.02.13
The Armenian pogroms of Sumgait were well-plotted by the Soviet
Azerbaijani government and elite, Hrayr Ulubabyan, a co-author of a
book devoted to the tragic killings, has told reporters.
According to him, the atrocious killings committed in the Azerbaijani
city 25 years ago, amounted to a real crime of genocide, the atrocious
acts corresponding to all the clauses of the 1948 Genocide Convention.
Ulubabyan, who is an authorized delegate of the families of people
killed in the tragedy, said the genocide per se lasted four days. He
recalled that a day before the massacres, Sumgait hosted a rally that
had brought together Azerbaijani officials voicing anti-Armenian calls.
"They irritated and provoked the people against the Armenians in
just one day and then left them enclosed. And the crashing and
smashing began. They started tearing things apart in the streets on
27 [February] to break into houses and on the 28th they had all the
addresses to go to houses to rape and kill people. The troops made no
intervention as they had no instruction to do so; they were instructed
to refrain from intervention," he said.
Ulubabyan added that a miserable decision to condemn the atrocities
was all the Soviet government did to respond to the anti-Armenian
policies of Azerbaijan.
Gevorg Danielyan, an advisor at Armenia's Constitutional Court also
attending the news conference, said that USSR General Secretary
Mikhail Gorbachev's subsequent statement (saying that the Soviet
government did not manage to prevent the crime) is not true as the
Armenians in Sumgait continued to be murdered even after the troops'
entrance into the city.
Danielyan noted that the perpetrators, who officially faced charges
over the murder of just 26 people, were first tried as hooligans and
later - at the Soviet Azerbaijani Communist Party's Central Committee
session - described as errants.
Ulubabyan added that he has disagreed to the reported number since
1989. "I have published a material and proved - with death certificates
and in all other possible ways - that more than one hundred Armenians
were killed. But I do not know the exact number," he said.
As for legal solutions, both speakers agreed that the issue is a
very complicated one, with raising the world community's awareness
remaining the only option for seeking justice.
From: Baghdasarian