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TO 26TH ANNIVERSARY OF SUMGAIT MASSACRE ... "GUYS COMPARED THESE EVENTS WITH MOVIE CALLED "ORDINARY FASCISM"
[ Part 2.2: "Attached Text" ]
20:14 28/02/2014 >> SOCIETY
Panorama.am has already reported that in the frameworks of the
project "Ordinary Genocide" the second volume of the collection
of "Sumgait tragedy: Eyewitness Accounts” is planned to
be published. According to the project manager Marina Grigoryan,
publication of the second volume is the continuation of the work that
was started immediately after the genocide in Sumgait. At that time,
under the supervision of Samvel Shahmuradyan, the testimonies of
those who had suffered directly, lost relatives and survived through
the terrible tragedy were collected and published. The first volume
of the collection was published back in 1989; it was translated into
nine languages and was re-released last year.
According to Marina Grigoryan, evidences of more than 50 people,
written both 25 years ago and recently have been depicted in the second
volume. Besides, the collection includes several newspaper articles
dedicated to "Sumgait" and published in the Soviet and world press
in different years. The book will come out in Russian in late March.
Marina Grigoryan also noted that the third volume is to be prepared;
it will include materials of criminal cases on Sumgait events, as
well as the indictment of the USSR Prosecutor's Office of Azerbaijan
on the case which was being investigated by the Supreme Court of the
USSR in October-November 1988.
In connection with the 26th anniversary of the Armenian genocide in
Sumgait Panorama.am continues publishing some of the evidences that
have been included in the second volume.
Panteley Melikov, a soldier of the Soviet Union Army. Greek by
nationality. Born in Tbilisi. He served in Sumgait in February 1988.
It was February 28, Sunday morning, I was on leave, reached town from
the unit on foot; there were no buses there. The city was closed;
fire-engines and police were on the highways and didn’t allow
anyone to enter the city. I moved away from the road and appeared in
Sumgait crossing the steppe. At first I went to the post office to
make a call, but the mail was exploded, there was nothing left there.
Thronged of Azerbaijanis were walking in the city, mostly young people,
from 16 to 25 years old, about 100 people or more. They were walking
through the streets, the yards, were entering the apartments.
Later I learnt that these were the flats of Armenians; we were also
told that a day before they had attended Housing and communal service
offices and asked for a list of apartments were the Armenians lived.
Basically, there was no one in these apartments, but if they found
someone, they killed him.
That day I saw both killings and slaughters... Near the market,
in front of my eyes, they caught an Armenian girl, 16-17 years old.
They raped her just on the street - 4 people, then they cut her into
pieces with a knife. Seeing this, I approached them to intervene but
got a hit, they broke my jaw and beat me quite well. I saw how they
killed an Armenian woman on the street; she was 58-60 years old. She
was cut by knives by several people, I was 15 meters far, standing,
unable to do anything. I saw by my own eyes how the crowd stopped the
car in which there were two Azerbaijanis sitting and under the pretext
that they do not help them, it means they are on the Armenians’
side, killed them. The Azerbaijanis killed Azerbaijanis. I saw also
other Azerbaijanis who refused to participate in pogroms for which
they were beaten and killed. One climbed up a tree to escape the
crowds. He was killed right on the tree for refusing to show where
the Armenians lived.
On that day, on the 28th, they did not touch the soldiers yet; I
didn’t see any military man that day in the streets. But on
the 29th they started to attack the soldiers too.
- Did the pogrom-makers wear other weapons besides the cold weapons?
- They had the same weapons, as we - guns, handguns and even hunting
rifles or homemade guns. They were not like a crowd; their actions
were organized.
(...) I do not know how exactly they were killing Armenians, but
there were a lot of people murdered brutally. Guys even compared these
events with the movie "Ordinary Fascism", which was recently shown;
they were saying that the killings in Sumgait were very similar to
what was described in the movie. The police did not intervene; those
who were trying to stop them on the first day were killed. Many police
officers were going along with the crowd; I saw it by my eyes.
- Is it true that in the pogroms only drug addicts and hooligans
were involved?
- If you really think so, it means that the entire population in
Sumgait consisted of addicts and hooligans, and there were no other
people there...
(...) Later it quietened down. Actually, they were expecting that on
April 24, in connection with the Armenian Genocide Day the Azerbaijanis
will be drive out from Armenia. They were getting ready for this in
Sumgait; they declared a war footing, but nothing happened. During
all this time we never heard that any Azerbaijani was killed, smashed
in Armenia or driven out.
- Can you tell me how many Armenians were killed during those days
in Sumgait? Approximately at least?
- I cannot say... But if we take those 2-3 days, it is not 32 it is
at least 10 times more. Three hundred people probably.
- Did Armenians defend themselves?
-Only by cold weapons. I saw Armenian taxi drivers who were keeping
axes in the trunk - they said if they are attacked they will not
surrender that easily. But those who were attacked in their homes at
night could do nothing.
- One of the refugee women told me that the Azerbaijanis, under the
pretext of protection, were gathering the Armenians in the buses,
taking them to the sea and throwing them into the sea. Is that true?
- Yes, it is true. They also were stopping the buses on Sumgait-Baku
route, ordering those who were not of Armenian nationality to come
out of the bus, and were killing those who remained in the bus. I
cleaned those corpses myself; there were mostly women and children,
only 7 people, 4 women, three small children. They were stabbed with
knives. I saw it by my own eyes. It was 29 Feb. when I first witnessed
such an event; we were leaving Nasosni for Baku. Then again on 7-8, and
everywhere people were killed by knives. Such killings occurred also on
15, 16 March. I saw how only one Armenian was left in the bus, because
very few people were traveling by bus already, everyone knew about
the attacks. He was a young man, he was not killed, but they simply
set the bus on fire; anyway he survived, though was badly burned...
(...) None of the newspapers wrote the truth about the Sumgait
events. The mere fact that they say there were 32 people dead ... I saw
that amount of people killed on the first day only. The girl from the
program "Position" was right - they will not speak the truth about
Sumgait now, but maybe 20-30 years later.
- Everything that you saw happening in Sumgait was similar to genocide?
- It was not similar; in my opinion it can’t be otherwise ...
It was exactly genocide.
ВEдеозапEсь, сделанную в начале Eюля 1988C., моOно посмотреть на
сайте KarabakhRecords
You can watch the video-footage prepared at the beginning of July
1988 on the site ofKarabakhRecords.
http://www.panorama.am/en/politics/2014/02/28/sumgait-grigoryan-panteleyev/
[ Part 2.2: "Attached Text" ]
20:14 28/02/2014 >> SOCIETY
Panorama.am has already reported that in the frameworks of the
project "Ordinary Genocide" the second volume of the collection
of "Sumgait tragedy: Eyewitness Accounts” is planned to
be published. According to the project manager Marina Grigoryan,
publication of the second volume is the continuation of the work that
was started immediately after the genocide in Sumgait. At that time,
under the supervision of Samvel Shahmuradyan, the testimonies of
those who had suffered directly, lost relatives and survived through
the terrible tragedy were collected and published. The first volume
of the collection was published back in 1989; it was translated into
nine languages and was re-released last year.
According to Marina Grigoryan, evidences of more than 50 people,
written both 25 years ago and recently have been depicted in the second
volume. Besides, the collection includes several newspaper articles
dedicated to "Sumgait" and published in the Soviet and world press
in different years. The book will come out in Russian in late March.
Marina Grigoryan also noted that the third volume is to be prepared;
it will include materials of criminal cases on Sumgait events, as
well as the indictment of the USSR Prosecutor's Office of Azerbaijan
on the case which was being investigated by the Supreme Court of the
USSR in October-November 1988.
In connection with the 26th anniversary of the Armenian genocide in
Sumgait Panorama.am continues publishing some of the evidences that
have been included in the second volume.
Panteley Melikov, a soldier of the Soviet Union Army. Greek by
nationality. Born in Tbilisi. He served in Sumgait in February 1988.
It was February 28, Sunday morning, I was on leave, reached town from
the unit on foot; there were no buses there. The city was closed;
fire-engines and police were on the highways and didn’t allow
anyone to enter the city. I moved away from the road and appeared in
Sumgait crossing the steppe. At first I went to the post office to
make a call, but the mail was exploded, there was nothing left there.
Thronged of Azerbaijanis were walking in the city, mostly young people,
from 16 to 25 years old, about 100 people or more. They were walking
through the streets, the yards, were entering the apartments.
Later I learnt that these were the flats of Armenians; we were also
told that a day before they had attended Housing and communal service
offices and asked for a list of apartments were the Armenians lived.
Basically, there was no one in these apartments, but if they found
someone, they killed him.
That day I saw both killings and slaughters... Near the market,
in front of my eyes, they caught an Armenian girl, 16-17 years old.
They raped her just on the street - 4 people, then they cut her into
pieces with a knife. Seeing this, I approached them to intervene but
got a hit, they broke my jaw and beat me quite well. I saw how they
killed an Armenian woman on the street; she was 58-60 years old. She
was cut by knives by several people, I was 15 meters far, standing,
unable to do anything. I saw by my own eyes how the crowd stopped the
car in which there were two Azerbaijanis sitting and under the pretext
that they do not help them, it means they are on the Armenians’
side, killed them. The Azerbaijanis killed Azerbaijanis. I saw also
other Azerbaijanis who refused to participate in pogroms for which
they were beaten and killed. One climbed up a tree to escape the
crowds. He was killed right on the tree for refusing to show where
the Armenians lived.
On that day, on the 28th, they did not touch the soldiers yet; I
didn’t see any military man that day in the streets. But on
the 29th they started to attack the soldiers too.
- Did the pogrom-makers wear other weapons besides the cold weapons?
- They had the same weapons, as we - guns, handguns and even hunting
rifles or homemade guns. They were not like a crowd; their actions
were organized.
(...) I do not know how exactly they were killing Armenians, but
there were a lot of people murdered brutally. Guys even compared these
events with the movie "Ordinary Fascism", which was recently shown;
they were saying that the killings in Sumgait were very similar to
what was described in the movie. The police did not intervene; those
who were trying to stop them on the first day were killed. Many police
officers were going along with the crowd; I saw it by my eyes.
- Is it true that in the pogroms only drug addicts and hooligans
were involved?
- If you really think so, it means that the entire population in
Sumgait consisted of addicts and hooligans, and there were no other
people there...
(...) Later it quietened down. Actually, they were expecting that on
April 24, in connection with the Armenian Genocide Day the Azerbaijanis
will be drive out from Armenia. They were getting ready for this in
Sumgait; they declared a war footing, but nothing happened. During
all this time we never heard that any Azerbaijani was killed, smashed
in Armenia or driven out.
- Can you tell me how many Armenians were killed during those days
in Sumgait? Approximately at least?
- I cannot say... But if we take those 2-3 days, it is not 32 it is
at least 10 times more. Three hundred people probably.
- Did Armenians defend themselves?
-Only by cold weapons. I saw Armenian taxi drivers who were keeping
axes in the trunk - they said if they are attacked they will not
surrender that easily. But those who were attacked in their homes at
night could do nothing.
- One of the refugee women told me that the Azerbaijanis, under the
pretext of protection, were gathering the Armenians in the buses,
taking them to the sea and throwing them into the sea. Is that true?
- Yes, it is true. They also were stopping the buses on Sumgait-Baku
route, ordering those who were not of Armenian nationality to come
out of the bus, and were killing those who remained in the bus. I
cleaned those corpses myself; there were mostly women and children,
only 7 people, 4 women, three small children. They were stabbed with
knives. I saw it by my own eyes. It was 29 Feb. when I first witnessed
such an event; we were leaving Nasosni for Baku. Then again on 7-8, and
everywhere people were killed by knives. Such killings occurred also on
15, 16 March. I saw how only one Armenian was left in the bus, because
very few people were traveling by bus already, everyone knew about
the attacks. He was a young man, he was not killed, but they simply
set the bus on fire; anyway he survived, though was badly burned...
(...) None of the newspapers wrote the truth about the Sumgait
events. The mere fact that they say there were 32 people dead ... I saw
that amount of people killed on the first day only. The girl from the
program "Position" was right - they will not speak the truth about
Sumgait now, but maybe 20-30 years later.
- Everything that you saw happening in Sumgait was similar to genocide?
- It was not similar; in my opinion it can’t be otherwise ...
It was exactly genocide.
ВEдеозапEсь, сделанную в начале Eюля 1988C., моOно посмотреть на
сайте KarabakhRecords
You can watch the video-footage prepared at the beginning of July
1988 on the site ofKarabakhRecords.
http://www.panorama.am/en/politics/2014/02/28/sumgait-grigoryan-panteleyev/