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By playing card of "Khojalu", Baku is trying to distract attention
from genocide of Armenians in Sumgait, Baku, Kirovabad...
15:28 01/03/2014 >> REGION
26 years ago on 26-29 February 1988 an act of genocide was carried out
against Armenian population of Sumgait city of Azerbaijani SSR. In
terms of actual complicity of local authorities and inaction of the
USSR government mass pogroms and killings of Armenians were carried
out, the crimes against humanity that shook the International
Community by their savage and brutal nature. This is stated in the
article of Ruben Zargaryan published in the newspaper "Komsomolskaya
Pravda".
As it is stated in the article, the massacres in Sumgait, which is
located hundreds of kilometers away from Nagorno Karabakh, were the
response to the legitimate expression of the will of people of Nagorno
Karabakh to unite with Armenia, an integral part of which Nagorno
Karabakh had been during millions of years till the Soviet era.
Nagorno Karabakh was a vivid example of systemic Armenophobic policy
of Azerbaijani government.
"Mass killings of Armenians in the "cosmopolitan" Sumgait were
intended to block the possible solution of the problem by the Centre
of the Union as well as to frighten the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh
with the prospects of new massacres, to make them neglect their
natural right to freedom and dignity. Dozens of innocent people were
killed with sadistic cruelty on the basis of national origin," the
author states.
According to the article, on last day of Sumgait massacres of
Armenians, on February 29, 1988 meeting of Politburo of Central
Committee of CPSU took place in Kremlin, where it was for the first
time officially noted that the pogroms and massacres in Sumgait were
carried out on national basis, against people of Armenian origin.
As the author states, the genocide against Armenians in Sumgait was
thoroughly planned in advance. "Co-chairman of the Social-Democratic
Party of Azerbaijan Zardusht Alizadeh writes about the first rally of
the Azerbaijani youth in front of the Central Committee of CP in
Azerbaijan that took place already on February 19, 1988 (before the
decision of Oblast Council of People's Deputies of NKAO was made on 20
February 1988) and about an attempt of Armenian pogroms in Baku."
It is stated in the article that during the anti-Armenian rallies that
started on 26 February, in the central square of Sumgait, the heads of
the city openly called for the violence against the Armenians, created
an atmosphere of mass hysteria and psychosis. On 27 February the thugs
armed with the pre-fabricated metal rods and other piercing weapons,
launched a planned criminal action. The thugs clearly knew their
tasks, having the pre-compiled list of Armenian citizens and their
addresses. Split into groups of 50-80 people, they broke into the
apartments of the Armenians, killed them not only in their houses but
took them out of their houses into the courtyards and publicly mocked
them. After painful bullying the victims were doused with gasoline and
burnt.
"Entire families were destroyed. In this same way all the members of
Melkumyan family were killed. Soghomon Markarovich , 57 years old ,
Raisa Arsenovna, 54 years old, Edward, 28 years old, Igor , 31 years
old and Irina, 27 years old. After being beaten, raped and grievously
wounded their bodies were burnt," the author writes.
The article also contains some excerpts from the testimony recorded in
the protocols of the court hearings of Azerbaijani thugs. So Zarbalaev
told that "when on 29 February, 1988 the crowd approached 5a house, a
group of boys immediately entered the first entrance...in 10 minutes the
boys were drugging 50 years old man out of entrance. He was surrounded
by 15-20 people who started to beat him with an axe, knives, and
wooden sticks. Then one of the boys took the burning mattress and
covered the man with it. Others threw different things on him."
Witness Atlukhanov said that on their way to the train station
Akhmedov and he both saw a naked murdered girl in the reeds, while
near the traffic lights a bloody man was lying on the ground...APCs were
there but they didn't intervene either.
"The Azerbaijani authorities committed a crime against humanity in
Sumgait, the victims of which were 36 Armenians (this is a recorded
number, but in fact the number of killed were much higher), among whom
were pregnant women, children and old men. Hundreds were injured, many
of whom remained maimed, while thousands became refugees," the article
reads and notes that immediately after the pogroms the authorities of
Azerbaijan SSR implemented measures to hide the traces of the crime,
tried to destroy the physical evidence.
The author regrets that to this day the genocide, organized in Sumagit
from 27 to 29 February of 1988 hasn't received an adequate political
and legal assessment at the state level.
"It is clear that the absence of an adequate political and legal
assessment of Sumgait tragedy, impunity, created a precedent for
subsequent genocide of Armenians in Baku in January 1990 and for
analogous crimes in other regions of Azerbaijan as well as on the
territory of Nagorno Karabakh," the author writes.
The article notes that on February 1992 the Azerbaijani leadership
carried out the murder of its own nation on the territory of Khojalu
which was under the control of Azerbaijani armed forces, specifically
near Aghdam, from where the continuous bombardment of NKR whole
territory was carried out and from where attacks on villages and
cities of Karabakh were launched.
"The authorities of Azerbaijan systematically falsify the events in
Khojalu. The photo materials presented by Azerbaijan are photos
combined by computer and present other historical events in other
geographical locations. The photos that allegedly show the Khojalu
tragedy, in reality are the photos of the earthquake of Turkey 1983,
Afghan children refugees, the pogroms of Alawites in 1978 in the
Turkish city of Marash, the killed Albanians in Kosovo, pogroms of
1999 in Balkans, Hamas militants killed by Israeli Army," the author
writes.
According to him, regularly playing the card of "Khojalu", the
official Baku tries to divert the attention of International Community
from the genocide against Armenians in Sumgait, Baku, Kirovabad,
Khanlar and in other parts of Azerbaijan as well as in the border
communities of NKR.
The author notes that in the course of large-scale aggression of
Azerbaijan against Nagorno Karabakh Republic from 1991 to 1994, in the
Karabakh village Maragha that was captured for several hours by
Azerbaijanis on April 10 of 1992 more than 80 people were brutally
killed, while 67 were taken as a hostages, the fate of many of them is
still unknown. Those villagers that didn't manage to leave the village
were dismembered by axes, doused with gasoline and burned though being
alive.
"In Azerbaijan instead of repenting for endless autocracies and
brutality, instead of conviction of the criminals, we now see and hear
only saber rattling and threats of revenge, terroristic calls to shoot
civilian planes, falsification of historical facts and an ongoing
racist, misanthropic insult of Armenian people," the author writes.
Zargaryan emphasizes that the shame of release and glorification of
axe-murderer Safarov in Azerbaijan once more demonstrated to the
International Community that in Azerbaijan the murder on national
basis is a state policy, while the deliberate and systemic lies and
failures of international agreements underpin the policy conducted by
Baku.
Source: Panorama.am
from genocide of Armenians in Sumgait, Baku, Kirovabad...
15:28 01/03/2014 >> REGION
26 years ago on 26-29 February 1988 an act of genocide was carried out
against Armenian population of Sumgait city of Azerbaijani SSR. In
terms of actual complicity of local authorities and inaction of the
USSR government mass pogroms and killings of Armenians were carried
out, the crimes against humanity that shook the International
Community by their savage and brutal nature. This is stated in the
article of Ruben Zargaryan published in the newspaper "Komsomolskaya
Pravda".
As it is stated in the article, the massacres in Sumgait, which is
located hundreds of kilometers away from Nagorno Karabakh, were the
response to the legitimate expression of the will of people of Nagorno
Karabakh to unite with Armenia, an integral part of which Nagorno
Karabakh had been during millions of years till the Soviet era.
Nagorno Karabakh was a vivid example of systemic Armenophobic policy
of Azerbaijani government.
"Mass killings of Armenians in the "cosmopolitan" Sumgait were
intended to block the possible solution of the problem by the Centre
of the Union as well as to frighten the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh
with the prospects of new massacres, to make them neglect their
natural right to freedom and dignity. Dozens of innocent people were
killed with sadistic cruelty on the basis of national origin," the
author states.
According to the article, on last day of Sumgait massacres of
Armenians, on February 29, 1988 meeting of Politburo of Central
Committee of CPSU took place in Kremlin, where it was for the first
time officially noted that the pogroms and massacres in Sumgait were
carried out on national basis, against people of Armenian origin.
As the author states, the genocide against Armenians in Sumgait was
thoroughly planned in advance. "Co-chairman of the Social-Democratic
Party of Azerbaijan Zardusht Alizadeh writes about the first rally of
the Azerbaijani youth in front of the Central Committee of CP in
Azerbaijan that took place already on February 19, 1988 (before the
decision of Oblast Council of People's Deputies of NKAO was made on 20
February 1988) and about an attempt of Armenian pogroms in Baku."
It is stated in the article that during the anti-Armenian rallies that
started on 26 February, in the central square of Sumgait, the heads of
the city openly called for the violence against the Armenians, created
an atmosphere of mass hysteria and psychosis. On 27 February the thugs
armed with the pre-fabricated metal rods and other piercing weapons,
launched a planned criminal action. The thugs clearly knew their
tasks, having the pre-compiled list of Armenian citizens and their
addresses. Split into groups of 50-80 people, they broke into the
apartments of the Armenians, killed them not only in their houses but
took them out of their houses into the courtyards and publicly mocked
them. After painful bullying the victims were doused with gasoline and
burnt.
"Entire families were destroyed. In this same way all the members of
Melkumyan family were killed. Soghomon Markarovich , 57 years old ,
Raisa Arsenovna, 54 years old, Edward, 28 years old, Igor , 31 years
old and Irina, 27 years old. After being beaten, raped and grievously
wounded their bodies were burnt," the author writes.
The article also contains some excerpts from the testimony recorded in
the protocols of the court hearings of Azerbaijani thugs. So Zarbalaev
told that "when on 29 February, 1988 the crowd approached 5a house, a
group of boys immediately entered the first entrance...in 10 minutes the
boys were drugging 50 years old man out of entrance. He was surrounded
by 15-20 people who started to beat him with an axe, knives, and
wooden sticks. Then one of the boys took the burning mattress and
covered the man with it. Others threw different things on him."
Witness Atlukhanov said that on their way to the train station
Akhmedov and he both saw a naked murdered girl in the reeds, while
near the traffic lights a bloody man was lying on the ground...APCs were
there but they didn't intervene either.
"The Azerbaijani authorities committed a crime against humanity in
Sumgait, the victims of which were 36 Armenians (this is a recorded
number, but in fact the number of killed were much higher), among whom
were pregnant women, children and old men. Hundreds were injured, many
of whom remained maimed, while thousands became refugees," the article
reads and notes that immediately after the pogroms the authorities of
Azerbaijan SSR implemented measures to hide the traces of the crime,
tried to destroy the physical evidence.
The author regrets that to this day the genocide, organized in Sumagit
from 27 to 29 February of 1988 hasn't received an adequate political
and legal assessment at the state level.
"It is clear that the absence of an adequate political and legal
assessment of Sumgait tragedy, impunity, created a precedent for
subsequent genocide of Armenians in Baku in January 1990 and for
analogous crimes in other regions of Azerbaijan as well as on the
territory of Nagorno Karabakh," the author writes.
The article notes that on February 1992 the Azerbaijani leadership
carried out the murder of its own nation on the territory of Khojalu
which was under the control of Azerbaijani armed forces, specifically
near Aghdam, from where the continuous bombardment of NKR whole
territory was carried out and from where attacks on villages and
cities of Karabakh were launched.
"The authorities of Azerbaijan systematically falsify the events in
Khojalu. The photo materials presented by Azerbaijan are photos
combined by computer and present other historical events in other
geographical locations. The photos that allegedly show the Khojalu
tragedy, in reality are the photos of the earthquake of Turkey 1983,
Afghan children refugees, the pogroms of Alawites in 1978 in the
Turkish city of Marash, the killed Albanians in Kosovo, pogroms of
1999 in Balkans, Hamas militants killed by Israeli Army," the author
writes.
According to him, regularly playing the card of "Khojalu", the
official Baku tries to divert the attention of International Community
from the genocide against Armenians in Sumgait, Baku, Kirovabad,
Khanlar and in other parts of Azerbaijan as well as in the border
communities of NKR.
The author notes that in the course of large-scale aggression of
Azerbaijan against Nagorno Karabakh Republic from 1991 to 1994, in the
Karabakh village Maragha that was captured for several hours by
Azerbaijanis on April 10 of 1992 more than 80 people were brutally
killed, while 67 were taken as a hostages, the fate of many of them is
still unknown. Those villagers that didn't manage to leave the village
were dismembered by axes, doused with gasoline and burned though being
alive.
"In Azerbaijan instead of repenting for endless autocracies and
brutality, instead of conviction of the criminals, we now see and hear
only saber rattling and threats of revenge, terroristic calls to shoot
civilian planes, falsification of historical facts and an ongoing
racist, misanthropic insult of Armenian people," the author writes.
Zargaryan emphasizes that the shame of release and glorification of
axe-murderer Safarov in Azerbaijan once more demonstrated to the
International Community that in Azerbaijan the murder on national
basis is a state policy, while the deliberate and systemic lies and
failures of international agreements underpin the policy conducted by
Baku.
Source: Panorama.am