Armenians Mark Sumgait Massacre Anniversary
February 28, 2006
www.armeniadiaspora.com
By Armenpress
The leadership of Armenia, led by president Robert Kocharian, visited a memorial today in a Yerevan hill to lay a wreath to the monument erected in commemoration of innocent Armenians killed brutally by Azeri mobs in 1988 in Sumgait.
Commemoration events were held today across the country with a big rally staged at Republican square in downtown Yerevan that attracted more than 100,000 people.
Inspired by Gorbachev's perestroika on February 20, 1988 the session of the Nagorno Karabakh [...] appealed to the Supreme Soviets of Azerbaijan SSR and Armenian SSR for the transfer of { Nagorno Karabakh} from Azerbaijan to Armenia. This appeal was preceded by six similar requests from regional Soviets. However, the Kremlin adopted a resolution on February 21, contradicting the international principle of people's self-determination [...]. This was greeted with categorical protests from the people of Nagorno Karabakh.
[...]
Taking advantage of the undecided political stats body of the USSR, Communist authorities of Azerbaijan USSR falsified the history of the region and created nationalistic hysteria in the mass media, thus transforming the problem into an ethnic conflict. [...]. On February 22, a crowd numbering thousands of people, started to move towards Stepanakert from the neighboring Azerbaijani region of Agdam "to restore order." Bloodshed was very narrowly avoided.
Massacres of Armenians in Sumgait (a city located a half an hour drive away from the Azerbaijani capital, Baku) took place in broad daylight, witnessed by numerous gapers and passers by. The peak of the atrocities committed by Azeri perpetrators occurred on 27-29 February 1988. The events were preceded by a wave of anti-Armenian statements and rallies that swept over Azerbaijan in February 1988.
[...]
Izvestia Daily (20 August 1988) quotes Soviet deputy chief prosecutor Katusev who said that almost the entire area of Sumgait, a city with population of 250,000 had become the site of unhindered mass pogroms. The perpetrators who broke into Armenian homes were aided by prepared lists containing the names of the residents. They were armed with iron rods, stones, axes, knives, bottles and canisters full of benzene. According to witnesses, some apartments were raided by groups of 50 to 80 persons. Similar crowds (up to 100 people) stormed the streets. There were dozens of casualties and 53 murders - most of those burnt alive after being assaulted and tortured. Hundreds of innocent people were wounded and disabled. Many women, including adolescent girls, were raped. Over 200 apartments were raided, dozens of cars burnt, numerous shops and workshops looted. Mobs hurled furniture, refrigerators, TV sets, beds from balconies and then burnt them. The direct and indirect result of these horrors were tens of thousands of refugees.
[...]
The army arrived in Sumgait on 29 February. However, it limited itself to shielding against the ravaging mob that threw stones at the soldiers and did little to protect Armenians. "We are not instructed to go inside," was the soldiers' answer to the victims' pleas for help, according to witness S. Guliev.
The assault of a sovereign government against its citizens continued. In May 1988 in Shushi, the local authorities initiated the deportation of Armenians living in that hilltop city from which Karabakh's largest city, Stepanakert, was to be so easily shelled for the next several years. By September 1998, the last Armenians were ousted from Shushi. In the same year, Armenians were killed and wounded in the village of Khojali. In November and December 1988, a wave of Armenian pogroms swept Azerbaijan. The worst took place in Baku, Kirovabad (Ganja), Shemakh, Shamkhor, Mingechaur and Nakhichevan.
The Soviet press described how, in Kirovabad, perpetrators broke in a hospice for the elderly, captured and subsequently killed 12 helpless old Armenian men and women, including several disabled ones. In the winter of 1988, all Armenians were deported from dozens of Armenian villages in Azerbaijan. The same fate befell more than 40 Armenian settlements in the northern part of Karabakh - outside the borders of the autonomous region which was demanding self-determination - including the mountainous regions of Khanlar, Dashkesan, Shamkhor and Kedabek provinces. The 40,000 Armenians of Azerbaijan's third largest city, Ganja, were also forcibly removed from their homes. When it was over, there were less than 50,000 Armenians left in Baku, out of a total population of 215,000.
Throughout 1989, sporadic attacks, beatings, looting and massacres in Baku reduced that number to 30,000 - mostly the elderly who could not leave Baku. By early January 1990, Armenian pogroms in Baku intensified and became more organized. On 13 January, a crowd 50,000-strong left a rally, broke into groups and started methodically, house by house, 'cleansing' the city of its Armenians. Pogroms continued until 15 January. The total number of casualties during the first three days amounted to 33 people. The Soviet press had daily reports of indescribable horror - dissecting bodies, ripping open the abdomens of pregnant women, burning people alive - with a daily tally of murders in full view of the authorities.
Russia's Soyuz magazine reported that one man was literally torn apart, and his remains thrown in a garbage container. According to various sources, several hundred Armenians were killed. The remainder, mostly older Armenians, were forcibly removed - with many dying during and after deportation. Pogroms continued until 20 January when army troops were brought to Baku. By then, the city was fully 'liberated' from 'Armenian elements' except for a couple of hundred Armenians in mixed-marriages. During the military conflict over Nagorno Karabakh, the latter were literally 'fished out' for exchange with Azeri POWs.
The active role of the authorities was evident throughout. Hospitals issued countless death certificates for Armenians who died of 'hypertension,' 'diabetes,' or 'cardiovascular failure.' Police vehicles were never far from looters, ready to remove large valuables. Shortly after the pogroms, one of the leaders of Azerbaijan's Popular Front, E. Mamedov told a press conference, "I personally witnessed the murder of two Armenians not far from the railway station. A crowd gathered, they poured fuel on them and burned them. The local police precinct was just 200 meters away, and there were 400 to 500 privates of the interior forces who drove by the burning bodies. There were no attempts to enclose the area, save the victims or break-up the crowd."
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
www.armeniadiaspora.com
By Armenpress
The leadership of Armenia, led by president Robert Kocharian, visited a memorial today in a Yerevan hill to lay a wreath to the monument erected in commemoration of innocent Armenians killed brutally by Azeri mobs in 1988 in Sumgait.
Commemoration events were held today across the country with a big rally staged at Republican square in downtown Yerevan that attracted more than 100,000 people.
Inspired by Gorbachev's perestroika on February 20, 1988 the session of the Nagorno Karabakh [...] appealed to the Supreme Soviets of Azerbaijan SSR and Armenian SSR for the transfer of { Nagorno Karabakh} from Azerbaijan to Armenia. This appeal was preceded by six similar requests from regional Soviets. However, the Kremlin adopted a resolution on February 21, contradicting the international principle of people's self-determination [...]. This was greeted with categorical protests from the people of Nagorno Karabakh.
[...]
Taking advantage of the undecided political stats body of the USSR, Communist authorities of Azerbaijan USSR falsified the history of the region and created nationalistic hysteria in the mass media, thus transforming the problem into an ethnic conflict. [...]. On February 22, a crowd numbering thousands of people, started to move towards Stepanakert from the neighboring Azerbaijani region of Agdam "to restore order." Bloodshed was very narrowly avoided.
Massacres of Armenians in Sumgait (a city located a half an hour drive away from the Azerbaijani capital, Baku) took place in broad daylight, witnessed by numerous gapers and passers by. The peak of the atrocities committed by Azeri perpetrators occurred on 27-29 February 1988. The events were preceded by a wave of anti-Armenian statements and rallies that swept over Azerbaijan in February 1988.
[...]
Izvestia Daily (20 August 1988) quotes Soviet deputy chief prosecutor Katusev who said that almost the entire area of Sumgait, a city with population of 250,000 had become the site of unhindered mass pogroms. The perpetrators who broke into Armenian homes were aided by prepared lists containing the names of the residents. They were armed with iron rods, stones, axes, knives, bottles and canisters full of benzene. According to witnesses, some apartments were raided by groups of 50 to 80 persons. Similar crowds (up to 100 people) stormed the streets. There were dozens of casualties and 53 murders - most of those burnt alive after being assaulted and tortured. Hundreds of innocent people were wounded and disabled. Many women, including adolescent girls, were raped. Over 200 apartments were raided, dozens of cars burnt, numerous shops and workshops looted. Mobs hurled furniture, refrigerators, TV sets, beds from balconies and then burnt them. The direct and indirect result of these horrors were tens of thousands of refugees.
[...]
The army arrived in Sumgait on 29 February. However, it limited itself to shielding against the ravaging mob that threw stones at the soldiers and did little to protect Armenians. "We are not instructed to go inside," was the soldiers' answer to the victims' pleas for help, according to witness S. Guliev.
The assault of a sovereign government against its citizens continued. In May 1988 in Shushi, the local authorities initiated the deportation of Armenians living in that hilltop city from which Karabakh's largest city, Stepanakert, was to be so easily shelled for the next several years. By September 1998, the last Armenians were ousted from Shushi. In the same year, Armenians were killed and wounded in the village of Khojali. In November and December 1988, a wave of Armenian pogroms swept Azerbaijan. The worst took place in Baku, Kirovabad (Ganja), Shemakh, Shamkhor, Mingechaur and Nakhichevan.
The Soviet press described how, in Kirovabad, perpetrators broke in a hospice for the elderly, captured and subsequently killed 12 helpless old Armenian men and women, including several disabled ones. In the winter of 1988, all Armenians were deported from dozens of Armenian villages in Azerbaijan. The same fate befell more than 40 Armenian settlements in the northern part of Karabakh - outside the borders of the autonomous region which was demanding self-determination - including the mountainous regions of Khanlar, Dashkesan, Shamkhor and Kedabek provinces. The 40,000 Armenians of Azerbaijan's third largest city, Ganja, were also forcibly removed from their homes. When it was over, there were less than 50,000 Armenians left in Baku, out of a total population of 215,000.
Throughout 1989, sporadic attacks, beatings, looting and massacres in Baku reduced that number to 30,000 - mostly the elderly who could not leave Baku. By early January 1990, Armenian pogroms in Baku intensified and became more organized. On 13 January, a crowd 50,000-strong left a rally, broke into groups and started methodically, house by house, 'cleansing' the city of its Armenians. Pogroms continued until 15 January. The total number of casualties during the first three days amounted to 33 people. The Soviet press had daily reports of indescribable horror - dissecting bodies, ripping open the abdomens of pregnant women, burning people alive - with a daily tally of murders in full view of the authorities.
Russia's Soyuz magazine reported that one man was literally torn apart, and his remains thrown in a garbage container. According to various sources, several hundred Armenians were killed. The remainder, mostly older Armenians, were forcibly removed - with many dying during and after deportation. Pogroms continued until 20 January when army troops were brought to Baku. By then, the city was fully 'liberated' from 'Armenian elements' except for a couple of hundred Armenians in mixed-marriages. During the military conflict over Nagorno Karabakh, the latter were literally 'fished out' for exchange with Azeri POWs.
The active role of the authorities was evident throughout. Hospitals issued countless death certificates for Armenians who died of 'hypertension,' 'diabetes,' or 'cardiovascular failure.' Police vehicles were never far from looters, ready to remove large valuables. Shortly after the pogroms, one of the leaders of Azerbaijan's Popular Front, E. Mamedov told a press conference, "I personally witnessed the murder of two Armenians not far from the railway station. A crowd gathered, they poured fuel on them and burned them. The local police precinct was just 200 meters away, and there were 400 to 500 privates of the interior forces who drove by the burning bodies. There were no attempts to enclose the area, save the victims or break-up the crowd."
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
posted by Vahe Balabanian at 6:15 PM
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