Artsakh Ombudsman made a statement in connection with the 31st  anniversary of the Sumgait pogroms

ArmInfo. Artsakh ombudsman  Artak Beglaryan made a statement in connection with the 31st  anniversary of the massacre of Armenians in Sumgait, organized in  February 1988 by Azerbaijan. This was reported to ArmInfo in the  press service of the Artsakh Ombudsman's office.

Thus, in his statement, Beglaryan recalled that after a peaceful rally held in  Artsakh in February 1988, demanding reunification with Armenia, on  27-29 February in Sumgayit, the authorities of Soviet Azerbaijan  organized and massacred the Armenian population, accompanied by  special cruelty, torture, maiming, burning of living and already  killed people, group rape. According to him, 18,000 Armenians of  Sumgait were subjected to violence only because of their nationality,  as a result of which the rights of Armenians to life, to protection  from torture and discrimination, to freedom and security, to  property, to a fair trial, and many other rights.

 "The massacre of Armenians in Sumgait was organized at the state  level, as evidenced by many facts.  During the rallies before the  mass pogroms, the city authorities pushed the gathered crowd into  open violence, which in the following days turned into violent  actions against the Armenians in accordance with the lists of  addresses prepared in advance There are numerous facts and evidence  that the Azerbaijani police not only were completely inactive, but  also in many cases assisted and directed groups of homicides.   Although the city of Sumgait was only 25 kilometers from the capital  Baku, the Soviet army intervened and stopped the massacre only three  days later. In 1988, the Prosecutor General of the Azerbaijan SSR,  Ilyas Ismailov, declared: "The perpetrators who incited people to  pogroms (in Sumgait) are they sit in the Milli Mejlis (in the  Azerbaijani parliament), carrying deputy mandates in their pockets  "(source: Zerkalo newspaper, Azerbaijan, February 21, 2003)," the  Artsakh human rights defender recalled. Beglaryan also stated that  the authorities of Azerbaijan and the USSR made every effort to hide  the main cases of the killings, officially presenting only the names  of 26 victims. "On the events that took place, the European  Parliament adopted on July 7, 1988, a resolution condemning the mass  slaughter of Armenians in Azerbaijan, which reads:" Taking into  account the fact that Nagorno-Karabakh has historically been a part  of Armenia, more than 80% of its population are Armenians the region  was annexed by Azerbaijan in 1923, that in February 1988 the  Armenians suffered from the atrocities committed in the Azerbaijani  city of Sumgait;

 Considering the fact that the deterioration of the political  situation that led to the massacres of Armenians in Sumgait and the  murders in Baku is dangerous for Armenians living in Azerbaijan (the  European Parliament) condemns the atrocities and violence committed  against Armenians who expressed disagreement in Azerbaijan "In  addition, the Nobel Prize laureate Andrei Sakharov noted:" If before  someone doubted that Nagorno-Karabakh should belong to Azerbaijan,  after this tragedy no one has the moral right to say that he should "  full-time: open letter to M. Gorbachev, "Nezavisimaya Gazeta", 10.27  / 1992).

More detailed facts and comments on the Sumgait massacre can be found  on the website karabakhrecords.info "," Beglaryan said in a  statement. According to him, the crime against humanity organized in  Sumgait was a response to the peaceful demonstrations of the Artsakh  Armenians aimed at realizing the rights of peoples  self-determination. "In addition, the Azerbaijani authorities, having  the example of an Armenian-populated Nakhchivan, continued to pursue  their policy of ethnic cleansing of Armenians, which was particularly  intensified after the Sumgayit events. In the framework of this  policy, from 1988 to the 1990s, in the Azerbaijani cities of  Kirovabad, Baku and a number of other cities, as well as in the  Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region, thousands of people were killed  and about 500 people were forcibly resettled with the consent of the  USSR authorities. 000 Armenians. In subsequent years (including  during the Azerbaijani-Karabakh war of 1991-1994), Azerbaijan  continued the policy of ethnic cleansing of Armenians, which,  according to our analysis, fully complies with the legal wording of  the genocide established by the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention  of the Crime of Genocide and punishing him. " 

Moreover, our studies show that in addition to the deportation of  hundreds of thousands of Armenians of Azerbaijan, their rights to  property, free movement and a number of other rights continue to be  violated, and many still bear the physical, psychological and  material consequences of this policy, "he stressed Beglaryan. The  Artsakh Ombudsman reminded that the crimes committed so far have not  received an appropriate legal assessment and in fact go unpunished,  one of the consequences of which is currently being held I'm  Azerbaijan's official policy of Armenian hatred. According to him,  not only the former Armenian population of Azerbaijan and citizens of  the Artsakh Republic (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic), but also all  Armenians, as well as foreigners visiting Artsakh continue to fall  victim to this policy.Beglaryan pointed out that the active stage of  manifestation of Armenian phobia in Azerbaijani society was recorded  in April 2016, during the period of large-scale attacks by Azerbaijan  on Artsakh. "In 2016, within the framework of his fact-finding  mission, the Human Rights Defender presented a special report on  killings, beheading, torture and other cases of war crimes and human  rights violations against civilians and Artsakh military personnel.  It is noteworthy that the Azerbaijani military the crimes were  subsequently rewarded and rewarded by the Azerbaijani authorities,  "Beglaryan said in a statement.In this regard, the Artsakh Ombudsman  called on the international community to give a proper legal  assessment of the violence committed in Sumgait in February 1988, in  accordance with the fundamental principles and norms of international  law, as well as to take effective measures to end the anti-Armenian  policy. "This path of racial hatred not only contradicts the  well-known principles of international law, but also increasingly  alienates two peoples from resolving the conflict and establishing a  stable peace," the human rights defender concluded.