Armenian party intends to pass bill condemning “genocide” in Azerbaijan

Arminfo
1 Mar 05

YEREVAN

The faction of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation – Dashnaktsutyun
[ARFD] intends to put up for debate by the National Assembly a draft
law condemning the genocide of Armenians in the Azerbaijani town of
Sumqayit in 1988, the head of the ARFD faction, Levon Lazarian, told
the National Assembly today.

The adoption of such a law is topical against the backdrop of
Azerbaijan’s intensifying propaganda, which is trying to divert the
international community’s attention from the Armenian genocide in
Ottoman Turkey in the early 20th century and in Azerbaijan in the late
20th century to “the alleged genocide of Azerbaijanis in Xocali”, he
said. This policy of Azerbaijan is mainly dictated by Turkey,
Lazarian noted.

The adoption of this law will familiarize the international community
with the real essence of the developments in 1988-90, he stressed.

Lazarian recalled that the massacre of Armenians, which started in
Sumqayit, continued in Shaumyan [Azerbaijan’s Goranboy District] and
Getashen [Caykand in Azerbaijan’s Xanlar District]. It is precisely
Azerbaijan’s policy with regard to the Armenians living there that
prompted the population of Nagornyy Karabakh to stand up for their
motherland and start a national liberation st ruggle.

In turn, a representative of the Republican Party, Gagik Melikyan,
called on the international community to denounce the Armenian
genocide in Ottoman Turkey and in the Azerbaijani town of Sumqayit in
order to prevent similar crimes against humanity in the future. The
fact that the organizers of the Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey in
the early 20th century were not punished served as a prerequisite for
committing similar crimes against other nations in the 20th century,
the Armenian genocide in Sumqayit and the murder of a sleeping
Armenian officer by an Azerbaijani serviceman in Budapest.

The deputy chairman of the Orinats Yerkir [Law-Governed Country] Party
and head of the commission on defence, national security and interior
issues, Mger Shakhgeldyan, and a member of the opposition Justice
bloc, Grant Khachatryan, made statements condemning the Armenian
genocide in Sumqayit.

Armenian MPs staged a march to the Tsitsernakabert memorial to the
victims of the Armenian genocide on the anniversary of the Sumqayit
massacre.