NKR’S FM URGES INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO CONDEMN ARMENIAN POPULATION DEPORTATION FROM SHUSHI IN 1988

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
May 18 2006

YEREVAN, May 18. /ARKA/. Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’s Foreign
Ministry urges international community to condemn Armenian population
deportation from Shushi in 1988, the ministry said in its statement
issued Wednesday.

18 years ago Armenians were driven form their homes and either Armenian
pogroms in Sumgait or expulsion campaign in Shushi was orchestrated
by Azerbaijani authorities, the statement said.

In its statement, Nagorno-Karabakh Foreign Ministry urges international
community to recognize Azerbaijan’s responsibility for violation of
its Armenian population rights and aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic. The ministry is convinced that this step would have a huge
positive impact on the process of strengthening security and peace
in the region and would bring Karabakh problem closer to its solution.

The statement also stressed that Sumgait pogroms aimed to root out
Armenian population and the impunity the perpetrators enjoyed paved
way for further assaults on Armenians living in Soviet Azerbaijan.