DeFacto Agency, Armenia
March 2 2007

ARMENIANS’ POGROMS IN SOUMGAIT BECAME THE FIRST GREAT BLOODSHED THAT
FOLLOWED NAGORNO-KARABAGH PEOPLE’S PEACEFUL REQUIREMENTS

Armenians’ pogroms in Soumgait became the first great bloodshed that
followed Nagorno-Karabagh people’s peaceful requirements on the NKAR
cession from one Soviet Republic to another, the Nagorno-Karabagh
Republic Deputy FM Masis Mailian told Novosti-Armenia Agency in
connection with the 19th Anniversary of the Armenian pogroms in
Soumgait.
In his words, Azerbaijan’s response was quite inadequate; people were
killed only for being Armenians, which means by ethnical indication.
The Deputy FM noted international law regarded such actions as
Genocide, and it does not matter how many people were killed.
`’The actions took place 400 kilometers from the Nagorno-Karabagh in
peaceful time, on the territory that did not refer to the national
and liberation movement we started, so in this context the measures
Azerbaijan undertaken 19 years ago may be considered inadequate”,
Masis Mailian noted.
The Armenian pogroms began in the Azeri town of Soumgait February 27,
1988. For three day tens of Armenians were killed in the town, exact
number has not been determined yet. According to official sources, 32
people were killed then.
The Soumgait events became a reply to a decision the Nagorno-Karabagh
Autonomous Region rendered February 20, 1988 `’About Petition before
the Supreme Soviets of Azerbaijani SSR and Armenian SSR for the NKAR
Cession from Azerbaijani SSR to Armenian SSR”.