KARABAKH CONFLICT EMERGED FROM SUMGAIT ETHNIC CLEANSING

PanARMENIAN.Net
10.01.2008 13:40 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The ethnic cleansing in Sumgait marked the beginning
of the Karabakh conflict, Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian
told a news conference in Yerevan.

Reminding about the 20th anniversary of Sumgait pogroms, the Minister
said, "Ethnic cleansings were carried out in all Armenian-inhabited
regions of Azerbaijan. The events in Sumgait proved the necessity of
Karabakhi people’s struggle for independence. We should remind the
international community about February of 1988."

February 27-29, 1988 Azerbaijan, taking advantage of the USSR
leadership’s indifference, committed mass pogroms in the town
of Sumgait. By official data, 32 Armenians were killed, hundreds
wounded. The survivors fled to Armenia. Some 20 thousand Armenians
used to live in Sumgait before the pogroms.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress