SILENCE: 20 YEARS HAVE PASSED SINCE SUMGAIT
Haik Demoyan
KarabakhOpen
28-02-2008 17:48:28
The genocide in Sumgait has already been included in encyclopedias
and is defined as a massacre and mass displacement of the Armenian
population of Sumgait planned and perpetrated by the Azerbaijani
circles on February 27-29, 1988.
The purpose of the crime was to prevent the possibility of the
settlement of the Karabakh issue, intimidate the Armenians with the
prospect of new bloodshed and force Artsakh to give up the national
liberation struggle. On the eve of the pogroms the Azerbaijani party
functionary E. Asadov threatened to "punish" the Armenians by an
invasion at Nagorno-Karabakh. On February 26, the day before the
start of the pogroms, in a meeting with the Armenian intelligentsia,
Mikhail Gorbachov said "worried" about the security of the 200 thousand
Armenians living in Baku, relating the given factor to the claims
of the Armenians of Artsakh for unification of the Nagorno-Karabakh
Autonomous Region and Soviet Armenia.
In order to kindle passions, false rumors were circulated in Sumgait
that in Armenia allegedly pogroms of Azerbaijanis and looting is
underway. In particular, the TV address of the prosecutor general
of the USSR Katusev about the death of two Azerbaijanis during the
events in Askeran was a clear provocation.
The crime had been planned beforehand. Evidence to this is the list
of addresses of Armenians, the scenario written beforehand and the
division of roles (killers, looters, arson of property, elimination
of traces of crime), iron sticks and other equipment produced long
before, distribution of alcohol and narcotics. Besides, telephones
in the houses of Armenians were disconnected, the Police and the
Ambulance Station idled, a system of signs was used for marking the
places where Armenians lived, etc.
The Azerbaijanis behaved differently during the monstrous crime. Some
of them hid their Armenian neighbors, and saved a lot of people,
others pointed to the places where the Armenians were hiding.
The results of 3 days of pogroms were horrible, the perpetrators were
cruel: dozens were killed, most of them were tortured and burned to
death, many were raped, mostly adolescents, 18 thousand people became
refugees, 200 houses of Armenian were robbed and ruined, dozens of
kiosks, shops, production facilities were destroyed, dozens of cars
were burned and crashed.
On February 29 Soviet troops were deployed in Sumgait but violence
and murders continued all through that day. The troops did not have
an order to use weapon and could not help the Armenians. Only in the
evening did they crack down on the mob and stopped pogroms.
49 were tried and only one was sentenced to capital punishment. The
others were accused of murder, rape, pogrom, without ruling out the
motive "hooliganism". Instead of trying all the criminals together
they filed different suits and scattered them to different cities of
the country.
Trials breached the regulations and violated the rights of the
sufferers.
After the collapse of the USSR most cases of the perpetrators of
the genocide were dismissed, and they were acquitted. The crime was
not condemned officially, and no condolences were offered to the
sufferers. The absence of an adequate evaluation of the crime caused
a surge of pogroms in different cities of the USSR. The police and
law enforcers also avoided punishment. The exact number of victims
of the Genocide in Sumgait is not known.
The USSR office of prosecutor general stated relying on data provided
by the office of the Azerbaijani prosecutor that 27 citizens of
Armenian origin died in Sumgait.
Arakelyan Arshak Levon Arushanyan Razmela Atanes Arushanyan Vladimir
Avanes Avagyan Lola Pavel Avagyan Yuri Bagrat Avanesyan Albert Manvel
Avanesyan Valeri Manvel Aramyan Artur Armo Aramyan Armo Ashot Babayan
Arshak Aslan Babayan Elena Markos Grigoryan Emma Shirin Danielyan
Nikolay Artem Danielyan Seda Osip Tovmasyan Rafik Hambardzum Ghambaryan
Alexander Alexander Martirosov Garry Artem Melkumyan Edward Soghomon
Melkumyan Igor Soghomon Melkumyan Irina Soghomon Melkumyan Raisa
Arsen Melkumyan Soghomon Margar Melkumyan Piruza Arakelovna Movsesova
Hersilia Bkhshi Sargsyan Shahen Gerasim Trdatov Gabriel Aram
However, the facts are sufficient reason to doubt the official
information.
Witnesses say there were over 70 unidentified bodies at the morgue. The
chair of the USSR Council of Ministers N. Rizhkov voiced doubt
about the real number of victims. Some of the victims were buried
in Baku, there were cases when the cause of death was concealed or
falsified. The Armenians of Sumgait who escaped the pogroms went to
Russia and other countries of the CIS.
Although the international community has not defined the massacres in
Sumgait as a genocide yet, it was condemned by the European parliament
(resolution 1988), the U.S. Senate (1989) and the parliament of
Argentina.
On March 8, 1988 a memorial to the victims of Sumgait was put up
at the Memorial of Stepanakert, and a khachkar was erected near
the Memorial to the victims of the Genocide of Armenians in 1915
(Tsitsernakaberd, Yerevan).