SOUMGAIT TRAGEDY BECAME PROLOG OF MASS ETHNIC CLEANSINGS IN 1988-1991
DE FACTO
Feb 28, 2008
YEREVAN, 28.02.08. DE FACTO. "It is the 20th anniversary of the
Soumgait atrocity, and we state with pain that during the past
years we have not managed to reveal and punish the organizers and
those responsible for this crime. The Soumgait atrocity has become a
prolog of mass ethnic cleansings and lawlessness perpetrated against
Azerbaijan’s Armenians in 1988-1991.
As a result of violent actions by the Azerbaijani authorities and
criminal elements over half a million Armenians had to leave Azerbaijan
to save their life and became refugees", a statement of the Network
of Civil Society "Refugees and International Law" circulated on the
occasion of the 20th anniversary of anti-Armenian pogroms in the
Azerbaijani town of Soumgait runs.
It is underscored in the statement that the mournful anniversary of
the Soumgait tragedy "is another cause to remind Armenia’s authorities
that the fact of violation of rights of thousands of Armenian refugees
cannot be ignored".
According to the statement’s authors, the Karabakh talks have not
yielded results, because the Armenian party did not display adherence
to principle and as early as in the beginning of nineties consigned
to oblivion the issue of Armenian refugees.