VAHAN HOVHANNISYAN: CHILDREN MUST UNDERSTAND THE POWER OF SOLIDARY ARMENIANHOOD
PanARMENIAN.Net
18.01.2010 15:28 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ It’s with great delay that we launched activities
to explain what happened in Baku in January 1990. Still, it’s better
late than never, ARF Dashnaktusyun parliamentary group leader Vahan
Hovhannisyan said.
As he stressed upon completion of a meeting with the students of N187
school where he conducted a model lesson on 1990 Armenian pogroms in
Baku, "Children have to understand why we were able to resist 1905
and 1918 Baku pogroms, and failed to resist that of 1990. Children
must understand the power of solidary Armenianhood."
RA Science and Education Minister Armen Ashotyan, for his part, stated
that the initiative gives an opportunity to establish a dialogue
between generations, as children must be informed about the history
of their nation.
20 years ago the Azerbaijani authorities instigated the Armenian
pogroms in Baku. Some 400 Armenians were killed and 200 thousand
were exiled in the period of January 13-19, 1990. The exact number
of those killed was never determined, as no investigation was carried
out into the crimes.
On January 13, a crowd numbering 50 thousand people divided into
groups and started "cleaning" the city of Armenians. On January 17,
the European Parliament called on EU Council of Foreign Ministers
and European Council to protect Armenians and render assistance to
Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh. On January 18, a group of U.S. Senators
sent a letter to Mikhail Gorbachev to express concerns over the
violence against the Armenian population in Azerbaijan and called
for unification of Nagorno Karabakh with Armenia.