VAHAN HOVHANNISYAN: WE NEVER TRIED TO CASH IN ON OUR TRAGEDY

PanARMENIAN.Net
18.01.2010 14:55 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ ARF Dashnaktsutyun parliamentary group leader Vahan
Hovhannisyan met Monday with N 187 school senior students to conduct
an model lesson on the 1990 Armenian pogroms in Baku.

"Over the past years, there’ve been a number of blunders in Armenia’s
policy regarding the Karabakh conflict settlement," Mr. Hovhannisyan
said, specifically noting the issue of Armenian refugees from
Azerbaijan.

"We never demonstrated the grave living conditions of our refugees
to foreign guests, but this doesn’t mean that refugees experience no
problems," he said, adding that, as opposed to Azerbaijan, Armenia
never tried to cash in on this tragedy.

At the same time he emphasized that, Armenia has to raise two issues in
Karabakh talks: Azerbaijan’s aggression in response to free expression
will of Karabakh people, and indemnity to Armenian refugees.

The Azerbaijani authorities instigated the Armenian pogroms in Baku 20
years ago. Some 400 Armenians were killed and 200 thousand were exiled
in the period of January 13-19. 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.