Bako Sahakyan pays tribute to Sumgait victims

27.02.2010 13:57 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ President of the Artsakh Republic Bako Sahakyan
accompanied by top officials attended Saturday the Stepanakert
memorial complex to pay tribute to the victims of Sumgait pogroms,
Central Information Department of the NKR President Office reported.

The pogroms of Armenians in Sumgait (a town located a half an hour
drive away from Baku) took place on February 27-29, 1988. The events
were preceded by a wave of anti-Armenian statements and rallies that
swept over Azerbaijan. Almost the entire area of the town with
population of 250 thousand became a site of unhindered mass pogroms.
Armed with iron rods, stones, axes, knives, bottles and canisters full
of petrol, the perpetrators broke in Armenian houses. There were
dozens of casualties, mostly burnt alive after assaults and torture.
Hundreds of innocent people were wounded and disabled. The story of
Sumgait marked the first entry in a long list of crimes against
humanity and ethnic cleansings of the end of the 20th century.