SUMGAIT NOT A EUROCITIES MEMBER

Panorama.am
15:22 04/03/2010

Politics

Azerbaijan’s city of Sumgait is not a Eurocities member, Eurocities
Secretary General Paul Bevan said, responding to a Panorama.am
reader’s letter.

Several Azerbaijani media, citing Sumgait municipal authorities,
spread information stating Sumgait was offered Eurocities membership.

After the information was spread, a Panorama.am reader Mark Bearman
addressed an open letter to the Eurocities expressing amazement over
the opportunity provided for a city where mass killings of Armenians
were carried out and the authorities of which reject the actual events.

"I completely disagree with your decision, welcoming to Eurocities
a city called a "murderer-city", Mark Bearman writes, providing some
internet citations evidencing Sumgait massacres.

In response to the letter, the Secretary General of the network
rejected Sumgait’s membership to Eurocities.

Note that Eurocities is a network of major European cities with a
population of over 250 thousand. It has 130 member cities from 30
European states. Non-European cities may integrate into the network
as associate cities. Only the Georgian capital of Tbilisi has such
status in the South-Caucasus.