Azerbaijani press: Azerbaijan submits document on Sumgayit events to UN

Thu 12 Mar 2020 11:16 GMT | 15:16 Local Time

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The Azerbaijani government submitted a document to the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly in connection with the events in Azerbaijan’s Sumgayit city as of February 1988, the country's Foreign Ministry said on Twitter.

The document was presented to the UN General Assembly by Ambassador Yashar Aliyev, the Permanent Representative of Azerbaijan to the United Nations.

“The official investigation established that it [the events] had been a well-prepared provocation masterminded by the Armenian extremist organizations “Karabakh” and “Krunk” to discredit Azerbaijan and cover up Armenia’s unlawful annexationist intentions and violent methods for their achievement,” reads the document.

“The investigation found that one of the organizers and perpetrators of criminal acts committed in Sumgayit, which claimed the lives of 26 Armenians and Azerbaijanis, was Eduard Grigoryan, an Armenian and resident of the city. Among the evidence collected by the investigation, the testimonies of the witnesses, including Armenians, provide irrefutable proof of his role and direct participation in violence. Grigoryan was sentenced to long-term imprisonment. Besides him, in all, 92 persons were brought to justice for offenses in Sumgayit.”

However, the document points out that nobody has been persecuted in Armenia for the brutal killings of hundreds of Azerbaijanis in the course of their forcible deportation from Armenia during the 1987-1989 period, as well as for massacres committed against the Azerbaijanis in the course of the Armenian aggression.

It also stresses that Armenia’s denial of its responsibility for atrocity crimes it has committed against Azerbaijan and its citizens, including through apparent falsifications and distortion of the past and present and glorification of war crimes and their perpetrators, constitutes a clear violation of international law.  

“As to the essence of the resolutions on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, peace, security and stability are achievable, first and foremost, only if the consequences of Armenia’s aggression are removed, thereby ensuring that its armed forces are immediately, unconditionally and completely withdrawn from the Nagorno-Karabakh region and other territories of Azerbaijan under occupation, the territorial integrity of our country is restored within its internationally recognized borders and the right of internally displaced persons to return to their homes and properties is ensured and implemented,” according to the document.