Category: 2020

Mirzoyan says Armenians of Artsakh cannot live in safety under Azerbaijani sovereignty

 12:16,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. Under the light of the Armenian massacres of Baku, Sumgait and Kirovabad 30 years ago and the anti-Armenian policy of Azerbaijani authorities it’s impossible that the Armenians of Artsakh can live in safety under Azerbaijani sovereignty, ARMENPRESS reports President of the National Assembly of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan said on January 18 during the special sitting of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee on Cooperation between the Republic of Armenia and Artsakh in Yerevan.

“As the President of the National Assembly of Armenia, I want to once again record and reaffirm that the massacres of Sumgait, Baku and Kirovabad, the periodical nature of those massacres and their reoccurrence a number of times during one century, the other manifestations of anti-Armenian policy before and after those massacres make the physical safe existence of the Armenians of Artsakh under Azerbaijani sovereignty impossible. Therefore, the only way for the Armenians in Artsakh to exist is the self-determination of Artsakh with the Republic of Armenia as the guarantor of Artsakh to implementer their right”, Ararat Mirzoyan said.

Thirty years ago Azerbaijanis began a state-sponsored massacre of the Armenian population in Baku, which became known as the Bako Pogroms.

Tens of thousands of Armenians fell victim to the cruel atrocities or forced displacement.

The Baku Pogrom began in 1990 January 13th and lasted until January 19th. It was a state-sanctioned pogrom organized by the Azerbaijani Popular Front. After the six days of atrocities, Baku – the city once having an Armenian population of 250,000 – had no Armenian left.

The anti-Armenian hysteria in Azerbaijan had risen back in late 1988 and early 1989.

On January 13, 1990 a mass rally took place with the attendance of thousands. Afterwards, the crowd separated into smaller groups and started attacking and murdering Armenians in their homes with extreme cruelty. The perpetrators had the addresses of their would-be victims. The mob would defenestrate their victims from their apartments, kill them with metal pipes and knives, women were raped, and many were burnt alive.

Only six days later, when the Soviet authority was jeopardized in Baku, Mikhail Gorbachev ordered a state of emergency in the Azerbaijani capital to restore public order. More than a dozen militants were killed during an armed resistance with the troops, and many were arrested.

Since evidence and facts were concealed and covered up, the exact number of Armenians who were killed during the pogroms was impossible to be revealed, but according to various estimated at least 500-600 were murdered from 1988 to 1990. The anti-Armenian pogroms went on even after 1990 January, leading to a complete and forced exodus of Armenians.

Despite the Azerbaijani denialist policy, the Baku Pogroms, and the preceding Sumgait Pogrom of 1988, as well as in Kirovabad (Gyanja), have been condemned by a number of international organizations. The pogroms against the Armenians were condemned by the European Parliament in resolutions adopted in 1988, 1990 and 1991.

Eyewitness accounts, as well as the above-mentioned resolutions, indicate that the anti-Armenian actions in Baku and Sumgait were of organized nature or at least were carried out at the permission of the then-Azerbaijani authorities.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan

Armenia’s top lawmaker thanks Azerbaijanis who helped Armenians avoid death during 1990 massacres

 12:07,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. Referring to the Baku massacres of Armenians 30 years ago, President of the National Assembly of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan noted that Azerbaijan demonstrates Armenophobia also in the 21^st century, ARMENPRESS reports Mirzoyan said on January 18 during the special sitting of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee on Cooperation between the Republic of Armenia and Artsakh in Yerevan.

“Right 30 years ago in the capital city of the Azerbaijani SSR happened something that, unfortunately, we are well familiar with – massacres of Armenians, which took place with the clear permission and support of the Azerbaijani authorities”, Ararat Mirzoyan said, noting that numerous people were tortured and killed, thousands became refugees just because they were Armenians.

“With irony of fate, those massacres were already the 3^rd in the 20^th century in the city that had been declared center of multiculturalism – Baku. The same happened in the same handwriting and the same city also in 1905 and 1918”, Ararat Mirzoyan said, adding that massacres of Armenians took place before and after Baku massacres in other Azerbaijani cities.

The President of the parliament noted that the policy of Armenophobia has also been demonstrated in the 21^st century.

“The Azerbaijani authorities declared Ramil Safarov a hero, someone who killed an Armenian serviceman while he was asleep. In April 2016 civilians were brutally killed in Talish. The same policy is manifested everywhere in Azerbaijan – from school textbooks to the announcements of the president of that country where the entire Armenian nation is declared enemy of Azerbaijan and subject to total annihilation.  

The Baku massacres were just a part of the long-lasting anti-Armenian policy of the Azerbaijani leadership”, Mirzoyan said, noting that still back in 1980s the Azerbaijani authorities had planned social, cultural and educational persecution against Armenians, as a result of which the number of the Armenian population in Baku had already significantly dropped.

The President of the National Assembly of Armenia also expressed gratitude to those Azerbaijanis, who against the state policy of their country, helped Armenians during those days to avoid death.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan

 13:37,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS.  The Azerbaijani troops violated the ceasefire regime nearly 80 times on Artsakh-Azerbaijan contact line in the period of January 12-18, during which over 650 bullets were fired in the direction of Armenian border guards from different caliber weapons.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Defense Ministry of Artsakh, the front line units of the Defense Army refrained from retaliation and keep control of the situation.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan

 15:44,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS.  The MPs of the Republic of Armenia and Artsakh issued a joint statement, condemning the massacres of Armenians in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku 30 years ago. ARMENPRESS reports the statement was unanimously adopted on January 18 at the end of the special sitting of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee on Cooperation between the Republic of Armenia and Artsakh in Yerevan.

 “In the period of January 13-19 coordinated and mass murders of Armenian population took place in Baku with the awareness and permission of the authorities. Hundreds of Armenians fell victim to the ethnicity-based violence. The property of Armenians was looted and confiscated. Under the threat of imminent physical extermination over ¼ million of displaced Armenians found shelter in different countries in the status of refugees. The massacre of Armenians in Baku is the result of the large-scale racist discrimination against Armenians unleashed by the extremist forces of Caucasian Tatars and later the Azerbaijani leadership at the beginning of the 20^th century, which continues up till now, leading to a drastic drop of Armenian population in the areas under the Azerbaijani control, while at the end of the 1980s it obtained a new pace completely annihilating the Armenian population in Baku and other cities of the Azerbaijani SSR.

Recording that against the facts recorded by the international community and human rights organizations, the Azerbaijani leadership u till now denies its genocidal activities, distort realities and avoid being brought to account.

Emphasizing that the anti-Armenian policy continuing in Azerbaijan up till now  and these and other crimes committed under that light, such as the massacres of Armenians in Sumgait in Kirovabad, the massacre of the Armenian population of the village Maragha that appeared under the Azerbaijani control, the military actions against the civilian population of Artsakh by the Azerbaijani troops during that aggression in April 2016 and the mistreatment against captive servicemen, the consistent destruction of the Armenian cultural heritage, as well as the forced migration of the Armenian population from the territories of Artsakh currently under Azerbaijani occupation, show that the Azerbaijani authorities have the intention to exterminate Armenians and all the traces of their existence in the territories under their control”, reads the statement, adding that the Armenia-Artsakh Inter-parliamentary Committee honors the memory of the victims of Baku massacres, demanding compensation for the losses suffered by the Armenian population. The Committee also condemns the ongoing state-led anti-Armenian policy in Azerbaijan, assessing any demonstration of xenophobia, extremism and terrorism as inadmissible.

The Committee notes in the statement that crimes against humanity have no statute of limitations, emphasizing that the condemnation of the past crimes is the one of the key measures to prevent new crimes. The Inter-Parliamentary Committee on Cooperation between the Republic of Armenia and Artsakh calls on parliaments, parliamentary assemblies, international organizations and human rights organizations to condemn the crimes against the Armenian population of Sumgait, Kirovabad (Ganja) and Baku by Azerbaijan, which pose danger not only to the Armenian people, but also to regional security, stability and development, as well as urges them to take practical measures for their prevention.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan

 17:56,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS.  The requiem ceremony of the former Director of the National Security Service of Armenia Georgi Kutoyan will take place on January 19 at 17:50 at “Erebuni” funeral hall, Khaghagh Don 2/14, ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the National Security Service.

Former National Security Service Director Georgy Kutoyan was found shot dead in a Yerevan apartment on Paruyr Sevak Street on January 17. The investigators are treating it as a possible suicide, but do not rule out other circumstances.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan

 16:36,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS.  The Government of Armenia will spare no efforts in the limits of its powers to fully expose the circumstances of the death of former Director of the National Security Service of Armenia Georgi Kutoyan, the press service of the Office of the Prime Minister of Armenia told ARMENPRESS.

“The Prime Minister of Armenia feels sorrow for the death of Georgi Kutoyan and extends condolences to the mourning family of the Kutoyan’s. He also guarantees that the Government will spare no efforts in the limits of its powers to fully expose the circumstances of Georgi Kutoyan’s death”, the official from the PM’s Office said.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan

Panorama, Armenia

Jan 18 2020