Your trusted source

The English version of "An Ordinary Genocide: Sumgait, February, 1988" documentary is ready already. At the presentation in the Armenian Center for National and International Studies (ACNIS) today, ACNIS Director Richard Giragosian said the film is not only for the Armenians but for the whole world as it evidences what happened in Sumgait in 1988 against peaceful people.

This is the second film in “An Ordinary Genocide” film series, initiated by the PR and Information Center” of the Armenian President’s Administration. The first film “Baku, January, 1990” was screened in January this year. It has been translated into several languages and was spread in the internet and through DVDs.

“The film is based exceptionally on documentary materials: exclusive videos, photo documents, evidence by the witnesses, materials on judicial proceedings have been presented, shown for the first time and these not only reveal the truth about what happened in Sumgait but also prove that these events were organized by special services and the leadership of Azerbaijan, with a criminal role and participation of the Soviet Union authorities,” the initiator of the film series, journalist Marina Grigoryan said.

According to her, the film is also significant as it puts an end to Azerbaijan’s 22-year-long distortions over Sumgait. “The film proves who and why organized Sumgait,” she highlighted.

M. Grigoryan said the film is important not only in terms of history but in the Nagorno-Karabakh negotiating process as well.

“The Presidents of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair states issued a joint statement on Nagorno-Karabakh noting that refugees should return to their residences. I think the film can give a clear answer whether Armenians can return to Azerbaijan and what they can expect there,” she said. As to the international guarantees, mentioned in the statement, the Armenians are very well aware of them, as still in times of stable Soviet Union 3-day violence remained unpunished and no one interfered, no one prevented them," she said.

The film has been translated into Russian, French and Arabic.