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The European Centre of Artsakh and the Association of European and Armenian experts called the Association Working Group Recognition – Against Genocide (AGA) together with two of Armenian communities of Berlin, held a number of events on Sunday for commemorating the victims of the massacre committed in Sumgait. The events were titled “This should never happen again”, the statement on AGA website said.

“Pogroms, that were organized at the end of February in 1988, in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait, marked the beginning of organized mass violence against the Armenian minority in Azerbaijan. Soviet central government did not use the law enforcement agencies to protect the persecuted Armenians. Those responsible for Sumgait events remained unpunished which encouraged them to commit new pogroms in Baku, Gianja (Kirovabad) and in many other cities and towns,” the site says.

In the framework of events a procession was held in Berlin and liturgy was served in the church led by Archbishop Karekin Bekdzhyanom. Armenian Ambassador to Germany Armen Martirosyan, Harutyun Grigoryan, the representative of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic in Germany, Tessa Hoffman Chairman of AGA made speeches.

On 26-29 February 1988 in terms of actual complicity of local authorities and inaction of the USSR government mass pogroms of civilians were organized in Sumgait city of Azerbaijani SSR, accompanied with unprecedented brutal murders, violence and pillaging against the Armenian population of the city. Armenian pogroms in Sumgait were carefully organized. At the meetings, which began on February 26 in the central square, city leaders openly called for violence against the Armenians.

On February 27 protests which were attended by hundreds of rioters turned into violence. Armed with axes, knives, specially sharpened rebar, rocks and cans of gasoline and with the pre-compiled lists of apartments where Armenians lived the rioters broke into the houses, turning everything upside down there and killing the owners. In the same time, people were often taken out to the streets or to the courtyard for jeering at them publicly. After painful humiliations and torture the victims were doused with gasoline and burnt alive.

On February 29 army troops entered Sumgait but without an order to intervene. Only in the evening, when the mad crowd began to attack the soldiers the military units took up decisive steps.

The exact number of victims of Sumgait pogroms is still unknown. According to official data, 32 people were killed; however there is ample evidence that several hundred Armenians have been killed in the city in three days. There is also evidence that the riots were coordinated by KGB in Azerbaijan. Executioners of Sumgait were subsequently declared as national heroes of Azerbaijan.

Documentary “Ordinary Genocide: Sumgait 1988”