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In the hall of the Armenian Apostolic Church of St. Hripsime in Vienna with the support of the Armenian Embassy in Austria an event was held on the anniversary of Sumgait pogroms and the 25th anniversary of the Artsakh movement. On February 24 in the morning Archimandrite Ter Petrosyan Tyrant of the Armenian Apostolic Church of St. Hripsime held liturgy on commemoration of the victims of the massacre.

Armenian ambassador to Austria Arman Kirakosyan, Armenian MPs Artashes Geghamyan Demirchyan and Khachik Harutyunyan who at that time were in Vienna and participated in the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly works attended the event.

Press and information department of the RA MFA says that Arman Kirakosyan, Artashes Geghamyan, Austrian writer and translator, a witness of the Artsakh movement Herbert Maurer, a member of the Austrian-Armenian community Hambardzum Harutyunyan made speeches; members of youth organizations and Austrian society and media were also present there.

In the framework of the event an exhibition of photos and documents on the Sumgait pogroms committed in 1988 and presentation of the reactions of German and Austrian media to these events was organized. Hymns of Armenia and Austria were presented, works by Armenian composers were performed, fragments from the film about Sumgait pogroms were presented.

After the event, more than 100 representatives of the Armenian-Austrian organizations held a silent march towards the central area of Vienna, Stephansplatz, where protest was organized with large number of posters, flags of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, patriotic songs. The passers-by and those interested were distributed informational materials about the massacres of Armenians in Sumgait.

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”