Your trusted source

On March 6 an evening dedicated to the 25th anniversary of Sumgait massacres and Arstakh movement tool place in Lyon by the initiative of French – Armenian organization’s coordination council and Armenian Culture of City of Villeurbanne and the support of Armenian embassy in France, the RA MFA press service reports.

The event has kicked off by the “Sumgait: Ordinary Genocide” documentary the author of which is Marina Grigoryan. After the movie Pavel Trdatov who has survived in Sumgait massacre has presented his story about how his relatives have defended themselves from the Azerbaijanis for 8 hours, before dying.

Then the RA envoy to France made a speech dedicated to the 25th anniversary of Artsakh, they made discussions afterwards after which the representative of Armenian embassy has answered to the questions of the journalists, representatives of public and political frameworks as well as representatives of Armenian community of Lyon.

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”.