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In Azerbaijan, the murder on ethnic grounds is a governmental policy, reads the article published on the Site of the Radio “The Voice of Russia”, written by the candidate of historical sciences, Ruben Zargaryan, candidate of historical sciences, Advisor of the 1st class of the NKR MFA.

The article says that recently the 25th anniversary of the genocide of the Armenians was marked in Azerbaijan. Unfortunately, the world community still has not given a proper political and legal assessment of this crime of the Azerbaijan authorities, and thus has not secured itself against the future recurrence of genocide in other regions of the world. “The genocide of the Armenians in Sumgait organized by the authorities of Azerbaijan became the answer to the peaceful constitutional decision of Nagorny Karabakh's unification with Armenia,” the author writes.

He reminds that on February 27-29, 1988, in the city of Sumgait, located hundreds of kilometers away from Nagorno-Karabakh, there occurred mass pogroms and killings of Armenians, crimes against humanity that stunned the world public by its savagery and brutality. During the three days of massacres and pogroms, dozens of Armenians were killed, hundreds were wounded, a huge amount was subjected to violence, torture and harassment, 18 thousand people became refugees. “The genocide in Sumgait became the embodiment of hatred for Armenians that was inherent for the policy of the leadership of the Republic of Azerbaijan,” the article says.

Azerbaijan pogrom-makers armed with metal rods made at factories and other thrust weapons commenced to the implementation of their planned criminal actions. Piles of stones were stockpiled in the centre of the city in order to throw them at motor transport and forces of law and order. In the days of the pogroms, telephones of the Armenian residents of Sumgait were turned off, and, as a rule, they were turned off after people called the militia or the City Committee of the Communist party with the request to help. The phones of many Russian residents were also turned off.

“The pogrom-makers knew their tasks very well; they had on hand lists of Armenians and their addresses. Groups of 50-80 bandits broke into the houses of Armenians, killing people, not only in their homes, but they often took them out in the street or courtyard for public humiliation. After severe tortures, the victims were doused with gasoline and burned alive. Thus they destroyed entire families,” the author writes.

The article says that the genocide in Sumgait gave the «green light» to new unprecedented crimes against the civilian population in Nagorno-Karabakh, and ultimately led to the beginning of an open military aggression of Azerbaijan against Nagorno-Karabakh in 1991-94.

“After the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic was proclaimed in accordance with the norms of the international law and the legislation of the USSR, Azerbaijan undertook a large-scale terrorist aggression. The Baku administration had committed crimes against peace and humanity, such as planning, preparation, unleashing and waging an aggressive war, murder and extermination of civilian population, killing and ill-treatment of prisoners of war, and intentional destruction of towns and villages,” Zargaryan writes.

It says that, in February 1992, the Azerbaijan leadership committed the murder of their own people in the territory of Khojalu controlled by the Azerbaijan army, or more precisely in the outskirts of Aghdam, whence the continuous bombardment of the NKR territory and attacks on the cities and villages were carried out.

“The Azerbaijan authorities systematically falsify the events in Khojalu. The Azerbaijan library still represents computer-edited photos and displays other historical events in other geographical locations,” he writes.

It also says, that Photos that allegedly represent the Khojalu tragedy, in fact, are the photos of the earthquake in Turkey in 1983, Afghan children-refugees, photos of Albanians killed in Kosovo, the pogroms in the Balkans in 1999, etc. “Regularly playing the card of “Khojalu”, the official Baku tries to distract the attention of the international community from the genocide of the Armenians in Sumgait, Baku, Kirovabad, Khanlar and otherAzerbaijan settlements, as well as in the border settlements of Nagorno-Karabakh,” the article says.

The scientist notes that In the course of the large-scale aggression of Azerbaijan against the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic in 1991-94, in the Karabakh village of Maragha occupied by the Azerbaijan army for several hours on April 10, 1992, 81 people were brutally killed, 67 people were taken hostage, and the fate of many of them is still not known. People, who had not managed to leave the village, were dismembered with axes, doused with gasoline and burned alive.

“Unfortunately, to this day, all these crimes committed by Azerbaijan against humanity, have not been adequately assessed by the world community. Today, in Azerbaijan, instead of repentance for endless atrocities and murderous acts, instead of legal procedures against the criminals, we only see and hear sabre-rattling and threats of revanchism, terrorist calls for shooting down civilian aircrafts, falsification of the facts of history and persistent racist misanthropic insults of the Armenian people,” the author says.

According to the article the shameful release and glorification of the murderer with an axe Safarov has once again demonstrated to the world community that in Azerbaijan murder owing to national reasons had been raised to the rank of state policy, and systematic and deliberate lies and breakdowns of international agreements lie in the basis of the Baku policy.

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”