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In the frameworks of the project “Ordinary Genocide” in Yerevan “The Diary of the Trial on Crimes against the Armenian People in Sumgait” was printed. The first edition of this book came out in 1998. 15 years later, on the 25th anniversary of “sumgait”, the Centre for public relations and information of the RA President’s administration decided to reprint this unprecedented document and translate it into the English language.

The author of the book is a renowned Russian scientist, doctor of mathematics and physics, professor, and corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Pavel Gevorkyan who in 1985-1989 was a post-graduate student at Moscow State University. He participated in the sessions of the Supreme Court of the USSR as an interpreter. “All people need to know the truth about this massacre regardless of their national identity. They need it to prevent such atrocities elsewhere just as the files of the Nuremberg Trials are necessary for the mankind to deliver itself from the “brown plague,” wrote the author of this unique book in the foreword to the first edition.

For this very reason, i.e. to reveal the actual dimensions and essence of Sumgait events and alert the humankind about the “brown plague” of racism and xenophobia propagated by the authorities of Azerbaijan and thus stop the attempts at new genocides in this region and worldwide, this book has been republished for the first time for the English-speaking reader.

“The truth about what happened to the Armenian population in Azerbaijani city of Sumgait during the last three days of February 88th, should really become the property of all humanity, regardless of the statute of limitations,” said Marina Grigoryan, the project manager of "Ordinary Genocide" in an interview with Panorama.am. It is crucial not only in the context of continuous efforts to wipe out the historical memory and falsification of the truth, supplanting it with cynical and blatant lies as Azerbaijan has been habitually doing it over the past decades. It is imperative not only in terms of revisiting the past whose eye witnesses live among us: those who survived the “sumgait” inferno, lost their loved ones and escaped by hairbreadth. It is extremely important, first of all, for the present and future so that the memory and consciousness of the contemporaries and forthcoming generations would preclude new “sumgaits”.

In my opinion, the special value of this book lies in the fact that the monstrous events that had occurred in the Azerbaijani town are told in impassive protocol language of the court document, and the majority of the witnesses are Azerbaijanis.

We not only translated the "Diary" into English, but also supplemented it with photographs and other materials. The electronic version of the book in two languages, as well as many additional materials, photos and videos may be found on the karabakhrecords.info site.