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29 years after the Sumgait pogroms psychologist Irina Tsaturyan is unable to contain her emotions, while speaking of the genocidal acts of the modern era.

“Sumgait came to trigger memories of the year 1915 [The Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey] in the national conscience. Both victims and the perpetrators of genocidal acts are subject to traumas,” the phycologist told reporters at a discussion, devoted to the 29th anniversary of the pogroms of the Armenians in Sumgait.

In her words, mostly social problems generate massacres and beatings. “People blame other religious groups for their social problems, as the underlying motive beyond genocides is the aim to take resources out of other national or religious groups.

Sociologist Aharon Adibekyan, present at the discussion, noted that Sumgait pogroms were orchestrated by the Azerbaijani leadership against the backdrop of Armenians seen as constituting considerable layer in Azerbaijani intellectual sphere and Azerbaijanis sought to take that place.

“The Sumgait pogroms should be viewed also in the light of the response of a terrorist state to the wish of those cherishing self-determination,” the sociologist suggested.