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“Azerbaijani’s impunity paves the way for continuation of the crimes,” Larisa Alaverdyan, the Head of "Against Illegal Arbitrariness" NGO told on Saturday at a discussion named “Sumgait 30. Unpunished crime again Humanity” held in Yerevan. 

Alaverdyan, who served as the first human rights defender of Armenia, called on the IR experts, specialists of the international law and political scientists to make use of the collected materials and hold Azerbaijan responsible, thus exercising justice. 

The manager of the project “An Ordinary Genocide” Marina Grigoryan, present at the discussion, reminded that the series of documentaries in the framework of the project has been published since November 2010 and Sumgait has been one of the main directions and topics of the project.

“Several books were published, a documentary was filmed, a website was launched and most importantly a vast archive of the Sumgait crime was created. We managed to preserve unique video recordings that were at the brink of elimination, revealed research materials and new photos - all of which come to prove an irrefutable fact that Sumgait was orchestrated by Azerbaijani authorities and special services and was a coordinated crime directed specifically toward the Armenians,” Grigoryan explained.

The expert next stressed that Sumgait is yet to be explored and studied as evidenced by the archive and trial materials.  

“We plan to realize two projects ahead of the 30th anniversary of the Sumgait pogroms with the first being a collection of eyewitness accounts by Azerbaijanis. The project will feature eyewitnesses who speak about the brutalities as recorded by Azerbaijanis themselves. The second project is a film about Sumgait children who witnessed the sufferings of their relatives,” Grigoryan informed.