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The crime organized and committed at the state level resulted in the deaths of scores of Armenians, many were wounded, tortured and displaced having to leave everything behind," Speaker of Armenia's National Assembly (NA) Ara Babloyan stated today at a parliamentary hearing entitled "The Sumgait pogroms: Armenophobia as state policy of Azerbaijan."

Babloyan noted that the genocidal acts committed against the Armenian population of Sumgait and Baku were a result of anti-Armenian sentiments dominant in Azerbaijan that have not received proper legal and moral assessment to date by international community and relevant structures.

"The factual base of the slaughter and tortures against Armenians in Sumgait and Baku is perhaps smaller to compare with that of the Nazi actions during the world War II, yet it is no less formidable to consider also that the Azerbaijani fascism today outreaches the Hitlerian fascism with its hatred and brutality," Babloyan said. adding numerous Armenian IDPs and refugees still wait for the fair trial.
for the perpetrators of these heinous crimes to be brought to light and justice."

This year, the 30th anniversary of Sumgait and the 27th anniversary of the Baku pogroms of the Armenians have been commemorated. 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. According to official data, 27 Armenians were killed; however, there is ample evidence that several hundred Armenians have been killed in the city in three days.

The mass pogrom of Armenian population was committed in Baku from 13 to 19 January 1990. The exact number of the victims of the genocide of the Armenians in Baku still remains unknown. According to different sources, between 150 and 400 people were murdered, and hundreds were left disabled. The pogroms went on for a week amid a total inaction of the authorities of Azerbaijan and the USSR, as well as the internal troops and the large Baku garrison of the Soviet Army. Those who managed to avoid death were forced into deportation. The Soviet troops were deployed to set order in Baku only on 20 January 1990.