“Sumgait pogroms are of those genocidal acts which are proved through relevant documents,” Larisa Alaverdyan, the Head of “Against Illegal Arbitrariness” NGO, told reporters on Tuesday.
“1988 was a deep Soviet era with all of us knowing certain bodies were functioning to record and punish for even minor crimes. That was the reason we failed to understand that Sumgait operation gave a start to a larger process which would undoubtedly constituted as Genocide,” Alaverdyan said.
The speaker reminded that the Sumgait pogroms were qualified as mass hooliganism according to the Soviet laws, yet everyone understood Sumgait came as warning to all Armenians who were living on their historical lands when they forcefully joint to Azerbaijan.
“The brutality of the Azerbaijani side during the April war was not o novelty. Beheading of Armenian soldiers came as no surprise, since the practice had been used in Sumgait in 1988. Those cases are well documented in witness accounts,” Alaverdyan said.
Lecturer at Yerevan State University, historian Gevorg Melkonyan recalled the challenges ahead of the statehood 29 years ago. “We lacked the wave of international condemnation we looked to. Neither legal nor compensation issues of those displayed and persecuted Armenians have been properly addressed thus far. At the same time, we witness Azerbaijani attempts of publicly distorting the fact at an academic level,” the speaker pointed.
