The Sumgait pogroms committed on February 28, 1988 was the beginning of the escalation of violence against the Armenian minority across Azerbaijan and against the residents of Artsakh (also known as Nagorno Karabakh), culminating in the violent expulsion of 390,000 Armenians.
In the Azerbaijani town of Sumgait, longtime peaceful Christian Armenian residents were brutally targeted on the basis of their ethnicity and subjected to unspeakable crimes. In March 1988, The Economist magazine reported the atrocities, and documented the murder and mutilation of pregnant Armenian women and newborn babies in a maternity hospital. Other reports speak of gangs of young Azerbaijanis hunting down Armenian families and committing murder, rape, and robbery.
The government of Azerbaijan was never held accountable for these atrocities. The memory of the devastating attack and the lives lost are still remembered today. We urge you to ask your Member of Congress to issue a statement condemning these crimes, as well as Azerbaijan’s ongoing cease-fire violations.