Switzerland-Armenia Association Calls International Attention to Baku’s Anti-Armenian Policy

GENEVA (PanArmenian.Net) — On the 22nd anniversary of the pogroms of Armenians in Sumgait, the Switzerland-Armenia Association issued a statement reminding the public about the ongoing anti-Armenian policies of Baku and the Azerbaijani government, which resulted in 1988 in the mass murder and deportation of the Armenian population in Azerbaijan.
The association characterized Azerbaijan’s aggression against Artsakh and its destruction on Armenian cultural heritage in the city of Julfa as the propagation of hatred towards Armenia and the Armenian people.
The pogroms of Armenians in Sumgait (a town located a half hour’s drive away from Baku) took place on February 27-29, 1988. A wave of anti-Armenian statements and rallies that swept over Azerbaijan proceeded the massacres’ events. Almost the entire area of the town with a population of 250,000 became a site of unhindered mass pogroms.
Armed with iron rods, stones, axes, knives, bottles and canisters full of petrol, the perpetrators broke in Armenian houses. There were dozens of casualties, mostly burnt alive after assaults and torture. Hundreds of innocent people were wounded and disabled. The story of Sumgait marked the first entry in a long list of crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansings that characterized the demise of the Soviet Union at the end of the 20th century.
The conflict between Nagorno Karabagh and Azerbaijan broke out in 1988 as result of the ethnic cleansing.
The Karabagh War was fought from 1991 to 1994. Since the ceasefire in 1994, sealed by Armenia, Nagorno Karabagh and Azerbaijan, most of Nagorno Karabagh and several regions of Azerbaijan around it (known as the Security Zone) remain under the control of the NKR (Nagorno Karabagh Republic) defense army. Armenia and Azerbaijan are holding peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group that are ongoing.