Tribute to the memory of victims of Sumgait massacre

On the occasion of the 33rd anniversary of the massacre of Armenians in Sumgait on February 27-29, 1988, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, accompanied by together with National Assembly Speaker Ararat Mirzoyan, Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan and other high-ranking officials, visited the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial to pay tribute to the memory of victims of the crime.

The Prime Minister laid a wreath and laid flowers at the monuments commemorating the victims.

Thirty-three years ago, on February 27-29, 1988, pre-planned massacres of Armenians were carried out in the city of Sumgait (Azerbaijan) amid the encouragement of the Azerbaijani authorities and the permissiveness of the law enforcement bodies. Hundreds of Armenians were killed, including women, children and elderly, and thousands of Armenians were forcibly displaced.

Sumgait massacre was a response to the aspiration of the people of Artsakh to assert their inalienable right to a dignified and safe life in their historical homeland and to exercise their right to self-determination. Azerbaijan opposed the attempts of exercising human rights with the policy of collective punishment, subjecting the Armenian population of the Sumgait town to severe violence and torture.

The atrocities of Sumgait instigated the ethnic cleansing and massacres of Armenians in other cities of Azerbaijan, such as Baku and Gandzak. Moreover, the unequivocal justification of such crime, the glorification of the murderers for killing Armenians were reflected in the efforts of the Azerbaijani authorities to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with the use of force.