Hundreds of Armenians, including women, children, and the elderly, were killed, and thousands forcibly displaced: Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a statement in connection with the 36th anniversary of the Sumgait massacres.

“On February 27, 1988, under the initiative of the leadership of Soviet Azerbaijan and in an atmosphere of absolute impunity, the massacres of the Armenian population in Sumgait began, accompanied by violence, cruelty, enforced disappearances, dispossession, and mass violations of human rights. Hundreds of Armenians were killed, including women, children, and the elderly, and thousands were forcibly displaced.

The tragedy in Sumgait was followed by the massacres of Armenians in Kirovabad, Baku, and other Armenian-populated areas of Azerbaijan. These chain events, along with the complete ethnic cleansing of Nakhichevan preceding them, demonstrated that these crimes were not isolated episodes of violence based on nationalism but rather evident manifestations of a state-planned and executed policy of anti-Armenianism. As a result of this policy, around 500,000 ethnic Armenians were forcibly displaced from Soviet Azerbaijan.

It is noteworthy that these events targeted not only the Armenian population but were also accompanied by premeditated actions to eradicate Armenian heritage and the overall Armenian presence.

In the 21st century, under conditions of complete impunity, Azerbaijan’s continuation of the same policy manifested as the terrorization of the indigenous Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh, subjecting them to inhumane blockade, starvation, and ultimately aimed at completely ethnically cleansing Nagorno-Karabakh through the use of force, despite three legally binding decisions by the International Court of Justice.

Even today, Azerbaijan continues its policy of eradicating any Armenian presence under its control by desecrating, vandalizing, and destroying Armenian religious and cultural monuments. Currently, ongoing anti-Armenian and hostile policies against the Republic of Armenia are accompanied by hate speech, threats, and aggressive rhetoric at the highest levels, obstructing the overcoming of animosity between peoples and the establishment of peace and stability in the region.

The international community must adequately assess the mass crimes that have occurred and activate all existing mechanisms to prevent such crimes from recurring and to support Armenia’s sincere efforts to achieve dignified and lasting peace in the South Caucasus,” the statement noted.