February is the cruelest month in Armenia and Azerbaijan and the invitations have already started coming in. A few years ago, many of them were from Armenians asking me to mark the anti-Armenian pogroms in the Azerbaijani town of Sumgait which began on February 28, 1988. Now almost all the invitations are from Azerbaijanis asking me to mark the massacre of Azerbaijanis by Armenian fighters outside the town of Khojali on February 25-26 1992.
Each year there are now Khojali vigils, demonstrations, concerts and Facebook petitions. Azerbaijani television broadcasts the hideous footage of the dead bodies which littered the fields outside the town. Azerbaijan’s recently acquired energy riches are used to hire PR firms to promote events in Western capitals.
When I say I don’t want to take part it’s not because I deny the gravity of what happened. Khojali was the bloodiest massacre in the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorny Karabakh. According to the official parliamentary investigation in Azerbaijan, 485 people were killed, of whom only a few dozen were military men.
There is a mass of supporting evidence. Human Rights Watch, the Russian rights group Memorial and foreign journalists interviewed survivors in the immediate aftermath and put together a consistent picture of how Armenian armed men fired at columns of Azerbaijani civilians fleeing a besieged town. Memorial concluded, “The mass killing of civilians in the ‘free corridor’ zone and adjacent territory cannot be justified by any circumstances.”
The overwhelming evidence of what happened has not stopped some Armenians, in distasteful fashion, trying to muddy the waters. The then Azerbaijani president Ayaz Mutalibov made a bitter remark accusing his political opponents of involvement in the killings, which he later disavowed. But that has not stopped his quotation being endlessly cited in Armenia. More disturbing is the evidence of the Czech journalist Dana Mazalova, whom I met briefly last year in Armenia and have since corresponded with. Mazalova saw the original footage shot by the Azerbaijani cameraman Chingiz Mustafiev of the dead bodies and says that she did not see there the signs of mutilation that were in later footage. That has the grisly implication that someone interfered with the corpses afterwards.
But if you want corroborating sources that Azerbaijani civilians were killed by Armenians how about the most famous Armenian warrior of the Karabakh war and the current Armenian president? According to the memoir of his brother, Californian-born Armenian nationalist commander Monte Melkonian, was on the scene shortly afterwards and was disgusted by what he saw, blaming the killings on the “indiscipline” of two fanatical paramilitary units named Arabo and Aramo. And Serzh Sarkisian, now president of Armenia, confirmed to me in an interview in December 2000 that Armenian armed men had indeed killed Azerbaijani civilians. As a result of that interview, which I quoted in my book Black Garden, my name is also invoked in Azerbaijan every day on the Khojali anniversary, even though in the first paragraph of the book I ask readers “not to quote some of the information here selectively, to suit their own political agendas.”
And this is still the point. The Azerbaijani victims of Khojali deserve commemoration and justice. But so do Armenian victims, such as the kindergarten pupils, who died in the Azerbaijani artillery bombardment of the town of Stepanakert in 1991-92 and the more than 40 Armenian civilians who were reported massacred in the village of Maragha two months after Khojali.
Yet the commemorations of Khojali in Azerbaijan get bigger every year and have turned into a whole day of rehearsed national trauma. Inexcusably, the footage of the dead bodies is shown in schools to children as young as 10. The message is not just about remembering the dead but, “Armenians are aggressors and fascists and their deeds must be avenged. Anyone who dissents from this is a traitor.”
This is an especially dangerous message in 2011, as the 16-year-old ceasefire that halted the Karabakh conflict is more fragile than ever and there is an increasing risk of new fighting. Bloodshed is being used to call for more bloodshed. But two obvious points need to be made. First, Khojali was a terrible massacre but it was far from unique in the world. From Rwanda to Gujarat to Bosnia, other acts of mass bloodshed have occurred since. So the memory of the dead of Khojali should be honored alongside many others. Secondly, if Armenians and Azerbaijanis want to resolve their conflict peacefully, and not start a new one, they need to start facing up to the acts of violence they committed and not just talk about what they suffered at the hands of the other.
Thomas de Waal is a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Comments
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Before making accusations to Armenia/Nagorno Karabakh authorities for committing war crimes in Khojaly, Mr. De Waal should probably mind that in an interview to Armenian media last year he said the following:
In Russian: "Я не думаю, что это было преднамеренный (акт устрашения). Я думаю, что как и в любой войне события происходят очень быстро, спонтанно. Но все-таки, интересно, как толковали. Следует еще раз сесть и посмотреть на текст, но я не считаю, что это была преднамеренная акция.. это была война, очень хаотичная ситуация."
Here is a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrnIpbpJ9z4
perhaps, Sumgayit event was even more chaotic. It is clear that Khojaly action was planned by Armenians in advance though the massacre might be evolved in the course of the event. But this does not deny responsibility.
Diagnostics:
What is here:
2/3 of information is devoted to bring arguments re Khojaly events
1/3 of information is to balance the act of blaming Armenians by listing Baku, Sumgait and Maragha events [without listing facts]
What is not here:
- Azerbaijani denial of responsibility in their committed massacres in Baku, etc
- Argumentations about falseness of such denial
- Azerbaijani policy of representing murderers as heros in Shahid alley
What is implied:
- Despite the article implies that there are atrocities made by Azerbaijanis the very fact of Azerbaijanis reaction of not accepting them is not here - while the author talks about Armenian denial of responsibility of Khojalu. So the author implies that [good] Azerbaijanis do accept their share of responsibility while [bad] Armenians do not.
- The author directly says that Armenian responsibility in Khojaly events are "Overwhelmengly evidenced" while [bad] Armenians "in distasteful fashion, trying to muddy the waters". The fact is that the author actually doesn't bring the evidences but creates them himself /or refering to his own past writings/ to be used later by Azerbaijani agitprop. The author doesn't even know [or actually knows but intentionally abuses] the partisan perception of "Khojaly events" between Armenians and Azerbaijanis. So it becomes easy to cite any Armenian and twist the meaning.
What technique is used:
-Bring very few facts of Azerbaijani atrocities to be criticized by Azerbaijani
-Create factual data and put heavy responsibility on Armenians
-Use cliche type technique to portrait Armenians in negative way such as quoting Azerbaijanis "Armenians are aggressors and fascists and their deeds must be avenged. Anyone who dissents from this is a traitor.” Such negative stamp will be remember by any reader. As a journalist the author knows very well about this technique.
Immorality:
- Equating Khojaly to Rwanda, which means portraying it as a Genocidal action!
- Apealing [to Armenians] to honor the memory of Khojaly victims while never talking about the honoring of victims in Maragha and Baku and Sumgait, etc.
Acknowledgement:
Bringing in Dana Mazalova quotes.
Reconciliation is a good thing, - and necessary thing to start a conflict resolution process. I agree fully with de Waal about that. But what I can't agree with. De Waal highlights Azerbaijani Khojaly campaign and calls to put it aside, while Armenia still uses much more massive campaign on 1915 events and on Sumgayit in many Western capitals. Azerbaijani events of commemoration cannot be even compared to Armenian lobby efforts. From comments posted by Armenian users it is clear that Armenians are not ready to reconcile; neither they are ready to accept any responsibility. But anyway, I apllaud de Waal for two things: he is brave enough to reveal truth about Khojaly and intelligent to point out the necessity of reconciliation. Just emphasis should be put in a right direction and with right balance. When it comes to Azerbaijanis they are asked to forget Khojaly and to accept responsibility for Sumgayit and give Nagonro-Karabakh to Armenia. For Armenians - not pressure at all. Everyone should acknowledge "genocide" of 1915, Sumgayit, and give NK right to be annexed by Armenia.
While I agree with the author about inappropriateness of showing pictures from Khojaly massacre to kids at elementary or middle schools, a nation cannot be asked to forget its war victims, especially those who were killed so brutally. Indeed both sides had losses, but what author forgets to mention is that Armenia was the aggressor and Azerbaijan defended its territory and nation from being attacked. Once again, in this war, blood-sucked attacker was Armenia, and helpless defender was Azerbaijan. We cannot put these two into one category. Moreover, it doesn't make sense to call a nation to not commemorate its victims just becaues other nations had victims, as well. Then why does everyone around the world, commemorate the Holocaust victims? Should we just ask Jews to calm down just because Native Indians were killed by white Europeans? As for calling parties to calm down and not demonstrate actions that may spur a new war in the area, I hope the author realizes that a new war is inevitable, as long as Armenia doesn't accept the main principles of Minsk Group and vacates Azerbaijani lands it invaded, and about a million IDPs returned their homes. That's the call I would expect from an author, who is a well-recognized expert in this region. Indeed, the Minsk group co-chair countries should increase the pressure on Armenia to immediately accept the basic principles (that are accepted by Azerbaijan, by the way) and vacate the invaded areas.
Fasulia,What is the conflict in Artsakh (NK): it's Armenians being sick of being victimized, murdered, exterminated, and forgotten. That's what it is. Look at Anatolia and Nakichevan if you want to see what Artsakh would have looked like if the Armenians hadn't defended themselves against the Azeri onslaught, which is exactly what it was. Your people won't even leave ancient Armenian gravestones alone. Now you are crying over getting your butts whipped by a bunch of scragly Armenians with archaic weapons who were left with no choice but to defend themselves or get slaughtered like sheep, as their ancestors had been.
I guess you have no idea of history except making mindless arguments. but be sure, Armenians were living pretty good in Baku or in other areas of Azerbaijan before some ultrafascist Armenians started spoiling it and you - brainwashed people with your fake great armenia ideas believed that you can create such a counry by killing thousands of Turks/Azerbaijanis. Yes, in Anatolia you stabbed Turks from back and cooperated with Russians, Britons just like their puppets then remained with no pacifiers in mouth...anyways, victims do not attack other countries. your blood-suckedness and fascism causes all the problems in this region. Look at you, trying to convince me that Armenians lived in Nakchivan:) no comments. but just learn about Irevan's history and know how many Armenians lived in Yerevan 150 years ago. Whole Armenia is the creature of bolsheviks and you should be very happy to have a country on historical Azerbaijani lands.
Mr. de Waal ought to consider the history of Armenians' relationship with their Turkish/Azeri neighbors before he writes about what Armenians ought to do and how they ought to be. We have 5 centuries, at least, of harrassment, ill treatment, massacre, and Genocide at the hands of these people. Our people have been extinguished in every place where the Turks/Azeris rule. Look at Anatolia; look at Nakhichevan. They won't even leave our ancient monuments and our gravestones alone, let alone our people. Everything that is Armenia somehow is attributed by them to them; our churches, monasteries, gravestones, songs, poems, etc. What would have happened to the people of Artsakh had they not defended themselves when the Azeri bombs and bullets started flying? Why doesn't de Waal speak at all about that?
Mr. de Waal,With all due respect, there was a series of events throughtout this tragic war, and an important historical timeline context missing, or convenient selective memory. Indeed Khojali was among them, but you do your readers an injustice given the spin of this article. I was a human rights advocate and was present during well-documented Operation Ring, where Azeri Oman and Soviet tanks systematically perpetrated progroms against armenian villages. When we arrived in Verishan (1991), the people from the villages of Buzlousk, Malashit, and Erketch, had been wiped out. I was among eight other international representaives there to document the atrocities (rape, murder, and intimidation) as Verishen was the next target. I returned to NK again in 1993 just as the NK army captured the Azeri stronghold of Aghdam. Just prior, the people of Stepanagert had been living underground for six months from continuous bombing by the Azeri Army. We visited (and documented) hospitals where patients including newly born infants were lined up in dilapidated basements in filthy conditions. No building had not been subject to the bombing, with shattered windows and glass everywhere. The hospitals lacked medicine and equipment, the people lacked food and bare essentials. A CBS journalist interviewed the then foreign minister to ask him about how he feels about the world seeing them as the victors (1993) v. victims (1991), his response was I don't much think about how the world preceives us, i just know our people have been bombed and living in ungodly conditions for the last six months, and we fought to defend them. While Khojali was indeed horrific for the victims who suffered and should be acknowledged and remembered, it seems the Azeri govt likes to exploit this event, and your article hopefully without intention, seems to do the same. Let us not forget the agressors of this war began with the Azeri and Soviet military's violent response to the NK people seeking peaceful and legal petition for their right to self determination during the hopeful period of Gobachev's Perestroika. For those doing unbiased research, there are many sources of materials including first hand eyewitness accounts from victims, journalists, and human rights representatives, which will tell you the story and plight of all the people of this war, not just what governments and politicians who stand to distort history for their own evil benefits and incite hatred for 'the other'.
I would like to thank Mr. De Waal for at last speaking out about Khojaly. He was able to interview Sargsyan, President of Armenia who admitted their role in the Khojaly massacre. But I don't agree with him regarding non-commemoration of this massacre. Why is so important? It's important because it reminds us that no matter what killing women, children, civilians is not right and that these kind of events should not happen again. Azeri media does not call Azeris to revenge by killing Armenian children, women, etc. So it's not fair to blame Azerbaijan for remembering this day. Mr. de Waal fails to understand that Azerbaijan's lands are still under occupation and that it has hundres of thousands of IDPs who have yet to return to their homes. In these circumstances what should Azeris do? He should praise the patience of the Azeri nation. Have we seen a single terrorist acted perpetrated against Armenians in these last 16 years? I can't recall any. How many terrorist acts were perpetrated against Azeris during the war? I lost the count. How many friends do Armenians have in the region. Only one I guess and who are they? The beloved Iranians! Now why doesn't de Waal ask this question? Shouldn't Armenians learn to live in peace with their neighbours? It's precisely the Armenian ultra-nationalism that has caused all this mess. Every foreign journalists looks for a reason to smash Azerbaijan! Why? Just because we do not bend to Russia or the West? Just because we are truly the only independent country in the Caucasus? I can't see any other reason. But no matter what we will not submit! Where are the true human rights? Why don't you or your colleagues openly condemn Armenian occupation of Azeri lands? Why? If Azerbaijan occupied a metre of Armenian territory I am 100% sure that all foreign journalists would label Azerbaijan as the bloodthirsty Armenian haters and event Islamic terrorists. Just open your eyes. The country that prouds itself with democracy and all that, does not permit AlJazeera to broadcast on US cables. Why? Because it's against the Western propaganda. It now seems more realistic that there really is a clash of civilizations. But in the case of Armenan/Azerbaijani conflict the clash is brought to us from the West, not vice versa!
I would like to thank Mr. De Waal for at last speaking out about Khojaly. He was able to interview Sargsyan, President of Armenia who admitted their role in the Khojaly massacre. But I don't agree with him regarding non-commemoration of this massacre. Why is so important? It's important because it reminds us that no matter what killing women, children, civilians is not right and that these kind of events should not happen again. Azeri media does not call Azeris to revenge by killing Armenian children, women, etc. So it's not fair to blame Azerbaijan for remembering this day. Mr. de Waal fails to understand that Azerbaijan's lands are still under occupation and that it has hundres of thousands of IDPs who have yet to return to their homes. In these circumstances what should Azeris do? He should praise the patience of the Azeri nation. Have we seen a single terrorist acted perpetrated against Armenians in these last 16 years? I can't recall any. How many terrorist acts were perpetrated against Azeris during the war? I lost the count. How many friends do Armenians have in the region. Only one I guess and who are they? The beloved Iranians! Now why doesn't de Waal write about this? Shouldn't Armenians learn to live in peace with their neighbours? It's precisely the Armenian ultra-nationalism that has caused all this mess. Every foreign journalists looks for a reason to smash Azerbaijan! Why? Just because we do not bend to Russia or the West? Just because we are truly the only independent country in the Caucasus? I can't see any other reason. But no matter what we will not submit! Where are the true human rights? Why don't you or your colleagues openly condemn Armenian occupation of Azeri lands? Why? If Azerbaijan occupied a metre of Armenian territory I am 100% sure that all foreign journalists would label Azerbaijan as the bloodthirsty Armenian haters and event Islamic terrorists. Just open your eyes. The country that prouds itself with democracy and all that, does not permit AlJazeera to broadcast on US cables. Why? Because it's against the Western propaganda.. It now seems more realistic that there really is a clash of civilizations. But in the case of Armenan/Azerbaijani conflict the clash is brought to us from the West, not vice versa!
Dear Humanrightsadvocate,Please identify yourself, who you are and with which organization have you worked? There is no way a neutral observer can be this biased and I personally am more than sure that this is an attempt by an Armenian to pose as a third party. You could do a better job at least, don't make it too obvious. Maybe next time. It is shameless to put the blame on victims, and try to defend acts of Genocide as it happened in Khojaly. And it was Armenians who intitated and was the only side throughout the war to use violence against the civillians. See Mr de Waal's article above, and other pieces by him for this admittance by the likes of Melkonian and Sarkissian. And also, don't please talk in the name of NK people. Nobody asked them anything ever. NK is and has always been part of Azerbaijan, along with its people.
To Karabakhs resident: do not bother about this "Humanrightsadvocate" , he is just another ethnic armenian disseminating biased one-sided false accusations, which armenian propaganda is full of. That is why, Thomas de Waal, we, Azeri, have to make sure that this will stop. As you noticed we did not respond those false accusations in the beginning of Karabakhs war, we were hoping that international community is competent enough to find out the truth. Unfortunately, armenians find always Mazalovas, Menendez, Boxers, Starovojtovas, Pelosy - those who can sail their soul and truth for armenian bloody and dirty money (http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1010/Dem_donor_arrested_in_Medicare_ring.html?showal).Many issues were brought up here and I will probabl do not have time to answer all of them. But some of them I would like to respond.
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Sumgait pogroms
For over two decades, the Armenian lobby and propaganda have
been using Sumgait pogroms to lambast
Azerbaijan and to justify their actions against the people of Azerbaijan. Sumgait
Pogroms refer to tragic events on February 28, 1988 which took place in the era
of perestroika in the waning days of the Soviet Union, in the economically-
depressed and poverty-stricken Azerbaijani industrial town of Sumgait (pop.
300,000, of them 14000 were ethnic Armenians).
It is accepted wisdom among
Azeri that “the riots Feb. 27, 28
and 29 were deliberately contrived by Armenian extremists in order to discredit
Azerbaijan in the battle for the world's sympathy”. Keller Bill. "Riot's Legacy
of Distrust Quietly Stalks a Soviet City." The
New York Times. August 31, 1988.
Different powers “cooperated” in Baku and Sumgait tragic events: one can
easily identify three of them:
1. Refugees from Armenia and Karabakh.
- Since 1985, and especially from late 1987, some 11,000
ethnic Azerbaijanis were ethnically cleansed from their homes in Armenia.
"Armenians have burned the houses of Azerbaijani
villagers, refused to sell them food, and prevented them from selling their
vegetables at local bazaars in an attempt to drive them back to Azerbaijan”
Keller Bill. "Riot's Legacy
of Distrust Quietly Stalks a Soviet City." The
New York Times. August 31, 1988.
The international community was silent and Soviet did not stop the ethnical
cleaning of Azerbaijani and Kurds. The very first refugees of the NK conflict
were settling primarily in and around Sumgait.
“Tensions continued
to mount when thousands of ethnic Azerbaijanis and Kurds living in Armenia
began packing their possessions and leaving, either because they were ‘encouraged’
to do so by Armenian nationalists or simply because they saw the omens and
decided to leave of their own accord. …. Azerbaijanis and Kurds, among them
many mixed, Azeri-Armenian couples, also began leaving their homes in the
Karabakh capital, Khankandi (Stepanakert). The refugees settled in the nearby
Azerbaijani towns Khodjali or Shusha, or went (or were sent) to places like the
Caspian Sea industrial wasteland city of Sumgait, north of Baku.”
(Thomas Goltz, “Azerbaijan Diary: A Rogue Reporter’s Adventures in an Oil-Rich,
War-Torn, Post-Soviet Republic”, M.E. Sharpe, 1998, p. 83).
Please note: massacres of Azerbaijani and Kurds in Qafan and Megri were carefully planned by authorities, which
was also the case during the massive and very well coordinated deportation in
the end of 1988. Azerbaijani and Kurdish Refugees from Armenia and Karabakh
contributed to spontaneous non-controlled hooliganism.
2. “Russia wanted to destabilize the area by creating an
inter-communal war which would weaken both governments (in Azerbaijan and
Armenia) and enable Moscow to reestablish control over the area”. That explains
“The fact that the Soviet army and Interior ministry troops were in the area
did not change anything; in fact the army stood by and watched the pogrom take
place, and may even have initiated it, as is persistently argued by Igor
Nolyain in his thought-provoking article.6 According to
Nolyain, the Soviet forces did not stay at neglecting to prevent the bloodshed,
but deliberately seeked to create
a conflict between the two communities, both in Armenia and in Azerbaijan. This
was done through the control of the media, by spreading exaggeratedly
provocative statements on both sides, and by deploying criminals from Soviet
prisons in Sumgait to initiate the pogrom”. “Undeclared war” by
Svante Cornell on http://www.zerbaijan.com/azeri/svante_cornell.html
3. There are facts that show that Armenian diaspora and Armenian nationalists are also
responsible for these tragic events.
It appeared the article in Soviet media before the tragedy
which stated “we will make Azeri to shoot us!” (Russian journalist and writer
Yurij Pompeev, ”The Karabakh diary”, 2010),
If Sumgait was an unexpected and shocking for Azeri, it was
not for those ethnic Armenians, who were involved in Armenian nationalistic
movement Krunk . They have done a withdrawal
of their savings from banks and left Sumgait a few days before events. After tragedy they returned to Sumgait to
sail properties. As it was shown by USSR
court materials (please note, it was not Azerbaijan´s investigation), all 26
Armenian victims of Sumgait pogroms were
those, who refused to support financially Krunk. Armenian terrorist organizations (ASALA, Tashnak, ARA, JCAG , Hınçak, Nemesis) have a long history of exterminating those
Armenians who refuse to show them financial support, simply, because they are
not considered to be Armenians and because this “encourage” other Armenians to
support their terrorism. This is supported by many facts and cases.
A few days before the tragedy a big number of ethnic
Armenians from abroad checked in in Baku´s hotels. Many of them had
cameras. Next day after Sumgait tragedy
when Baku still could not understand how this happened and was at shock, the
film was shown about events all around the world and the monument was raised in
Armenia to victims of Sumgait. It was obviously prepared long before the
tragedy.
According to court documents (USSR criminal case 18/55461-88, vol. 29, p. 260),
among key ringleaders, arrested for killings of 7 of the 26 Armenians, were
ethnically Armenians, Eduard Grigoryan and Zhirayr Azizbekian, as well as other
Armenians. Grigoryan was convicted to 12 years. Depositions by witnesses and
victims show that he had a list of flats inhabited by the Armenians and,
together with three other Armenians, called for reprisals against the
Armenians, in which he took part personally. His victims (all Armenians)
identified Grigorian as one of the organizers and active figures in the
violence. All victims were those people,
who did not support financially the nationalistic movement Krunk ,
working for separation of Karabakh . In
fact, events in Sumgait, being necessary to the Armenian leadership as a mean
of launching an extensive anti-Azerbaijani campaign and justifying the aggression against Azerbaijan and massacre of Azerbaijani and Kurds, had been
planned and prepared in advance.
As a result of Sumgait tragedy 32 persons were dead (26 Armenians and 6
Azeris) for the three days.
The chronology of
Sumgait pogroms :
1985-1987. Azerbaijan has 11 000 Azerbaijani and Kurdish
refugees from Armenia, some of them came to
Sumgait and Baku.
- On February 14, 1988 the Armenian nationalists held the large rally in NK region, on February 20,
adopted an appeal on the need to separate the NK region from Azerbaijan and its
attachment to Armenia, striking and frustrating the people of Azerbaijan.
- On February 22, 1988, the first casualties of the NK conflict
appeared: two Azerbaijani youths, Bakhtiyar Uliyev, 16, and Ali Hajiyev, 23,
were shot and killed. This was the beginning of
Karabakhs war.
“There was no
mobilized Azeri ethnic nationalism to speak of on 26 February 1988; people in
Azerbaijan had hardly begun to be affected by the events in Armenia; most
Azerbaijanis were in fact shocked by the event.” (Svante E. Cornell,
“Small Nations and Great Powers: A Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict in the
Caucasus”, Routledge, 2001, p. 84).
February 27, 1988 - The killings of two Azeri, with emphasis on their ethnicity,
were announced on, on state-run TV and radio, by the Chief Military Prosecutor
and Deputy Prosecutor General of USSR, Gen. Alexander Katusev.
“Two Azerbaijani were killed, though that fact was not
revealed until later…” and the violence was “… sparked off by the belated
report that two Azerbaijani had been killed…” (Source: Patrick
Brogan, “World Conflicts”, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998, p. 399).
February 28, 1988 Sumgait pogrom. In Sumgait pogroms died 26 ethnic Armenians (Sumgait
had 14000 armenian residents) , and 6 Azeri. S.Cornell, http://www.zerbaijan.com/azeri/svante_cornell.html.
The
aftermath of Sumgait pogroms:
Azerbaijani
authorities did not organize Sumgait or Baku pogroms, while ethnical cleaning
of Azeri and Kurds in Qafan and Megri
was carefully planned by Armenian authorities, which was also the case
during the massive and very well coordinated deportation in the end of 1988.
during the pogroms in Azerbaijan there were many well-recorded and officially documented
cases when Azeris saved the lives of their Armenian neighbors, whereas not a
single similar case was recorded in Armenia.
Azerbaijani
citizens, its intellectual elite and government, condemned all the violence
publicly. It was not done in Armenia. Armenian authorities spread propaganda
about incompatibility of Armenians and Turks/Azeri to justify massacres of
Azerbaijani civilians.
Also, after the pogroms MANY Armenians did return to Sumgait and Baku
(especially between Fall 1988 and Fall 1989) to sell their propertis, while
Azeris after having been deported were not allowed to return to Armenia at least to grab their belongings.
Today, up to
800 Armenians continue to live in Sumgait, and a total of up to 30,000
Armenians live in major cities of Azerbaijan. Meanwhile, no Azerbaijanis are
left in Armenia – all 194,000 were ethnically cleansed
The lesson of
Sumgait pogroms:
Violence creates more violence.
Baku pogroms were also provocation, orkestrated by Soviet KGB and based on rage of Azerbaijani refugees from Armenia (short analysis one can find here http://www.newsmill.se/artikel/2011/01/14/kremlin-sent-its-troops-to-baku-to-kill-people). And here is how armenian nationalists use photos of Khodjaly´s massacre for their propaganda, they cynically claim that bodies of Azerbaijani children/soldiers are actually Armenian victims of 1915http://www.1news.az/analytics/20110119122554597.html .
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Genocide became an integral part of the Azeri history starting from the
partition of the Azeri lands with the treaties of Gulustan in 1813 and
Turkmenchay in 1828.
The
Armenians carried out massacres against the Azeris multiple times in order to
achieve “the Armenian Kingdom from See to See”.
Genocide and ethnical cleaning of Azeri 1905-1907, 1918-1920 ,
1948-1953, see Declaration PACE Doc. 9066 2nd edition, signed by 30
members
Armenian nationalist A. Lalayan about genocide av Azeri:
"I
killed Muslims by every means possible.
Yet it is sometimes a pity to waste bullets for this. The best way is to gather all of these dogs and throw them into
wells and then fill the wells with big and heavy stones. as I did. I gathered
all of the women, men and children, threw big stones down on top of them. They
must never live on this earth."
A.
Lalayan, Revolutsionniy Vostok (Revolutionary East) No: 2-3,
Moscow, 1936.
Armenia was systematically and methodically expanding the territory at
the expense of Azerbaijan and expelling Azerbaijanis from their historical
lands. As a result the territory of Azerbaijan which in 1918-1920 constituted
111000 sq.km, was reduced to 86.6000 sq. km during the Soviet rule. Armenian
propaganda changes the chronology and falsify historical facts and evidences to
justify genocide against Azeri and the racism of Armenia´s policy , which was
celebrating 1989 the festival “Armenia without Turks” after ethnical cleaning
of 200 000 Azeri and Kurds from Armenia during 1985-1989. Today there is
no Azeri left in Armenia and Karabakh, though in the beginning of the 19th
century Azeri were constituting the majority.
Again usual standard Western hypocrital appraoch to the massacare and call to frogiveness of Armenians and everyone who killed us, who wanted to clean the entire Caucasus region from Azerbaijanis and Turks (I am sure there are still millions of Armenians who want just this again and I am sure there are again millions of christian fundamentalists, fascists and hypocrit westerns who would support Armenians, would these disgusting armenian creatures get the chance to kill us and invade our lands) and who still occupy large portion of our lands and who are the reasons of the suffering of more than 1 million directly affected internally displaced population and millions of other Azerbaijanis who have to pay taxes and spend thier own resources to ensure at least decent living for these displaced population. This is unacceptable and I would definately know what to do to such creatures as Tom De Waal who have made and still used to make their living from the occupation of Azerbaijani lands a nd from the suffering of Azerbaijani people.