Azerbaijan slams Armenian Foreign Ministry's allegations on Sumgayit events as unfounded

Spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Aykhan Hajizada has said that the Armenian Foreign Ministry's allegations against Azerbaijan in its statement of 27 February on the Sumgayit events are not only unfounded but also distort and falsify historical facts.  

“This statement is an attempt at concealing acts of violence, mass expulsion of the Azerbaijani population in Armenia, terror against the Azerbaijani people, provocations, and the use of military force on ethnic grounds to carry out Armenia's baseless and illegal territorial claims against Azerbaijan since the late 1980s,” Hajizada said, Caliber.Az reports, citing the message on the website of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.  

“We remind the Armenian Foreign Ministry that the ethnic turmoil in Sumgayit was an integral part of the purposeful and planned provocation by the leadership of the USSR and Armenia, Armenian chauvinistic ideologists, and extremist organizations,” the spokesman said.  

Hajizada noted that it is also worth pointing out that the USSR prosecutor general's office opened a criminal case pertaining to the incident, which resulted in the identification of the rioters along with the co-conspirators, as well as of the total of 32 victims. The presence of 6 Azerbaijanis among the victims of the incident demonstrates that the riots were not perpetrated by Azerbaijanis.

“We inform the Foreign Ministry of Armenia that the person who instigated the incidents and led the march, personally killing the 6 individuals and raping 3 Armenian women, was an ethnic Armenian named Eduard Grigoryan. Numerous testimonies from Armenians residing in Sumgayit corroborate these accounts. Grigoryan, condemned to 12 years in prison by a court ruling, was moved to Armenia to serve his sentence and was later released from prison,” he noted.

Hajizada said that 92 persons found guilty in the outcomes of the trial regarding the events in Sumgayit on 27-29 February 1988, were sentenced to imprisonment, and 1 person received capital punishment. 

“For comparison, in the late 1980s, during the forceful deportation of around 300 thousand individuals from the territories densely populated by Azerbaijanis in the Armenian SSR, no action was taken against those responsible for the deaths of over 200 Azerbaijanis,” the spokesman said.  

“The Armenian Foreign Ministry is also well aware that none of the perpetrators of multiple war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Armenia in various cities and villages, including Khojaly, during its military aggression against Azerbaijan, have yet been held legally accountable,” he said.   

“We remind the Armenian Foreign Ministry that the Republic of Azerbaijan has ended Armenia's decades-long military occupation of parts of its internationally recognized sovereign territory, restoring its territorial integrity and sovereignty,” Hajizada noted.  

“Instead of claiming that in 2023 the 'ethnic cleansing' was carried out against Armenians, it would be more beneficial for the Armenian side to look at the criminal acts committed not only on the territory of present-day Armenia, but also against Azerbaijanis and Azerbaijan's heritage during the occupation,” he added.

Notably, as a result of the riots in Azerbaijan’s Sumgayit city at night from February 27 to 28, 1988, 32 people were killed, 26 of whom were Armenians, and six Azerbaijanis.

Subsequently, it was proved that the Sumgayit events were organised by Armenian nationalists. Groups of Armenian provocateurs fluent in the Azerbaijani language - residents of Sumgayit, played a special role in committing the pogroms.

These events were part of a scenario organised by the USSR State Security Committee together with the Armenians. An Armenian, previously convicted Eduard Grigoryan was chosen as the organiser of the pogroms. Azerbaijani Ahmad Ahmadov, who was accused of organising the Sumgayit events, was sentenced to death, but according to eyewitness accounts, it was proven that the main organiser was an Armenian Eduard Grigoryan.

In addition, some 3,000 innocent residents of Sumgayit were arrested for their participation in the unrest. Of these, 400 people were held administratively liable and criminal proceedings were initiated against 94 people.

Armenians continue using the Sumgayit events for their own purposes. They are trying to form an erroneous perception of them in the world community and provoke anti-Azerbaijani sentiments.

By Naila Huseynova