Stepanakert commemorates victims of Sumgait pogroms

The ceremony of laying flowers at the monument to the victims of pogroms of the Armenian population in the city of Sumgait was held in Stepanakert. Human rights defenders called on the international community to give a proper legal assessment of the violence committed in Sumgait in February 1988.

In the afternoon of February 28, at the Memorial Complex in Stepanakert, officials and residents of Nagorno-Karabakh laid flowers at the monument to the victims of the pogroms of the Armenian population in Sumgait in 1988.

The Ombudspersons of Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, Gegam Stepanyan and Kristine Grigoryan, have issued a joint statement on the 34th anniversary of Sumgait pogroms.

"The anti-Armenian pogroms in Sumgait marked the start of a series of crimes against humanity committed by Azerbaijan, which continue to this day," the statement says.

The human rights defenders have called on the Azerbaijani authorities to "exhibit political will and give a reliable assessment of the anti-Armenian pogroms in Sumgait, Gandzak (Kirovabad), Baku and other places and unconditionally release Armenian prisoners of war (POWs)."

Stepanyan and Grigoryan also called on the international community to "give a proper legal assessment of the violence in Sumgait in February 1988 in accordance with the basic principles and norms of the international law."

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on March 1, 2022 at 02:38 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.