Armenian citizen Karen Ghazaryan, who did not serve in the army due to mental problems and who crossed the border last year, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on February 27th. Founder of the Ordinary Genocide initiative Marina Grigoryan does not find it coincidental that the sentence was made exactly 31 years after the massacres in Sumgait. “There was no coincidence here. Everything was well thought out. This shows that Azerbaijan has announced to the world yet again that it is not prepared to reject genocidal policies, and will continue those policies. This was a call to Armenia and to Armenians,” Grigoryan told reporters.
She believes that Karen Ghazaryan’s sentencing was the latest demonstration of anti-Armenian sentiment that started with the Sumgait massacres. “The massacres in Sumgait were organized and carried out by Azeri authorities and with the silent support of Moscow. They forcefully brought Armenians out on to the streets, shamed them, and murdered them. There are terrible pictures which remind us of what happened in 1915. For three days, law enforcement agencies in Azerbaijan did nothing to stop the killings. On the third day, Soviet forces entered Sumgait, but they did not have orders to save Armenians. The worst of the killings took place on the day the Soviets came to Sumgait,” Marina Grigoryan said.
According to her, all Armenian authorities are also to blame for not making the day the Sumgait massacres took place into a day of remembrance. “They were not consistent; they didn’t make demands. Besides that, there is no evidence that this issue of Armenian refugees has been brought up as much within the framework of the Artsakh conflict negotiations process as it has been brought up by Azerbaijan. We hope that the new authorities will accept the genocides in Baku, Sumgait, and Maragha and that they will carry out legal operations.”
Luiza Sukiasyan
