The massacre and deportation of the Armenian people from Sumgait took place between February 27th and 29th of 1988.
An event commemorating the victims of the Sumgait massacre and condemning the perpetrators took place at the memorial dedicated to fallen freedom fighters in Askeran. It was organized by the Union of Refugees for Justice NGO.
“Today is one of the black pages of our history, the anniversary of the Sumgait massacres, which marked the beginning of the conflict between our two nations. In one second, people who lived among one another for many years became enemies despite the fact that they had spent time with each other, became friends, and visited each other as guests. If there were still people in Sumgait who helped Armenians, then future activities took a different path and were full of hatred and hostile sentiments.
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People were murdered just because they were Armenians. And the world followed all that was happening and stayed silent, including the powerful country in which all of that was happening. If the Sumgait massacres didn’t take place, the history of our two nations would have played out differently because hatred can only spawn hatred. Unfortunately, we also witnessed that during the 44-day war in 2020, where the new generation of Azerbaijanis, who never lived among Armenians, treated us with such cruelty and brutality while getting joy out of it to the point where you involuntarily wonder how human beings are capable of such cruelty.
It’s true that today we have so many casualties and wounded soldiers that it seems as though the events that took place in Sumgait were so long ago and forgotten. But we need to remember that by forgetting the past, we repeat our history. If the massacres were properly assessed at the time, the perpetrators would have been punished, and we wouldn’t have suffered so many losses. These many people’s futures wouldn’t have been cut short,” the co-founder of the Union of Refugees for Justice NGO, Snezhana Tamrazyan, said.
Those gathered placed flowers at the khachkar memorial in honor of the victims of the Sumgait massacre. Later, a service in honor of the souls of the victims was held at the St. Astvatsatsin church in Askeran.
Vova Arzumanyan
