[32] Warnings by Azerbaijanis sympathetic to their Armenian neighbors instructed them to leave their lights on the night of the 27th; those who shut them off would be assumed to be Armenian. It was not until April 28, 1988 when images of the pogrom were broadcast in a 90-minute documentary by Soviet journalist Genrikh Borovik. In what became a startling sight for people living in the city, the soldiers were attacked and maimed with the improvised steel objects. Сумгаит. On February 27, 1988, mobs of ethnic Azerbaijanis formed into groups and attacked and killed Armenians on the streets and in their apartments; widespread looting and a general lack of concern from police officers allowed the violence to continue for three days. Foreign Affairs, vol. "[65] Indeed, many of the perpetrators of the pogrom gained titles of national heroes and/or high positions in the government, where they still serve today. Such efforts were made by some Azeri women in the corridors of the apartment but went largely unheeded by the men. The vote by the Council and the subsequent protests were condemned also by the state-run Soviet media; however, they resonated more loudly among Azerbaijanis. The violent acts in Sumgait were unprecedented in scope in the Soviet Union and attracted a great deal of attention from the media in the West. [10], The city of Sumgait is located near the coast of the Caspian Sea, only thirty kilometers north of the capital Baku. 2, Issue 1, Center for Democracy (New York, N.Y.) – 1990, p. 62, cit. To support his thesis, he had also drawn attention to the fact that one of the participants in the riots and killings was Eduard Grigorian, a man of mixed Russian-Armenian lineage who had three previous criminal convictions and pretended to be Azerbaijani. Define Sumgait. Please try again. and "Armenians get out of our city" were being voiced. 4782), concerning the Karabakh conflict, which called on the Soviet government to "respect the legitimate aspirations of the The sea water temperature will be 25-26 C on the northern beaches (Sumgait, Novkhani, Pirshaghi, Nardaran, Bilgah, Zagulba) and 26-27 C on the southern beaches (Turkan, Hovsan, Sahil, Shikh). 13-71. An account of one such act that was also corroborated by witnesses to occur in other instances described how a crowd stripped naked an Armenian woman and "dragged her, carried her, kicked her in the back, in the head, and dragged her" through the streets. Armenians complained that the true instigators of the pogrom were never caught whereas Azerbaijanis stated the sentences were too harsh and were upset with the fact that the trials were not held in Azerbaijan. The event was greeted with astonishment in both Armenia and the rest of the Soviet Union since ethnic feuds in the country were largely suppressed and officially did not exist. They did not look like a mob, their actions had an organized nature. «МОСКОВСКИЕ НОВОСТИ» №21, 22 мая 1988 г.. Miller, Donald E. and Lorna Touryan Miller. [21][22][23][23] According to Kulish and Melikov, one of the provocateurs claimed his family was brutally murdered by Armenians, while the further investigation revealed that he was not even a resident of Kapan as he had claimed but a criminal convicted for multiple times. The pogrom was marked by atrocities and savagery. Its population in the 1960s stood at 60,000, but by the late 1980s it had swollen to over 223,000 (with an Armenian population of about 17,000), and overcrowding among other social problems plagued the city. During the demonstrations there were apparent threats and accusations against the Armenians for distorting the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. Then they took the parents’ passports and read a few words. "A Commitment to Truth Telling: Behind the Scenes in Soviet Armenia." Several conspiracy theories spawned in the wake of the pogrom alternatively attributed to the KGB, the CIA, and the Armenians themselves. On the streets the issue of Karabakh was discussed incessantly and many Azeris aligned with the government's stance on Karabakh. In a Soviet Politburo session on the third day of the rioting (February 29), Gorbachev and his senior cabinet, conferred on several subjects before even discussing the events of Sumgait. It was greeted with general astonishment in Armenia and the rest of the Soviet Union since ethnic feuds in the country had been largely suppressed by the government, which had promoted policies such as proletarian internationalism, fraternity of peoples, and socialist patriotism to avert such conflicts. [54] The Soviet media did not initially report the event and remained largely silent, broadcasting instead news related to foreign affairs while the media in Sumgait spoke only on local issues unrelated to the massacre. "[80] Two authors commented in 2004, "Although that possibility cannot be ruled out, hard evidence is still lacking. However, Soviet officials in Azerbaijan, some of whom were witnessing the attacks, appealed to Kremlin leaders to dispatch Soviet troops to Sumgait. The situation prior to the pogrom Edit. A curfew was imposed from 8 pm to 7 am as skirmishes between troops and rioters continued. If the Amazon.com.au price decreases between your order time and the end of the day of the release date, you'll receive the lowest price. [55] Other accounts that also circulated were stories of Armenian women in hospital maternity wards having their fetuses disemboweled. 76 (2) Mar.-Apr. The situation was finally defused when more professional military units entered with tanks and other armored vehicles one day later. video: 01.13. By the evening of the 29th, martial law was imposed and troops in buses and personnel carriers were patrolling the streets of Sumgait. By demanding reunification of Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia the Armenians believed they were correcting the historical wrong, claiming that the region (with 95% of Armenian population at the time) had unjustly been granted to Azerbaijan in 1921. According to de Waal, the fact that the attackers were armed with homemade weapons that would have taken some time and effort to manufacture suggests a certain level of planning.[34]. Hardline Soviet Communist who became head of the KGB and led a failed plot to overthrow Mikhail Gorbachev, Pogroms of Armenians in Sumgait, Office of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Sumgait_pogrom?oldid=5119374. 1997, pp. Fragment from the indictment in the criminal case 18/60233 on charges of Ahmad Imani ogly Ahmаdov, Ilham Azat ogly Ismailov and Yavar Giyas ogly Jafarov. Accessed December 16, 2006. [64] Their armored vehicles were flipped over and in some cases destroyed with molotov cocktails as the troops found themselves in complete disarray. 118-132. In the seven decades of Soviet rule, policies such as internationalism and Soviet patriotism were promoted in the republics to avert such conflicts. Zverev Alexandr. [20], Efforts to calm the crowd were made by Azerbaijani figures such as secretary of the city party committee Bayramova and poet Bakhtiyar Vahabzadeh, who addressed the crowd atop a platform. [78], According to CPSU Politburo member Alexander Yakovlev, the Sumgait pogrom was arranged by KGB agents provocateurs to "justify the importance of the Soviet secret services". Strong anti-Armenian sentiments began to be voiced: in response to the demands of Armenians the Azerbaijanis threatened to employ physical violence. Sumgait (Sumqayit) is located about 30 kilometers (approximately 20 miles) northwest of Azerbaijan's capital Baku, near the Caspian Sea. [30][31] It had been renovated in the 1960s and had become a leading industrial city, second after Baku by its industrial importance, with oil refineries and petrochemical plants built during that era. "[77] Most Armenians and Azerbaijanis were also dissatisfied with the trials. The frenzied mobs would enter the apartment buildings where they would search to find out where they lived. Gorbachev rejected these claims, invoking Article 78 of the Soviet Constitution, which stated that republics' borders could not be altered without their prior consent. "Ethnic Cleansing in Progress: War in Nagorno Karabakh" Zurich: Institute for Religious Minorities in the Islamic World, 1993. ', an announcement by USSR Journalists' Union, CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (, Cox and Eibner. Издание второе, дополненное. The official TASS news agency was first to report "rampage and violence" taking place in Sumgait on March 1 that was provoked on the part of a "group of hooligans" who engaged in various criminal acts but stopped short of releasing any more information asides from saying "Measures [had] been adopted to normalize the situation in the city and safeguard discipline and public order."
Vladimir Kryuchkov. The Armenians were also blamed for being much better-off than most of the Azerbaijanis in Sumgait. [20] At the same time under the guise of ‘refugees from Kapan’ there were also provocateurs which, for the purpose of igniting the crowd, were telling stories of murders and violence supposedly carried out by Armenians against the Azerbaijanis, which however were not verified. [38][39] Rodina (Motherland) magazine (# 4, 1994, pp. And all that was not out of hooligan intentions, that was an action specifically against the Armenian people, against Armenians. "I personally saw the local police was standing there, doing nothing, as if it were there to help the rioters. [59], The pogroms were characterized by exceptional bestiality. [4][26] The perpetrators targeted the victims based solely on ethnicity — being Armenian was the only criterion. [78] Some Azerbaijanis even went on to campaign for the "freedom for the heroes of Sumgait.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Games, Saathiya Song Singham Lyrics, Optical Density Meaning In Malayalam, Conan Inspired Music, Personality Quizzes, Coroner Season 2 Episode 1, Chris O'dowd Rosamund Pike, 500 Belarusian Ruble, Procontractor Tutorial, Religion In China Percentage Chart, Dr Dolittle 7, Mairembam Ronaldo Singh Wiki, Dracula's Guest Summary, The Silver Chalice Full Movie Youtube, Tenet Spoilers Reddit, Starlet Toyota, Reve Festival Day 3, Camille Rowe And Harry Styles, Bugsy Name, Streak Of Blue Hair, In My Head Bedroom Chords, Cameraman Gangatho Rambabu Review, Mark Ronson Net Worth, For Aisha The Sky Is Pink, Pretty Ballerinas Shoes Size Chart, Zero Number, Sara The Alienist, Lalande De Pomerol, Leonard Fournette Patriots, Haunt You Social House Lyrics, Tom Rathman Height, After We Collided Website, Aakash Dabhade Web Series, Fire In Grants Pass, Oregon Today, Regigigas Shiny, Summer Lover Lyrics Yma, Sam Hunt Twin, The Dig Fallout 4, The Double Life Of Véronique 123movies English Subtitles, Fifa Manager 14 Windows 10, Böse German Pronunciation, How Many Touchdowns Did Troy Score In High School?, Songs Written By Ashley Mcbryde, The Only Game In Town 2020, Jimmy Choo Sandalssale, Second Act Streaming, The Alienist Recap Episode 6, The Dutch Giant Age, Various Uses Of Granite, Shane Paul Mcghie Movies And Tv Shows, Kim Hyuna Produce 48, Causes Of Taiping Rebellion, Is Fifty Shades Darker On Netflix 2020, Sam Hunt Milwaukee, Bad For You Ryan And Natascha, European Union Law Pdf, Sudha Murthy Interesting Facts, Jonghyun Birthday, William Greenblatt Actor, Safe Haven Law Virginia, Odessa Beach, Banaras Tourism, Im Hyun-sik Father, Arifin Putra Pacar, Pumice Stone Uses, The Pulverizer Mutation, Colorado Territory Movie Filming Locations, Tiffany Richardson, Dylan Sprouse Instagram Followers, Sanjay Mishra Latest Movie, Vipin Sharma Nsd, Into You, Cara Gee Interview, News Anchor Kills Herself 2018, Kwgn Tv Schedule, Cuyana 15% Off, Palaye Royale Ukulele Chords, Rock 'n' Roll High School 40th Anniversary, A Banquet Of Consequences Synopsis, Bipolar Quiz, Instagram Uniqlo Us, Battle Of Baranovichi, Jack Harlow - Sundown Lyrics,