Pogroms in Azerbaijan and Armenia of 1988-89 As Historical Echo of the 1915 Armenian Genocide

Karabakh adopted a resolution that called for a meeting of the Regional

Council of Deputies of Mountainous Karabakh for the purpose of examining the issue of reunification. On the 21st, this council voted in favor of reunification by a large majority, providing a legal basis for Armenian demands.[19]

The massacres that took place on February 28-29 brought in tragedy and interrupted the peaceful events. A few dozens of Armenians according to official records, were killed by Azerbaijanis in the industrial city of

Sumgait, although estimates range is as high as two hundreds. The percentage of the Armenian population estimated less that 10% of all inhabitants of Sumgait. During the night of 27 February several hundreds of Azerbaijanis armed with weapons and flammable liquids raped, tortured and burned alive victims after beatings and torments. There were hundreds of wounded who became invalids. The rapes included rapes of underage girls. More than two hundreds houses were destroyed and robbed; automobiles owned by Armenians were burnt or smashed. Thousands of refugees fled to Armenia and Russia.[20]

The past became present. Such words as “pogroms,” “massacres,” and even “genocide” became current vocabulary words in the turbulence of the events. This provoked resurrection of memories and implied immediate, direct analogy with the Genocide of 1915. The Azerbaijanis related by race, language, and culture to the Turks were perceived by Armenians as the same savage executors who carried out the genocide of 1915.[21]

There were traced some indirect evidences that led Armenian community to suspect Azerbaijani governmental authority being involved in these murders.

1. During the days preceding 27 February, the Third Party Secretary of Baku personally participated in several violently anti-Armenian television broadcasts.2. Some Azerbaijanis in Sumgait, knowing the massacres were coming three days before the 27th, warned some Armenians of their fate.

3. Piles of rocks were delivered beforehand by trucks to the outskirts of the Armenian quarters.

4. The killers were brought to Sumgait in special coaches and vans.

5. Telephone lines linking Sumgait and the outside world were cut before the killings.

6. Soviet soldiers stood aside for three days, doing nothing to put a stop to the massacres.

The indifference of Moscow towards the massacres was expressed clearly by giving no orders to Azerbaijani government and Soviet troops that were located precisely on the boarder of Armenia and Azerbaijan to stop the violence. Is it a repetition of what Turkish government did against

Armenians who were a subject of Ottoman Empire in 1915? There was no explicit approval from the Kremlin on measures Azerbaijanis took against

Armenian population, yet there was no immediate response to it either. The official record displayed 32 deaths for the three days of the outrage; however, during the entire year of 1988, the case didn’t take place in court. As the memories of the genocide became vivid the Azerbaijani authorities played with this psychological trauma caused many years ago and passed into a new stage of fear by letting Armenians know they had gone too far and, thus jeopardizing those who reside in territories governed by

Azerbaijan.[22]

By November and then aggravating in December 1988, pogroms started to spread in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. The attitude towards Armenian population rapidly began to decline after Sumgait pogroms with only periodic help from the Soviet Army. Breaks out of hostility and hatred were directed even at religious objects. The Armenian Cathedral in Baku was burned. On December 5, 1989, crowds of Azeris started threatening

Armenian population. Gangs of young Azerbaijanis (age range was 16-30), carrying the Turkish flag stopped buses, checked ID’s of passengers and after tracking down an Armenian they would pull a person out of a bus and beat him/her (!) up, regardless of age of the victim. Such violence and cruelty are not easy to understand, for Armenians and Azerbaijanis were living in peace and harmony prior to the events. The perpetrators apparently were given the implicit approval from the Azerbaijani government in regards to Armenians. Azereis were granted with right to do whatever they wanted with Armenian population. In stores if a sales person suspected in a customer an Armenian, a clerk would refuse to sell bread to that person. And the more harming assaults are not even to mention. They raped young pregnant women and older women, torturing and outraging them;

Azeris poured their victims with gasoline and burned them. The entire city seemed infected by hysteria. On the day of the earthquake in Armenia

Azerbaijanis were jumping up and down in celebration of the catastrophe, rejoicing over sufferings of other humans. Only on January 19, 1990, a state of emergency was declared and 20 000 Soviet troops were dispatched to put down the riots again the Armenian population of Azerbaijan.[23]