The Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) issued a statement recalling that on February 27-29, 1988, a series of atrocities were committed in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait. These events marked the beginning of large-scale, state-backed massacres against Armenians, escalating decades-long repression and persecution into open and systematic violence.
"The mass killings and torture of Armenian civilians in Sumgait continued in Baku, Kirovabad, and Maragha, following the same patterns of brutality. Hundreds of Armenians were murdered, and nearly half a million were forcibly displaced. This cycle of violence persisted until September 2023, when the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh was completely ethnically cleansed," the statement reads.
Each year, Armenia honors the memory of these innocent victims, the MFA emphasized. However, it noted that such anniversaries should also serve as reminders of the need to overcome enmity and prevent future recurrences of such crimes.
In response, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Aykhan Hajizadeh dismissed Armenia’s statement as "unfounded" and "false," despite the charges being documented and confirmed in Soviet court rulings.
From the evening of February 26 to February 29, 1988, anti-Armenian pogroms in Sumgait became the first instance of large-scale ethnic violence in Soviet history. Over three days, mass killings, looting, and brutality resulted in the first wave of refugees fleeing Azerbaijan for Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. A thorough investigation was never conducted, the perpetrators remained unpunished, and the violence against Armenians in Azerbaijan escalated further.
