Your trusted source

A mass was held in Saint Michael and Gabriel church in Bucharest, Romania, in the memory of the victims of the massacre of the Armenians in the Azerbaijani city Sumgait, press-service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia reads.

Reportedly, after the mass, wreaths of flowers were laid at the khachkar dedicated to the victims of the Armenian Genocide on behalf of the Armenian Apostolic Diocese, the Union of Armenians, and the Embassy of Armenia in Romania.

After that, during the meeting of the Armenian Community, envoy of the Armenian Embassy Ashot Grigoryan presented the details of the trial on Sumgait massacre, which had taken place in Moscow in November 1988. Grigoryan was present at the trial.

On the same day, mass was held in the memory of the massacre of the Armenians in Sumgait in all the Armenian temples of Romania.

On 26-29 February 1988 in terms of actual complicity of local authorities and inaction of the USSR government mass pogroms of civilians were organized in Sumgait city of Azerbaijani SSR, accompanied with unprecedented brutal murders, violence and pillaging against the Armenian population of the city. Armenian pogroms in Sumgait were carefully organized. At the meetings, which began on February 26 in the central square, city leaders openly called for violence against the Armenians.

On February 27 protests which were attended by hundreds of rioters turned into violence. Armed with axes, knives, specially sharpened rebar, rocks and cans of gasoline and with the pre-compiled lists of apartments where Armenians lived the rioters broke into the houses, turning everything upside down there and killing the owners. In the same time, people were often taken out to the streets or to the courtyard for jeering at them publicly. After painful humiliations and torture the victims were doused with gasoline and burnt alive. On February 29 army troops entered Sumgait but without an order to intervene. Only in the evening, when the mad crowd began to attack the soldiers the military units took up decisive steps.

The exact number of victims of Sumgait pogroms is still unknown. According to official data, 27 Armenians were killed; however, there is ample evidence that several hundred Armenians have been killed in the city in three days. There is also evidence that the riots were coordinated by the Azerbaijani KGB. Executioners of Sumgait were subsequently declared as national heroes of Azerbaijan.