In the late 1980s, the struggle to liberate Artsakh began. In the post-Soviet landscape, ethnic Armenians sought self-determination and freedom from the state-sponsored terror of Azerbaijan. The brave demands of the Armenian people were met with brute force in Azerbaijan. Innocent Armenians experienced inexplicable mass violence all across the country, but especially in Sumgait and Baku — two cities far from Artsakh, but still home for the thousands of Armenians who resided there. Today, the AYF-YOARF Eastern Region commemorates those pogroms to remember the past, but prepare for what’s next in the Armenian struggle.
On February 27, 1988, Azerbaijani authorities killed, raped and burned alive the peaceful Armenian civilians in the town of Sumgait for no reason other than their ethnicity. Thousands of Armenians were forcibly displaced. Lack of concern from Azerbaijani police officers allowed the vicious attacks to continue for several days. These targeted vicious attacks came as a response to the desire of the people of Artsakh to exercise self-determination. The Sumgait pogrom was just the beginning of a rise in ethnic cleansing and massacres of Armenians in Kirovabad in 1988 and Baku in 1990.
On January 11, 1990, Azerbaijani forces initiated a seven-day pogrom against the ethnic Armenian population of Baku. Their addresses were marked by Azerbaijani forces as targets illustrating the premeditated nature of these massacres. Under the slogan “Long live Baku without Armenians,” large mobs of Azerbaijani rioters set fire to the homes of Armenians. The ethnic Armenians of Baku were robbed, tortured and killed; some were burned alive. Those who managed to escape death were subjected to forced and systematic deportation. In the grim aftermath, there was no sign of Armenians left in Baku—a city that once boasted an estimated population of 250,000 Armenians.
The pogroms never ended. The marginalization and cruelty towards ethnic Armenians in Artsakh and Azerbaijan continued all the way until, and past, a breaking point – the 2020 war. In this unjust war waged during a global pandemic, Azerbaijan occupied more than 70 percent of the Republic of Artsakh through Turkish-backed insurgencies and treasonous land cessions by our own government. Over 100,000 citizens of Artsakh were forced to flee. Many are left without homes or families to this day. In this dark hour of Armenian history, we must conclude that the Azerbaijani state-sponsored hatred against Armenians never ended. It was never exclusive to war. It is a continuous process in line with pan-Turkism, and any effort to normalize this trajectory will normalize our own extinction.
[RELATED | AYF Washington DC protest demanding Azerbaijani accountability to be held on February 27]
We have a number of obstacles to overcome. Our lands are occupied. What is left is in danger. Our government continues to fail. What we need is to set Armenia back on the path of pursuing Hai Tahd. Pashinyan’s regime has made it clear that they will abandon the Armenian cause. We must not. Our fight for a free, united and independent Armenia is our salvation. As we remember the pogroms of the past, let it be known that they continue today. Through our commitment to Hai Tahd, we will overcome our struggles.
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After all the horrors Armenians suffered in Azerbaijan and Artsakh, the impotent and constantly capitulating Pashinyan and the “international community” (Russia, Europe and the United States) still expects the Armenians of Artsakh to be “integrated” and “protected” by the genocidal regime of Azerbaijan in four years time? That’s like throwing a sheep to a wolf, and expect it to nurture it.
Azerbaijan is hell-bent in ethnically cleansing all the remaining Armenians of the truncated Artsakh, and they dropped any pretense of allowing Armenians to live there and have “cultural rights”, after they gained control and massacred Armenian civilians and soldiers with impunity.
Yet, the “international community” pretends all will be well, fooled by the manipulative sweet talk, lobbying and bribery of the Aliyev regime.