ArmInfo. The Karabakh movement completely changed the life of the Armenian people, as a result of this movement, two independent Armenian states, Armenia and Artsakh, were formed. This was announced by Ara Babloyan, Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia, on February 22 during the parliamentary hearings on "Sumgait pogroms." Armenian phobia as state policy of Azerbaijan."
The Speaker noted that in response to the peaceful Karabakh movement, to the desire of the people of Artsakh to withdraw from the Azerbaijani SSR, the authorities of the Republic of Azerbaijan responded with Sumgayit pogroms. "This reaction was predictable, given the negative attitude towards Armenians in the neighboring republic, as a result of this crime hundreds of people were killed, wounded, hundreds became refugees, but then such crimes continued in Baku, Kirovobad and other Armenian cities in the territory of the former Azerbaijani SSR These actions did not receive such wide publicity as Nazi actions during the Second World War against Jews, but I should note that they were no less cruel and bloody, "Babloyan underlined.
He also noted the fact that during this time nothing has changed, and the authorities of the AR continue to pursue the Armenian-Afghan policy, and to this day, as evidenced by the statements of the Azerbaijani authorities about the claims to Yerevan and Zangezur. "And despite the fact that these actions were not properly evaluated by the international community, we were able to liberate Artsakh and create a new Armenian state," the speaker concluded.
It should be noted that the pogroms of the Armenian population that occurred in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait from the evening of 26 to 29 February 1988 were the first mass explosion of ethnic violence in modern Soviet history. The Sumgait pogroms lasted three days and were accompanied by mass violence, looting and murder, which led to the first flows of refugees from Azerbaijan to Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia. As a result of the three-day pogroms, dozens of people were wounded and 53 killed, some of them tortured to death, and their corpses were burnt. On February 29, the Soviet army finally entered Sumgait, which, however, did very little to protect the Armenian population.