Shavarsh Kocharyan: We will fight for the freedom and independence of  Armenians of Artsakh 

ArmInfo. 30 years ago the residents of Karabakh expressed their will, Artsakh declared its desire to live independently. And it was at this time that the blackest pages in the history of the region were written. On February 22, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Shavarsh Kocharyan stated during the hearings in the Parliament on "Sumgait pogroms." Armenian phobia as the state policy of Azerbaijan. "

"In response to the just demand of the Karabakh Armenians to withdraw  from Azerbaijan, the authorities of this republic were provoked by  large-scale pogroms of Armenians in Sumgait, and it should be noted  that it is noteworthy that the Azerbaijani authorities began to  punish not the Karabakh Armenians, but the Armenian population in  other cities for hundreds of kilometers from Stepanakert, "Kocharyan  said.

The most terrible thing, according to the deputy minister, was that  these brutal events only gained momentum and then the pogroms  continued and spread to other Armenian-populated cities of Azerbaijan  - Kirovabad and Baku.

Shavarsh Kocharyan also stated that Armenianophobia subsequently  became the basis of all internal and foreign policy of Baku, thanks  to which the self-consciousness of modern Azerbaijan society is  formed.  "Instead of sitting at the negotiating table, cooperating  with the representatives of the OSCE Minsk Group, Azerbaijan  continues its Armenian-Afghan policy, one of the manifestations of  which was the April war in 2016. It is precisely because of this  behavior of Azerbaijan that we have not been able to find a solution  to the Nagorno- Karabakh conflict, but we will not dance to the tune  of our neighbors, we will fight for the freedom and independence of  the Armenians of Artsakh, "the deputy minister said.