Monday, February 26 2024 20:36

ArmInfo. The ANCA was proud to join the AYF Washington DC "Ani" Chapter-led protest at the  Azerbaijani Embassy commemorating Azerbaijan's anti-Armenian pogroms in Sumgait-Baku- Maragha-Kirovabad (1988-1992) and demanding justice for the Artsakh Genocide of 2023.

According to the press service of the Armenian National Committee of  America (ANCA), the protesters called for US and international  leadership to sanction Azerbaijan, provide expanded assistance for  survivors of Azerbaijan's genocidal ethnic cleansing of Artskh's  Armenian population, and the establishment of a mechanism to ensure  their secure and dignified return to their indigenous homes.

In response to the desire of the Armenians of Artsakh  (Nagorno-Karabakh) to realize their right to self- determination, a  wave of Armenian pogroms swept across Azerbaijan, accompanied by  murders, violence and robberies of unprecedented cruelty.

The first victims of Azerbaijan's policy of violent suppression of  the free will of the people of Nagorno- Karabakh were the Armenians  of Sumgait, an Azerbaijani city located several hundred kilometers  from Nagorno-Karabakh. The massacre in Sumgayit lasted three days,  from February 27 to 29, 1988.  In November 1988, the second wave of  Armenian pogroms began in Azerbaijan; the largest of them occurred in  Kirovabad, Shemakha, Shamkhor, and Mingachevir. During the same  period, in November- December 1988, residents of 50 Armenian  settlements of northern Artsakh - the mountainous and foothill parts  of the Khanlar, Dashkesan, Shamkhor and Gadabek regions, as well as  the 48 thousand Armenian population of Kirovabad (Gandzak) were also  deported.

The massacres and final deportation of the Armenians of Baku in  January 1990 were the culmination of the persecution, violence,  pogroms and murders of the Armenian population in Azerbaijan in  1988-1990. They were illegally fired from their jobs and forcibly  evicted from apartments and houses. There were beatings, public  mockery and murder of Armenians. By January 1990, out of the 250  thousand Armenian population, about 35-40 thousand Armenians remained  in Baku. For the most part, these were elderly, lonely, sick or  low-income people who did not want or were unable to leave, as well  as their relatives who did not want to leave.