"Investigation" in the Sumgait incidents of February 1988 by the Azerbaijani prosecutor general's office has ushered a new wave of fake data on the mass killings of Armenians in Sumgait. This time, First Deputy Prosecutor General Rustam Usubov replenished the list of Azerbaijani liars.
Accoring to Usubov: "The investigation has revealed that most of the Armenians, who lived in Sumgayit 26 years ago, knew beforehand about the mass unrests.
The investigation has found out that more than 100 families living in Sumgayit withdrew their deposits before the unrests and left the city, most of them were rich families. A lot of international calls were made by Armenians during that period," Rustam Usubov said.
He said that the "investigation" found out that Armenian special service officers came to Baku and Sumgayit, stayed at the hotels, met with the Armenians and had secret talks with them.
"Our additional investigation on that case proved that the driver of Baku bus fleet #1, Armenian Markaryan Valerie Vaskanovich deliberately ran over pedestrians, which caused the death of four Azerbaijanis. Russian investigators pretended the incident so that the victims were allegedly guilty and died accidentally after remaining under the armored vehicles driven by servicemen. The relatives of dead have assumed up to now that the crime was committed by servicemen. Investigation is underway," Usubov said.
February 20, 1988 in line with the Constitution and then effective legislation of the USSR, the former Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast Regional Council basing on the will of the Armenia population on the region submitted a petition to the Supreme Councils of the Azerbaijani SSR and Armenian SSR on the secession of the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast from Soviet Azerbaijan and its transfer to Soviet Armenia. In response to that legal demand, the Azerbaijani authorities started repressions. On February 26- 28 1988 the Azerbaijani authorities planned and committed massacre of the Armenian population in Sumgait, which is provide by thousands of evidences.
The Sumgait pogrom (also known as the Sumgait Massacre or February Events) was a pogrom that targeted the Armenian population of the seaside town of Sumgait in Soviet Azerbaijan during February 1988. On February 27, 1988, mobs made up largely of ethnic Azeris formed into groups that went on to attack and kill Armenians both on the streets and in their apartments; widespread looting and a general lack of concern from police officers allowed the situation to worsen. The violence in Sumgait was unprecedented in scope in the Soviet Union and received heavy coverage in the Western media. A number of international and Soviet sources described the events as genocide of the Armenian population.
On February 28, a small contingent of MVD troops entered the city and unsuccessfully attempted to quell the rioting. The situation was finally defused when more professional military units entered with tanks and other armored vehicles one day later. The forces sent by the government imposed a state of martial law in Sumgait, established a curfew, and brought the crisis to an end.
After Sumgait dozens of organizers of that tragedy occurred in the Soviet courts, but only one of the organizers was sentenced to life imprisonment, but was released later. Meanwhile, the true organizers and executors of the mass killings of peaceful Armenians, in the face of the National Front of Azerbaijan and Abulfaz Elcibey, avoided punishment and even came to power amid chauvinistic and anti-Armenians sentiments in the Azerbaijani public. This impunity led to genocidal actions in Baku, Maragha and dozens of peaceful villages and towns populated with Armenians. Twenty-six years have passed since Sumgait tragedy and the value system of brutal murderers killing and burning Armenians in 1988 has just gone deep into the state policy of Azerbaijan.