armenpress.am: Experts say the Azerbaijani actions against Armenians, including the pogroms in the Azerbaijani SSR, must be designated as genocide.

On February 28, at the initiative of MP Taguhi Tovmasyan, the Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights Protection and Public Affairs, a conference-discussion took place with participation of academics on the occasion of the day of commemorating the memory of the victims of the pogroms in the Azerbaijani SSR and the protection of the rights of the forcefully displaced Armenian population.

"34 years ago during these days, the peaceful Armenian population was being subjected to mass violence, murder, torture, maiming, immolation by armed Azerbaijani gangs. Why were they killing Armenians? Simply for being Armenian, they were killing Armenians because Armenians wanted to live freely and with dignity in their homeland. It is actually difficult to imagine how much hate and Armenophobia the Azeri authorities instilled among Azerbaijanis, how much they aggravated calls for violence against Armenians that hundreds of Azerbaijanis of Sumgait committed such inhumane and cruel actions," Tovmasyan said, describing the atrocities how armed Azerbaijani gangs, divided into groups, would attack Armenians by using a previously obtained list of their addresses, killing Armenians in their homes and in some cases dragging them outside and publicly humiliating them.

Tovmasyan stressed that these continuous and consistent actions of Azerbaijan constitute a state-sanctioned genocidal policy, based on which Azerbaijan launched the explicit aggression and large-scale war against Nagorno Karabakh in 1991, which continued decades later.

"30 years ago Azerbaijan sowed so much Armenophobia in its society that we witnessed inhumane atrocities during the 2020 war which Azerbaijan launched against Artsakh. Azerbaijan was committing more crimes against humanity and was killing the peaceful population, targeting kindergartens, schools and hospitals. And today, we are calling upon the international community, our international partners, that these criminal actions, crimes against humanity committed by Azerbaijan must receive an adequate response, assessment and treatment," Tovmasyan said.

Dr. Ashot Melkonyan, the Director of the History Institute at the National Academy of Sciences, noted the importance of reminding the international community about this tragedy from time to time. "The political assessment that has been given so far hasn’t recorded genocide as a final term, I think it is one of our mistakes. I believe that our parliament must definitely address this and give a clear terming, that this is the full chain of the same genocidal policy  which begins on February 6 in 1905 when the massacres of Armenians began in Baku, I am referring to the Armenian-Tatar fighting…" he said.

Melkonyan said the Azeri actions must be condemned and designated as genocide.