YEREVAN, JANUARY 13, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijani extremists intruded into the houses of Armenians and representatives of other ethnic groups, tortured and killed them in Baku in 1990 from January 13-19. They killed un-armed people who were unable to defend themselves. ARMENPRESS reports an extended article published by gazeta.ru details into Baku pogroms.

“Massacres and persecutions of Armenians started on January 12, 1990 in Baku. Illegal measures were taken also against Russians, Jews, Georgians and Greeks”, reads the article.

The article notes that prior to those cruel incidents various Azerbaijani politicians undertook different provocative measures. They reiterated that there were many poor Azerbaijanis in Azerbaijan when many Armenians lived in good social conditions, and by this and other similar provocations they provoked people to use violence against Armenians.

From January 13, 1990 violence against Armenians becomes more widespread. Large groups of Azerbaijanis started protests under the slogans like “Long live Baku without Armenians”, and promised to clean the city from Armenians. The author of the article cites British journalist Thomas de Waal saying that Baku pogroms It should not be viewed separately from the mass killings of Sumgait.

The author presents in the article numerous testimonies about the cruelty used against people for the reason they were Armenians.

“A number of killings were implemented with special cruelty. On January 14 a group comprised of 30-40 people breaks into the family of elderly Torosyans whose relatives were at home also, who were also elderly. The criminals beat all of them, took 3.5 thousand rubles from them, forced out and burnt alive with petrol”, Kirill Stolyarov wrote in his book "Break-up".

Thirty years ago on this day, Azerbaijanis began a state-sponsored massacre of the Armenian population in Baku, which became known as the Bako Pogroms.

Tens of thousands of Armenians fell victim to the cruel atrocities or forced displacement.

The Baku Pogrom began in 1990 January 13th and lasted until January 19th. It was a state-sanctioned pogrom organized by the Azerbaijani Popular Front. After the six days of atrocities, Baku – the city once having an Armenian population of 250,000 – had no Armenian left.

The anti-Armenian hysteria in Azerbaijan had risen back in late 1988 and early 1989.

On January 13, 1990 a mass rally took place with the attendance of thousands. Afterwards, the crowd separated into smaller groups and started attacking and murdering Armenians in their homes with extreme cruelty. The perpetrators had the addresses of their would-be victims. The mob would defenestrate their victims from their apartments, kill them with metal pipes and knives, women were raped, and many were burnt alive.

Only six days later, when the Soviet authority was jeopardized in Baku, Mikhail Gorbachev ordered a state of emergency in the Azerbaijani capital to restore public order. More than a dozen militants were killed during an armed resistance with the troops, and many were arrested.

Since evidence and facts were concealed and covered up, the exact number of Armenians who were killed during the pogroms was impossible to be revealed, but according to various estimated at least 500-600 were murdered from 1988 to 1990. The anti-Armenian pogroms went on even after 1990 January, leading to a complete and forced exodus of Armenians.

Despite the Azerbaijani denialist policy, the Baku Pogroms, and the preceding Sumgait Pogrom of 1988, as well as in Kirovabad (Gyanja), have been condemned by a number of international organizations. The pogroms against the Armenians were condemned by the European Parliament in resolutions adopted in 1988, 1990 and 1991.

Eyewitness accounts, as well as the above-mentioned resolutions, indicate that the anti-Armenian actions in Baku and Sumgait were of organized nature or at least were carried out at the permission of the then-Azerbaijani authorities.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan