YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 27, ARMENPRESS. The factions and individual MPs of the Parliament of Artsakh issued a statement on the 31^st anniversary of the massacre of the Armenian population in Sumgait, the Artsakh Parliament told Armenpress.

The statement runs as follows:

“Thirty-one years ago, on 27-29 February 1988, Azerbaijani authorities carried out massacre and forced deportation of the Armenian population in Sumgait. Only for national affiliation, hundreds of Armenians were brutally killed and thousands of Armenians, mostly women, children and elderly people, were forcibly deported.

The wave of genocide spread in Gandzak, Baku, North Artsakh and other Armenian populated areas of Azerbaijan. In 1988-1990, consistent and repeated crimes with the same signature against the Armenian minority, turned into official policy for the Baku authorities.That was a real threat to the extermination of the Azerbaijani indigenous Armenian community and Nagorno Karabakh Armenians. It was the national liberation movement that was aimed at restoring national dignity and violated rights, preserving its identity, which in those days stirred up in Artsakh.

Paying tribute to the memory of our compatriots who fell victim to the massacres in Sumgait and condemning any manifestation of discrimination, intolerance and xenophobia, the factions and independent MPs of the National Assembly of the Artsakh Republic:

insist that impunity of acts of genocide committed by Azerbaijan led to massive new crimes and war against the people of Artsakh,

reaffirm their commitment to the restoration of the rights of Armenians of Azerbaijan who were exposed to violence and deportation,

urge international human rights organizations to recognize and condemn the Sumgait genocide,

call upon Azerbaijan to face up to its own past, refuse war rhetoric and stop state-run policy of Armenophobia”.