The world advocating for genocide prevention must condemn the Sumgait massacre and hold criminal Azerbaijan accountable
27.02
2025
On Feb. 27-29, 1988, in Soviet Azerbaijan’s Sumgait, the Azerbaijani authorities organized a genocide and mass expulsion of the city’s Armenian population. The purpose of this crime against the Armenian people was to suppress the Artsakh Movement and to terrorize Armenians with the prospect of new bloodshed. This was a familiar pattern that Azerbaijan—a newly emerged entity on the world’s political map—had followed in Artsakh in 1920 and 1923, as well as in Ganja, Baku, and Maragha during the dissolution of the USSR; this ultimately led to the gradual exodus of 400,000 Armenians from Soviet Azerbaijan.
The logic of the Sumgait massacre’s “Death to Armenians” policy is today evident in Baku, where the military-political leadership of Artsakh and Armenian prisoners are being illegally tried.
Regardless of its form of governance or leadership, Azerbaijan has never abandoned its policy of Armenophobia and ethnic cleansing. This includes its anti-Armenian demographic policies during the Soviet years, the depopulation of Nakhijevan, and the gradual emptying of Artsakh, where Armenians once comprised 95% of the population. The only way to preserve Artsakh’s Armenian identity was the liberation war of 1991-1994 and the removal of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast from the USSR, followed by the declaration of the Republic of Artsakh in accordance with the letter and spirit of Soviet and international laws.
The lesson we can draw from the Sumgait massacre is clear: any status for Artsakh within Azerbaijan will inevitably lead to a new genocide. The international community advocating for genocide prevention is obligated to provide a clear legal and political assessment of the Sumgait massacre and other genocidal acts committed against Armenians in Azerbaijan. It must also ensure compensation for the property of displaced Armenians and impose obligations on the Azerbaijani state through international court rulings.
