Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 27
By Ilkin Izzet - Trend:
Sumgait's 1988 events committed by the special services and the Armenian diaspora were a lesson for Azerbaijan, Director of the Center for Strategic Studies under the Azerbaijani president Farhad Mammadov said on Feb. 27 at the center's round table on 'Sumgait events: historical memory and responsibility' dedicated to the 26th anniversary of Sumgait events.
"The events of February 28, 1988 turned into a big disaster for Azerbaijan," he said.
"After these events Armenians intensified their activity over Nagorno-Karabakh," he added. "They brought these events to the forefront and tried to give legitimacy to their activity.
Sumgait's events also marked the beginning of a new process throughout the USSR."
"The Armenians and the Armenian diaspora actively used these events," he said. "As a result, the world community has been informed about the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict in this context."
"The operations are underway to ensure the objective attitude to these events and to provide the world community with the objective information about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," he added.
The Armenian side has been referring to the Sumgait events in an attempt to justify its separatist and aggressive policy, the Khojaly genocide and other crimes committed in the territory of Azerbaijan for many years, head of Azerbaijan's Presidential Administration Department for Work with Law-Enforcement Bodies Fuad Alasgarov said earlier.
In an effort to give its lie as truth, the Armenian side did not hesitate to resort to misrepresentation, falsification of documents and other dirty tricks that it used throughout its history.
The information that Sumgait events were organized by the USSR special services, was obtained even in the course of the investigation, conducted in 1989-1990.
The scenario of mass riots in Sumgait was implemented by E. Grigoryan, his two brothers, Armenian emissaries who arrived from Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia , as well as the State Security Committee agents.
Thus, former activist of the Karabakh separatist committee Pkhadadze, as well as other activists of Karabakh and Krunk nationalist societies, were engaged in the provocative actions in Sumgait, according to the State Security Committee's archives.
Translated by NH
Edited by CN