BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28
Trend:
As long as the Armenian government will take an uncompromising position based on lies, unfortunately, until then the Armenian people will be deprived of peace and prosperity, Spokesperson for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Leyla Abdullayeva said while commenting on the statement of the Armenian Foreign Ministry related to Sumgayit events of 1988, Trend reports.
“We have repeatedly responded to the absolutely groundless and false statements of the Armenian Foreign Ministry in connection with the events in Azerbaijan’s Sumgayit city,” Abdullayeva said. “We stress once again that the bloody events in Sumgayit of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) in late February 1988 were a deliberate and planned provocation against Azerbaijan.”
The spokesperson added that the Prosecutor General's Office of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) filed a criminal case in connection with the incident, investigated the incident and revealed the perpetrators of the riots and their accomplices, as well as 32 victims.
“We draw the attention of the Armenian Foreign Ministry to the fact that the numerous testimonies of Armenian people living in Sumgayit were collected about Eduard Grigoryan, an Armenian by nationality, who played a leading role in these events, killed six people and raped three women of Armenian origin,” the spokesperson stressed.
Abdullayeva said that Grigoryan, sentenced upon the court decision to 12 years in prison, was transferred to Armenia to serve his sentence and then he was released.
“As a result of the trial, 92 people were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment while one person was sentenced to death,” the spokesperson said. “For comparison, I would like to stress that no measures were taken in the late 1980s against those responsible for the death of 217 Azerbaijanis during their forcible expulsion from the densely populated areas in the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic.”
Abdullayeva added that Armenia, which held 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territories under occupation for almost 30 years, committed numerous war crimes against humanity, including the Khojaly genocide, as part of its aggressive policy.
“However, none of the perpetrators has been brought to justice yet,” the spokesperson said.
“We remind the Armenian Foreign Ministry that the Republic of Azerbaijan put an end to the long-term Armenian military occupation of part of its internationally recognized sovereign territory and ensured its territorial integrity,” the spokesperson said. “Instead of taking advantage of new opportunities for cooperation and peace building that are currently appearing in the region after the factor of occupation has been eliminated, false, unfounded and hostile statements demonstrate Armenia’s true intentions.”
“As long as the Armenian government will demonstrate an uncompromising position based on lies, unfortunately, until then the Armenian people will be deprived of peace and prosperity,” Abdullayeva said.