This February marks 37 years since the tragic events in Sumgayit, orchestrated by Armenian nationalists and mercenaries. The 1988 Sumgayit pogroms and murders were part of a premeditated plan by the global Armenian community to destabilize the region. These events served as a convenient pretext to launch a campaign aimed at detaching Karabakh from Azerbaijan, ultimately leading to armed conflict.
Armenians deliberately chose Sumgayit for its multi-ethnic population, which allowed them to create a scene of widespread disorder, making it easier to portray the incident as an ethnic conflict on the international stage. The scale of violence in Sumgayit, along with the targeted killing of Azerbaijanis in other areas, was part of a broader strategy by the Armenian side to pursue its political objectives. The brutality left deep scars in the collective memory of the Azerbaijani people and marked a significant turning point in the events leading up to subsequent military actions in the region.
Armenian nationalists used the Sumgayit events to justify the forced expulsion of Azerbaijanis from their historic lands. The Azerbaijani people have lived in what is now Armenia for centuries, and Western Azerbaijan is considered a historical Azerbaijani region, with the names of cities and villages in the area having Azerbaijani origins. Before 1988, Azerbaijanis lived in Armenia across 7,500 square kilometers of the country’s territory. This reality irked Armenian nationalists, who spread chauvinistic views and aspired to "cleanse" Armenia of non-Armenian ethnic groups.
The Armenian nationalist agenda "bore fruit" in 1988-89 with the forced deportation of Azerbaijanis from their historical homeland. Following the onset of widespread repression, about 250,000 Azerbaijanis were forced to leave Western Azerbaijan, becoming refugees. As a result of this barbaric policy, Armenia became a mono-ethnic state, with nearly 100 percent of its population being Armenian. This tragic event remains a painful chapter in the region’s history and continues to affect the region today. In this context, former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan’s infamous statement that "Armenians and Azerbaijanis are genetically incompatible" stands out. With this comment, Kocharyan tried to justify the atrocities committed by Armenians during the Karabakh war, including the genocide of Azerbaijanis in Khojaly. His wife, Bella Kocharyan’s statement, "Armenians should only give birth to Armenian blood. Armenian blood has a specific genetic structure," further exposes the true face of Armenian nationalism.
In its attempt to push its version of events, Armenia has resorted to distorting facts, falsifying documents, and using other unethical methods, just as they did during the Sumgayit events. However, the Soviet Union’s State Security Committee and Prosecutor General’s Office conducted a thorough investigation into the events in Sumgayit, which revealed that the true organizers were Armenians. The investigation identified key organizers, including Eduard Grigoryan, an Armenian nationalist, as the main culprit behind the tragedy. Grigoryan personally killed six of the 26 people murdered in Sumgayit, with numerous eyewitness accounts and evidence supporting this. Despite being arrested, Grigoryan was sent to Armenia to serve his sentence, only to be released. This raises the question: why was Armenia willing to release a criminal who had murdered several Armenians? The answer lies in the fact that he was carrying out their orders.
Witnesses who survived the events in Sumgayit provided law enforcement with detailed accounts of extremist groups operating in the city. Some of these testimonies include:
Farhad Movsumov, a garage worker at the Sumgayit Health Department in 1988, shared his memory: "The chief of the garage was Karlen Babayan. He only gathered workers of Armenian nationality. Before the events, unfamiliar people would frequently gather at his office, speaking Armenian. Later, I learned that Armenians from Yerevan and Khankendi had been visiting him. He would meet with them privately, without letting anyone else in. I didn’t pay much attention to their conversations, but when salaries were paid, Armenian workers would enter his office, which raised suspicions. Later it turned out that they provided monthly financial assistance to the 'Krunk' organization in Nagorno-Karabakh. In the middle of February 1988, it became clear to me that Karen Babayan was the head of the 'Krunk' cell in the garage. He also met with the criminal Eduard Grigoryan, who participated in the Sumgayit riots. I knew him as 'Pasha'. He was very cunning, always speaking Azerbaijani with us. During the riots, I realized that 'Pasha' was actually Eduard Grigoryan."
The events in Sumgayit, orchestrated by Armenian nationalists, also laid the groundwork for larger processes, such as the outbreak of the Karabakh war and the occupation of 20% of internationally recognized Azerbaijani territory. With far greater economic, military, and human resources than Armenia, Azerbaijan was unwilling to tolerate the occupation of its lands indefinitely. In 2020, in response to another provocation by the Armenian armed forces, Azerbaijan launched a large-scale counteroffensive. After 44 days of intense fighting, the Armenian army suffered a crushing defeat, forcing Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to sign a capitulation agreement. The one-day anti-terrorist operation in 2023 was a logical continuation of Azerbaijan's Victory in the Patriotic War. The remaining Armenian separatists, after facing heavy strikes, were forced to lay down their arms and accept the terms set by Azerbaijan’s government. Azerbaijan fully restored its sovereignty over Karabakh, effectively ending the plans of the global Armenian community.
The Armenian nationalists behind the Sumgayit events had several goals. First, they sought to justify the violent expulsion of Azerbaijanis from Western Azerbaijan, presenting it as a response to supposed crimes committed by Azerbaijanis. Second, they aimed to provoke the international community into condemning Azerbaijan and create conditions for its political isolation. Radical Armenian groups tried to impose their own vision of the world, based on ethnic exclusivity and territorial expansion. This ideology frequently motivated actions aimed at driving Azerbaijanis from their ancestral lands.
For years, Armenian propaganda has successfully painted Armenians as "innocent victims", enabling them to manipulate the situation in Sumgayit on the international stage. These fabrications became the basis for justifying Armenian aggression and an important tool in achieving their goals. The revelation of the true events in Sumgayit and the subsequent publication of the investigation results exposed the Armenian side and showed its willingness to manipulate facts to achieve its aims.
The infamous events in Sumgayit serve as a stark reminder of how nationalism and extremism can lead to mass tragedy. To prevent similar events in the future, the international community must hold accountable all Armenian nationalists who were responsible for the violence against innocent civilians. Otherwise, the methods used in Sumgayit may be repeated in other parts of the world.
Sevil Mikayilova
Vice President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) from Azerbaijan, Member of the Azerbaijani Parliament