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31 years pass since the Armenian provocations in Sumgayit

28 February 2019 11:43 (UTC +04:00)

It has been 31 years since the day of the Sumgait events, ONA reports citing AzerTAG

The events of February 28, 1988 were another part of the provocations organized and carried out against Azerbaijan by the USSR State Security Committee with Armenian nationalists.

All the testimonies testify that the organizer of the Sumgait events was an Armenian, twice convicted of Eduard Grigoryan.

During the Sumgayit events, Grigorian personally killed five Armenians. In short, the unrest committed in Sumgayit on ethnic grounds was the culmination of purposeful provocations during that period.

To uncover the true nature of this crime, to investigate the factors hidden by the USSR Prosecutor General, on the basis of instructions from President Ilham Aliyev and the decision of the Prosecutor General, five criminal cases were terminated by the USSR Prosecutor General’s Office in connection with riots. The investigation was entrusted to the investigative-operational group of prosecutors under the leadership of the first deputy prosecutor general, as well as investigators and operatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State Security Service.

In January-February 1988, that is, before the riots in Sumgayit, 84 depositors of Armenian nationality out of 14 of the savings banks operating in the city seized 143,064 rubles.

During the investigation, it also became known that in those months of the post offices in the city, numerous telephone conversations were held with Armenia and money transfers were made.

The investigation revealed that Eduard Grigoryan was one of the active participants in the well-known events that took place on February 27-29, 1988 in Sumgayit.

Grigoryan gathered around him people whom he himself led. With calls for “death to the Armenians,” “for me,” etc., according to the lists he had previously made, he organized attacks on the houses of residents of Armenian origin. During the investigation, the injured Armenians (sisters of Ludmila and Karina Mezhlumyan, Manvel Petrosyan and others) said that it was Edward Grigoryan who led the whole process. The attackers acted on his instructions and orders. Also during the investigation another interesting fact was revealed. Thus, Eduard Grigoryan, convicted for the murders of residents of the Armenian origin of Sumgayit, was sentenced on December 22, 1989, that is, when the USSR still existed. On August 26, 1991, he was transferred to the detention facility No. 1 of the city of Yerevan.

For what "merit"? On February 9, 2015, a decision was made to bring Eduard Grigoryan to the investigation under the relevant articles of the Criminal Code of the Azerbaijan Republic, valid until September 1, 2000. By a court decision in his respect, a preventive measure in the form of arrest was chosen. He was wanted.

The investigation revealed that the majority of Armenians living in the city of Sumgayit transferred funds to the Krunk Society. The majority of Armenians who suffered in Sumgayit were those who refused to voluntarily donate funds to the Krunk society operating in the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. The members of the criminal group entered the entrances of one of the buildings, without attacking residents of Armenian origin on the first floors, committed pogroms in the apartments of Armenians who lived on the upper floors. By eyewitness testimony it was established that the apartments of the Armenians who transferred the funds to the “Krunk” society were not attacked.

As can be seen from the testimony of eyewitnesses of Armenian origin, dozens of Armenians were rescued by Azerbaijani families, who hid them in their apartments.

At the moment, complex operational investigative measures are continuing to identify and bring to criminal responsibility all the customers and participants of these pogroms, as well as their patrons.