The Sumgayit events were a provocation, committed by the special services of Armenia and the USSR, Hikmat Hajiyev, spokesman for Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry, said on Thursday.
He made the remarks addressing a press conference dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Sumgayit events, APA reports.
“After resorting to this provocation, they tried to prove that coexistence of Armenians and Azerbaijanis is impossible,” said Hajiyev, stressing that the Sumgayit events were deliberate provocation.
The spokesman recalled that in the late 1980s Armenia, having made groundless territorial claims against Azerbaijan, retorted to military force and began to pursue a policy of ethnic cleansing.
“Numerous crimes were committed against Azerbaijani civilians in the territory of Armenia, as well as in Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region. More than a million Azerbaijanis were expelled from their homes. Armenia carried out various kinds of provocations against Azerbaijan. Armenian special services and terrorist organizations committed various terrorist acts on transport vehicles, claiming the lives of thousands of Azerbaijanis,” Hajiyev said.
He noted that the Sumgayit events in February 1988 reached a climax.
“Representatives of more than 15 different nationalities, including Armenians, were living in Sumgayit in the late 1980s. In connection with these events, Armenia opened a criminal case, which was not brought to its logical conclusion. Azerbaijan’s president ordered reinvestigating the Sumgayit events. The Prosecutor General’s Office of Azerbaijan is carrying out the investigation,” the spokesman added.
Armenia’s political leadership is responsible for the Sumgayit events and what happened in Nagorno-Karabakh, Hajiyev stressed.
“We will do our utmost to further inform the international community of the provocations, crimes and acts of genocide committed by Armenians,” he added.
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