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Azerbaijan: Investigation proves Sumgayit events committed by Armenian separatist forces

22 February 2018 07:37 (UTC +04:00)

An investigative group made up of experts of the Azerbaijani Prosecutor General’s Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State Security Service continue conducting throughout investigations in order to identify and prosecute all the masterminds behind the Sumgayit events as well as expose their backers, said Eldar Sultanov, spokesman for the Prosecutor General’s Office.

He made the remarks Thursday at a press conference dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Sumgayit events.

Sultanov noted that in order to provide an objective legal assessment of the Sumgayit events and disclose the true essence of this crime, proceedings for 5 suspended criminal cases were merged into one upon the decision dated 19 March 2010 of Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor General. The task of continuing the investigation was assigned to a group of investigators of the Prosecutor's Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the then-existing Ministry of National Security.

"In order to ensure a thorough, comprehensive and objective investigation, relevant inquiries were sent to Azerbaijan’s relevant state bodies, as well as to the Russian Prosecutor General's Office and other foreign countries, numerous testimonies of the Sumgayit events witnesses and of other people involved, including a investigative group of the USSR prosecutor's office were provided, archive documents were revealed, information given to the press was analyzed and other necessary investigative measures were taken,” he said.

As a result of immediate investigative measures carried out by the investigative group, the real essence of the events was revealed and it became clear that the Armenian separatist forces committed the riot in accordance with a scenario masterminded by pro-Armenian forces represented in the Soviet leadership, the spokesman stressed.

“As an obvious proof of my words, at the presentation in Moscow on March 31, 2016of the book titled "From the first sources about the Sumgayit events" by journalist Saadat Gadirova, Vladimir Kalinichenko, who was a member of the preliminary investigative group of the USSR Prosecutor's Office, and others addressed the event and said that the Sumgayit events had been organized by the USSR State Security Committee under the order of the USSR leadership that served the Armenian lobby, and therefore, the organizers of these events were not brought to justice,” he added.