Armenians to rally at Azeri consulate in LA to commemorate Sumgait pogroms

PanARMENIAN.Net - Unified Young Armenians (UYA) has organized a protest to mark the anniversary of the Armenian massacres in Sumgait, Azerbaijan, and call for an end to Azerbaijan’s state sponsored campaign of hatred targeting populations of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh Republic

On Monday, February 27 at 10 am, UYA has planned a protest at the Azerbaijan Consulate in Los Angeles, Asbarez reported.

The Sumgait tragedy and its bloody repetitions in Azerbaijan, lasting through the years of 1988 to 1991, led to the disappearance of 450,000 inhabitants living in an established Armenian community in Azerbaijan. It stimulated the military aggression against the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh from 1992 until 1994, as the latter pushed for peaceful demands for self-determination.

Dozens of Armenians were killed, majority of whom were set on fire alive, after being beaten and tortured. Hundreds of innocent people recieved injuries of varying severity. Women, among them minors, were raped.

In his address to the Supreme Council of the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Region, a leader of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, Hidayat Orujev, stated days before the massacre of Armenians in Sumgait: “If you do not stop campaigning for the unification of Nagorno Karabakh with Armenia, and if you do not sober up, 100,000 Azeris from neighboring districts will break into your houses, torch your apartments, rape your women, and kill your children.” This same Orujev is currently the Chairman of the State Committee for Work and Religious Organization for the Republic of Azerbaijan.