Karabakh conflict emerged from Sumgait ethnic cleansing

PanARMENIAN.Net - The ethnic cleansing in Sumgait marked the beginning of the Karabakh conflict, Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian told a news conference in Yerevan.



Reminding about the 20th anniversary of Sumgait pogroms, the Minister said, "Ethnic cleansings were carried out in all Armenian-inhabited regions of Azerbaijan. The events in Sumgait proved the necessity of Karabakhi people's struggle for independence. We should remind the international community about February of 1988."



February 27-29, 1988 Azerbaijan, taking advantage of the USSR leadership's indifference, committed mass pogroms in the town of Sumgait. By official data, 32 Armenians were killed, hundreds wounded. The survivors fled to Armenia. Some 20 thousand Armenians used to live in Sumgait before the pogroms.