How Tajiks targeted Armenians after Baku pogrom – The New York Times

PanARMENIAN.Net - In an article published in February 1990, the New York Times reported on the death 37 people died in a rally in Soviet Tajikistan, in anti-Armenian protests including thousands of residents in Dushanbe.

The demonstration was provoked by false rumors that thousands of Armenians fleeing violence in Azerbaijan were being given preference for apartments in the city despite a severe local housing crisis.

During the Sumgait pogrom of February 1988, mobs of ethnic Azerbaijanis formed into groups and attacked and killed Armenians on the streets and in their apartments. From January 12, 1990, a seven-day pogrom broke out against the Armenian civilian population in Baku during which Armenians were beaten, murdered, and expelled from the city.

The 30-year-old article said that despite assurances by local authorities that only 39 Armenian refugees had arrived in the country and that they were staying with relatives, the demonstrators continued their rampage. The crowd gathered in front of Communist Party headquarters in Dushanbe and issued an ultimatum with five demands, including the expulsion of all Armenian refugees from Tajikistan.

The director of the official Tajik press agency said the demonstrators had formed a "national committee" which searched houses in the city for Armenians, although the Soviet Government newspaper Izvestia reported back then that all the refugees, and many longtime Armenian residents of Tajikistan, had been evacuated by air to the Armenian republic's capital, Yerevan.