CRIME WITHOUT PUNISHMENT AND REPENTANCE
Wednesday, 27 February 2013 11:20
Though it is painful to admit, but the chronicle of the Armenian
nation has many tragic pages. In our recent history, at the end of
the twentieth century, it inscribed a new sad page – the genocide of
Armenians in Sumgait committed from 26 to 29 February, 1988.
Time inevitably runs forward, and it is hard to believe that exactly
a quarter of a century has already passed since the tragic events. And
just a few days ago, on February 20, we marked, or rather, celebrated
another date – the 25th anniversary of the new stage of the Karabakh
Movement. It was on February 20, 1988 that the special session of
the Nagorno-Karabakh Regional Council of People’s Deputies adopted a
resolution, legislatively endorsing the will of the people of Artsakh
to reunite with Armenia.
They are two different dates – tragic and festive. They are seemingly
incompatible, but there is an invisible and deep relation between
them. The two events – the Sumgait pogroms and the session of the
Regional Council of People’s Deputies, which are separated from each
other for only a week, are closely interrelated. Moreover, if you
look at them wider, evaluate them in a human dimension, so you’ll
see that they were the reflection of the ethno-psychology of two
communities – Armenian and Azerbaijani. The heroes of the revival
of Artsakh were Armenians acting strictly within the law, and the
anti-heroes of “sumgait” were hordes of bandits, which had trampled
not only the state laws, but also the norms of human morality. The
resolution of the session was adopted in a purely constitutional way,
basing on the free will of the NKAO citizens who sincerely believed in
the democratic principles of the policy of perestroika proclaimed by
the Soviet leadership. The reaction to it was the bloody atrocities
by angry mobs of monsters murdering the innocent people with animal
cruelty. They murdered them purely on ethnic grounds, only for the
fact that they were Armenians.
>>From 26 to 29 February (it was a leap year), the city of Sumgait was
at the mercy of the crowd intoxicated with blood, as if it plunged
into chaos. But, it is important to emphasize that the events were
not spontaneous, as the Azerbaijani and central Soviet propaganda
tried to present them. Not at all. The seemingly uncontrollable crowd
was skillfully managed. The monstrous crimes against the civilian
population were carefully planned by the Azerbaijani authorities
and were committed with their direct support, which are testified
by numerous documentary evidences. The goal was simple – by outright
terror to intimidate the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh and
to make it give up the national-liberation movement and the very idea
of reunification with Armenia. And along with it, threatening with
the prospect of new bloody actions, to make it clear to the Soviet
leadership the inadmissibility of a positive solution of the Karabakh
issue. However, the calculations of the organizers of the “sumgait”
were wrong in both cases. The people of Nagorno-Karabakh, who loudly
stated about their right to a free life and stood for the defense of
their own dignity, could not be intimidated. As for the blackmail
of the Soviet leadership, the Azerbaijani authorities were worried
for nothing, because the “spiritual fathers” of perestroika did not
intend to meet the legal demand of the people of Karabakh. Moreover,
they actually consolidated with the organizers of the Armenian
pogroms, encouraging them to new bloody deeds by their connivance and
criminal inaction. And then they concealed them and did not give any
legal, political, or even moral assessment to that terrible tragedy,
describing the mass crimes against the Armenians as crimes committed
out of… hooliganism. It is no exaggeration to state that one of
the reasons for the collapse of the USSR was the inability of the
state to protect the constitutionally guaranteed fundamental right
of its citizens – the right to life. Apparently, a state with false
ideology and self-righteous leadership sooner or later is destined
to leave the political arena.
It is a known truth that impunity generates new crimes. But, it
also leads to moral degradation and deep crisis of the collective
consciousness of the society that we now observe in Azerbaijan. For
a quarter of a century, we have not heard a word of repentance for
the atrocities – either from the authorities or from the “conscience
of the nation”, that is intelligence. On the contrary, instead of
condemning the murderers, their glorification has taken place at the
state level. As a result, the unpunished “sumgait” led to a bloody
series of “baku”, “kirovabad”, “shamkhor”, “mingechaur”, “maragha”…
The apotheosis of the chain of crimes by the authorities of Azerbaijan
was the war launched against the NKR, in which the aggressor was
finally punished. However, it has not learned the proper lesson, as
the hatred towards Armenians is made the state policy in Azerbaijan –
the genocidal policy, which is a constituent of Pan-Turkism. And the
ongoing threats of a new war against Nagorno-Karabakh are another
proof of it.
“Sumgait” taught us a lesson, though cruel, but still a lesson. We
finally got rid of the illusions, having realized an important truth –
freedom is not begged, but it is gained. We gave it to understand that
one cannot speak to us on the language of force and threats. That the
times, when the Armenian population could be killed with cynicism and
impunity, have irretrievably passed. We have realized that the only
guarantee of our secure present and future is our own statehood. And
therefore we must consolidate the entire political, economic and
moral potential of our people for the development and consolidation
of this statehood. That will be the best tribute to the memory of
our compatriots who became victims of the nationalistic policy of
Azerbaijan.
Leonid MARTIROSSIAN Editor-in-Chief of Azat Artsakh newspaper
http://artsakhtert.com/eng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=954:crime-without-punishment-and-repentance-&catid=3:all&Itemid=4