OFFICE OF THE NAGORNO KARABAKH REPUBLIC IN THE USA
1334 G Street N.W., Washington, DC 20005
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PRESS RELEASE
January 13, 2012
VICTIMS OF 1990 BAKU POGROMS REMEMBERED
Survivors Seek Justice More than Two Decades After Atrocities
WASHINGTON, DC – January 13, 1990 was the day the Azerbaijani nationalist
mobs dramatically escalated a wave of violent pogroms and deadly attacks
against the Armenian population in Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital. While tens of
thousands of nationalists gathered in the city’s central square, a numbers
groups numbering dozens and hundreds each – egged on by agitators – broke
off and conducted methodical, house-by-house attacks against ethnic
Armenians remaining in the city.
Soviet and Western media published eyewitness reports of the atrocities
bringing blood-chilling details of murders of hundreds of helpless
civilians. No proper investigation of the violence was ever conducted and
the exact number of victims is still unknown. Human rights groups, including
the Human Rights Watch, stressed the organized character and the
sophisticated cruelty of the anti-Armenian pogroms in Baku, hundreds of
miles away from the Karabakh conflict area. “Most of the deaths were caused
by beatings and knife wounds; . The action was not entirely (or perhaps not
at all) spontaneous, as the attackers had lists of Armenians and their
addresses”, the organization
reported.
The Soviet leadership remained largely silent for days after the first
reports about the killings. Forces were dispatched into Baku a week later,
when the bloodbath and chaos in the city threatened Soviet authority.
Armenian pogroms in Sumgait, Kirovabad, Baku and elsewhere around Azerbaijan
and the full-scale military aggression against the Nagorno Karabakh Republic
that followed demonstrated the level of intolerance and anti-Armenian
sentiment among the Azerbaijani leadership and society.
22 years after the tragic events in Baku, the organizers and perpetrators of
that crime, though some are publicly known, remain unpunished.
The Office of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic in the United States is based in
Washington, DC and works with the U.S. government, academia and the public
representing the official policies and interests of the Nagorno Karabakh
Republic.
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in the USA on behalf of the Government of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic. The
NKR Office is registered with the U.S. Government under the Foreign Agent
Registration Act. Additional information is available at the Department of
Justice, Washington, D.C.
www.nkrusa.org