Armenian pogroms in Baku: The New York Times – Indifference and
silence can cause another genocide
12:20 17/01/2015 >> REGION
It is signed by more than 130 human rights activists, public figures
and scientists from different countries of Europe and America
The New York Times, July 27, 1990.
blishing the series of evidences of the eyewitness, statements of
political and public figures about the Armenian pogroms held in Baku
on 13-20 January 1990. The articles are posted on the website of
KarabakhRecords.info
Indifference and silence can cause another genocide…
An open letter to international public opinion on anti-Armenia pogroms
in the Soviet Union
It is signed by more than 130 human rights activists, public figures
and scientists from different countries of Europe and America
The New York Times, July 27, 1990.
An era which we all thought ended, the era of pogroms, has resurfaced.
Once again this year, the Armenian community of Azerbaijan has been
the victim of atrocious and intolerable premeditated massacres.
As scholars, writers, scientists, political leaders and artists we
wish, first of all, to express our profound indignation over such
barbaric acts, which we wanted to believe belonged to humanity’s past.
We intend this statement as more than an after-the-fact condemnation.
We want to alert international public opinion to the continuing danger
that racism represents to the future of humanity. It forebodes ill
that we are experiencing the same powerlessness when faced with such
flagrant violations of human rights a half century after the genocide
of the Jewish people in Nazi concentration camps and forty years after
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It would be inexcusable if,
because of our silence now, we contributed to the suffering of new
victims.
The situation of Armenians in the Caucasus is, in fact, too serious
for us to remain silent. There are moments when we must assume the
moral obligation to assist a people in peril. Our sense of obligation
leads us today to appeal to the international community and to public
opinion.
More than two years ago, active persecution against Armenians began in
Azerbaijan. The pogroms of Sumgait in February 1988 were followed by
massacres in Kirovabad and Baku in November 1988. As recently as
January 1990, the pogroms continued in Baku and other parts of
Azerbaijan. The mere fact that these pogroms were repeated and the
fact that they followed the same pattern, leads us to think that these
tragic events are no accidents or spontaneous outbursts.
Rather we are compelled to recognize that the crimes against the
Armenian minority have become consistent practice – if not consistent
policy – in Soviet Azerbaijan. According, to the late Andrei Sakharov
(New York Times, November 26, 1988), these pogroms constitute “a real
threat of extermination” to the indigenous Armenian community in
Azerbaijan and in the autonomous region of Mountainous Karabakh, whose
inhabitants are 80 percent Armenian.
Horror has no limits, especially when we remember that the threat is
against the Armenian people, who in 1915 paid dearly for their right
to be different in the Ottoman Empire. There, Armenians lost half
their population to genocide, the worst consequence of racism.
Furthermore, if the recent pogroms have revived nightmares of
extermination not yet overcome, the current total blockade of Armenia
and Mountainous Karabakh and 85 percent of those into Armenia pass
through Azerbaijan; it would not be an exaggeration to maintain that
such a blockade amounts to the strangulation of Armenia. In a land
devastated by the earthquake of December 7, 1988, the blockade has
paralyzed the economy and dealt a mortal blow to the reconstruction
efforts.
It is our sincere hope that perestroika will succeed. But we also hope
for the success of glasnost and democratization. We recognize that the
passage from a totalitarian state to a rule of law cannot be achieved
overnight. It is nonetheless necessary that in the process of
transition, the government of the Soviet Union promote legalize and
institutionalize such critical forces for democracy as human rights,
the principle of toleration, and democratic movements. There is no
better defense and demonstration of democracy. At any rate, that is
the only way to avoid the worst. In the case of the multinational
state, the, worst may mean threats to the right of a people or a
minority to exist. It is during periods of transition and uncertainty
that rights of peoples – today Armenians, tomorrow another people or
minority – are threatened or denied. In this respect, the ease with
which we see today the development in the USSR of racist movements,
especially the anti-Semitic movement known as Paymat, is for us cause
for grave concern.
In the name of our duty of vigilance, we demand that Soviet
authorities as well as the international community condemn univocally
these anti-Armenian pogroms and that they denounce especially the
racist ideology which has been used by the perpetrators of these
crimes as justification.
We ask from the Soviet authorities and the international community
that all necessary measures be taken immediately to ensure the
protection and security of Armenians in the Caucasus and other parts
of the Soviet Union. This can begin by bringing about a definitive
lifting of the Azerbaijani blockade. It should be clear that the
forceful deportation of Armenians is not the solution to the problem
of Mountainous Karabakh which, in essence, is a problem of human
rights.
The international community of states under the rule of law must prove
the authenticity of its commitment to human rights in order to ensure
that, due to indifference and silence bordering on complicity, another
genocide does not occur.
It is signed by more than 130 human rights activists, public figures
and scientists from different countries of Europe and America
The New York Times, July 27, 1990.
From: Baghdasarian
http://www.panorama.am/en/society/2015/01/17/baku-1990-nytimes/