The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan has accused Armenia’s government of making fabricated statements that distort history, undermine the ongoing normalization process, and obstruct peace efforts.
In a statement released on Thursday, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry responded to Armenia’s recent claims about the alleged “massacre of Armenians” in Baku in January 1990, calling it an example of Armenia’s ongoing policy of intolerance and ethnic hatred towards Azerbaijan.
“Unfounded statement of the Foreign Ministry of Armenia regarding the alleged “massacre of Armenians” in Baku in January 1990, demonstrates the ongoing persistence of systematic policy of intolerance and ethnic hatred of Armenia towards Azerbaijan,” Azerbaijani ministry stated.
“Along with the massacres and deportations carried out against Azerbaijanis between the beginning of the 20th century and early 1920s, Armenia is also well aware of the horrible deportations of over 450.000 Azerbaijanis from their historical-ethnic lands in the former Armenian SSR in 1948–1953 and starting from 1987.”
The statement further highlighted that Armenia is attempting to cover up the genocide and ethnic cleansing committed against Azerbaijan’s civilian population, including the mass killing of 613 civilians in just one night in Khojaly in 1992. It also referenced the continuous violations of the fundamental rights of over a million Azerbaijanis for nearly 30 years.
“The world is well aware that the fabricated “Sumgayit massacres,” which was carried out through Eduard Grigorian, is nothing, but a plan designed by Armenians to justify deportation and massacres of Azerbaijanis,” the Foreign Ministry remarked.
On Wednesday, Armenia’s Foreign Ministry issued its statement, recalling the alleged attacks against Armenians in Azerbaijan during the collapse of the Soviet Union.
However, Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor General’s Office, through its investigation, revealed that the riots committed in Sumgayit on February 27-29, 1988, were part of ethnically motivated provocations organized and carried out by the Soviet Union’s State Security Committee (KGB) in collaboration with Armenian nationalists, aimed at demonizing Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor General’s Office established that the Sumgayit riots were orchestrated by Eduard Grigoryan, a 1959-born Armenian criminal nicknamed “Pasha,” who had been convicted three times before. Witness testimony confirmed that the mastermind behind the Sumgayit riots was Eduard Grigoryan, an Armenian, who personally killed six Armenians during the riots.
Grigoryan was aided by his brothers, Albert and Ernis, as well as Armenian emissaries from the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and the KGB agents. They provided Grigoryan with a list of Armenians in Sumgayit who had refused to join the “Karabakh” and “Krunk” organizations created by Armenian separatists. To incite further violence, they supplied him with psychotropic drugs and alcohol to distribute among the rioters. Grigoryan, along with his brother Albert, also provided metal rods for use as weapons. Grigoryan actively participated in looting and other crimes and personally killed six Armenians.
Although Grigoryan, dubbed the “Sumgayit executioner,” was sentenced to 12 years in prison, he was released shortly afterward. In 1991, he was extradited from Russia to Armenia, where he was immediately freed. He did not remain in Armenia and returned to Russia, eventually settling in Sergiyev Posad, a town located 60 kilometers from Moscow, and concealing his violent past.