[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 30 (Monday, February 27, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E252]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    HONORING THE VICTIMS OF SUMGAIT

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ADAM B. SCHIFF

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, February 27, 2012

  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the scores of 
Armenian lives lost in the vicious attacks perpetrated by Azerbaijani 
pogroms against Armenian civilians in the town of Sumgait, Azerbaijan 
24 years ago. Beginning on February 27, 1988 and for three days, 
Azerbaijani mobs assaulted and killed Armenians. Hundreds of Armenians 
were wounded, women and young girls were brutally raped, and victims of 
all ages were beaten and tortured and eventually burned to death. 
Thousands were driven from their homes and forced to become refugees. 
Armenian homes and businesses were left to be looted and destroyed.
  In the years that followed this heinous event, Armenians living in 
Kirovabad and Baku suffered a similar fate. These pogroms were only 
part of a pattern of anti-Armenian activities occurring throughout 
Azerbaijan, setting the stage for two decades of aggression during 
which the Azerbaijani government initiated a war against the people of 
Nagorno-Karabakh. Thousands of people lost their lives and hundreds of 
thousands of Armenians were displaced as a result of the fighting. A 
once thriving population of 450,000 Armenians living in Azerbaijan 
virtually disappeared.
  A cease-fire agreement, brokered in 1994, remains in place today. 
However, Azerbaijan's continued war-mongering, recent cease-fire 
violations, and dramatic increase of its military budget threaten to 
destabilize the Nagorno-Karabakh peace talks. In January 2008, 
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev warned Armenians living in Nagorno-
Karabakh, ``We are reinforcing our army because we must be ready to 
free our lands . . . at any moment and by any means.'' Such rhetoric is 
detrimental to the peace process and is further evidence that this 
conflict is ongoing and must be resolved. It is my sincerest hope that 
a democratic and peaceful resolution can be reached, and Nagorno-
Karabakh's right to self-determination affirmed.
  This April will mark the 97th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, 
an event the Turkish government, Azerbaijan's closest ally, goes to 
great and tragic lengths to deny. We must not let such crimes against 
humanity go unrecognized. Today, let us pause to remember the victims 
of the atrocities of the Sumgait pogroms. Mr. Speaker, it is our moral 
obligation to condemn crimes of hatred and to remember the victims, in 
hope that history will not be repeated.

                          ____________________