[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 36 (Wednesday, March 1, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E253-E254]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             REMEMBERING THE VICTIMS OF THE SUMGAIT POGROMS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ADAM B. SCHIFF

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, March 1, 2017

  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I rise to commemorate the 29th Anniversary 
of the pogrom against the Armenian residents of the town of Sumgait, 
Azerbaijan. Twenty-nine years ago, Azerbaijani mobs assaulted and 
killed their Armenian neighbors. When the violence finally subsided, 
hundreds of Armenian civilians had been brutally murdered and injured, 
women and young girls were raped, and victims were tortured and burned 
alive. Those that survived the carnage fled their homes and businesses, 
leaving behind everything they had in their desperation.
   The pogroms were the culmination of years of vicious anti-Armenian 
propaganda, spread by the Azerbaijani authorities. The Azerbaijani 
authorities made little effort to punish those responsible, instead 
attempting to cover up the atrocities in Sumgait to this day, as well 
as denying the role of senior government officials in instigating the 
violence. Unsurprisingly, it was not the end of the violence, and was 
followed by additional attacks, including the 1990 pogrom in Baku.
   The Sumgait massacre and the subsequent attacks on ethnic Armenians, 
resulted in the virtual disappearance of a once thriving population of 
450,000 Armenians living in Azerbaijan, and culminating in the war 
launched against the people of Nagorno Karabakh. That war resulted in 
thousands dead on both sides and created over one million refugees in 
both Armenia and Azerbaijan.
   Time has not healed the wounds of those murdered in the pogroms in 
Sumgait, Kirovabad, and Baku. To the contrary, hatred of Armenians is 
celebrated in Azerbaijan, a situation most vividly exemplified by the 
case of Ramil Safarov, an Azerbaijani army captain who savagely 
murdered an Armenian army lieutenant, Gurgen Margaryan with an axe 
while he slept. The two were participating in a NATO Partnership for 
Peace exercise at the time in Hungary. In 2012, Safarov was sent home 
to Azerbaijan, purportedly to serve out the remainder of his sentence. 
Instead, he was pardoned, promoted, and paraded through the streets of 
Baku as a returning hero.
   The assault on ethnic Armenian civilians in Sumgait helped touch off 
what would become a direct conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over 
Nagorno Karabakh. And today, Azerbaijan's dangerous behavior on the 
Line of Contact threatens peace and stability in the region. Artillery 
and sniper fire across the Line

[[Page E254]]

of Contact has become a fact of daily life for civilians in the Nagorno 
Karabakh Republic, causing numerous casualties. In April of last year, 
Azerbaijan launched its most aggressive attack in many years, resulting 
in the loss of many lives over the course of three days of intense 
fighting.
   Along with other Members of Congress, I have consistently called for 
a direct international response to Azerbaijan's aggressive behavior 
through deployment of international monitors and technology to monitor 
ceasefire violations. Azerbaijan's continued rejection of these simple 
steps speaks volumes, but I believe they should not prevent the 
installation of these technologies within Nagorno Karabakh. The 
anniversary of Sumgait is a reminder of the consequences when 
aggression and hatred is allowed to grow unchecked.
   Mr. Speaker, this April we will mark the 102nd Anniversary of the 
Armenian Genocide, an event the Turkish government, Azerbaijan's 
closest ally, goes to great lengths to deny. We must not let such 
crimes against humanity go unrecognized, whether they occurred 
yesterday or 28 years ago or 100 years ago. 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.

                          ____________________