[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 29 (Wednesday, February 12, 2020)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E171-E172]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           ANNIVERSARY OF ANTI-ARMENIAN POGROMS IN AZERBAIJAN

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JAMIE RASKIN

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 12, 2020

  Mr. RASKIN. Madam Speaker, this year we honor the memory of hundreds 
of ethnic Armenians killed--and hundreds of thousands displaced--
between 1988 and 1990 in brutal and violent pogroms in Azerbaijan. In 
the 1980s, citizens in Azerbaijan of Armenian heritage embarked on one 
of the first pro-democracy movements against the Soviet Empire, calling 
for self-determination, fair treatment, and an end to discrimination. 
This pro-democracy movement was met with extreme brutality in waves of 
pogroms and forced deportations of Armenians from Azerbaijan. Mobs 
violently attacked ethnic Armenians in the cities of Sumgait in late 
February 1988, Kirovabad in November 1988, and the capital, Baku, in 
January 1990.
   For three days in February 1988, mobs murdered, raped, assaulted, 
and burned alive ethnic Armenians. This came as the result of years and 
decades of anti-Armenian rhetoric and policies engineered by the 
Azerbaijani government, contributing to a lethal climate of 
dehumanization, racism, and religious intolerance.
   Despite an international outcry, including bipartisan resolutions, 
statements and letters from concerned members of Congress, the violence 
continued. Between 1988 and 1990, according to human rights 
organizations, an estimated 300,000 to 350,000 Armenians fled 
Azerbaijan under threat of violence or were deported. The failure of 
the government to legitimately address simple democratic demands, and 
the violent response to largely peaceful movements, fueled a spiral of 
reactionary intercommunal violence and prolonged armed conflict in the 
region. Today, I stand to remember and honor all of those killed, 
wounded and displaced in these anti-Armenian pogroms.
   The lessons of the events of 1988 to 1990 are obviously acutely 
relevant as we look around the world today. Ethnic and religious hatred 
that foments violence is on the rise--the Rohingya in Burma have been 
slaughtered, Uighur Muslims in China are being put in concentration 
camps because of their religion, and tens of thousands of Jehovah's 
Witnesses have been declared extremists in Russia for following their 
peaceful religion.

[[Page E172]]

   When human beings are denied their universal freedoms, and when 
governments put in place dehumanizing rhetoric, policies, and laws; 
then hatred, violence, and suffering follow. I urge my colleagues to 
stand with me in recognition of the plight suffered by ethnic Armenians 
thirty years ago and to stand vigilant against the use of ethnic and 
religious hatred to stir violence against minorities here in the United 
States and around the world.

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