[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 29 (Wednesday, February 12, 2020)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E174]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     30TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BAKU POGROMS: REMEMBERING THE VICTIMS

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                         HON. JAMES P. McGOVERN

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 12, 2020

  Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I rise today in remembrance of the 
victims of pogroms against the Armenian population in then-Soviet 
Azerbaijan thirty years ago: These attacks against Armenian Christians 
happened between 1988 and 1990 in the cities of Sumgait (February 27 to 
29, 1988), Kirovabad (November 21 to 27, 1988) and the city of Baku 
(January 13 to 29, 1990).
  It is clear that the pogrom of Armenians in Baku was not a 
spontaneous and one-time event, but the culmination sofa series of 
ethnic violence waged against Armenians. In 1988, the Armenians of 
Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave forcibly separated from 
Armenia and incorporated into Soviet Azerbaijan, began to voice their 
demand for reunification with Armenia. Their peaceful protests were 
reinforced by the February 20, 1988 vote by the Soviet of People's 
Deputies in Karabakh requesting the transfer of the region to Armenia. 
These events were taking place in the context of Mikhail Gorbachev's 
Perestroika and Glasnost. Unfortunately, Moscow and Azerbaijani 
authorities rejected these calls and strong anti-Armenian sentiment was 
whipped up, including calls for the death and ouster of the Armenian 
population.
  On February 27, 1988, a massive pogrom was carried out in Sumgait 
where the Armenian population was brutally slaughtered and expelled. 
The Sumgait pogrom was followed by a pogrom in Kirovabad, the second 
largest city in Azerbaijan, where all the Armenians were expelled. 
After these tragedies, a massive migration of Armenians from Azerbaijan 
began, along with the migration of approximately 200,000 Azerbaijanis 
and Muslim Kurds who exited Armenia. By 1989, Armenians remaining in 
Azerbaijan stayed only in those places where they had well-established 
communities, as in Baku.
  In January 1990, a series of Azerbaijan political rallies took place, 
and on January 13th, a crowd of about 50,000 divided into groups and 
began raiding and invading Armenian homes, brutalizing the inhabitants, 
including women and children, and destroying and burning houses, 
businesses and other community structures. The rallying cry was to 
cleanse the city of Armenians. The violence, killings, rapes, beatings, 
looting and forcible expulsion of Armenians persisted between January 
13th and 20th. It is still unknown the exact number of people killed, 
but estimates place the death toll around 450 people. Throughout it 
all, local militia and Soviet troops stood by as the violence escalated 
over a week's time. Not until the evening of January 20th, after most 
of the Armenian population had fled or been expelled from Baku, did the 
Soviet Army intervene to stop the seven-day massacre.
  Garry Kasparov was born in Baku in 1963. His mother was Armenian. In 
1985, he became the youngest ever World Chess Champion. In January 
1990, he was excelling in his competitions, and ranked as the No. 1 
chess player in the world. Yet in January 1990, he bravely returned to 
Baku, into the midst of massacre and carnage, to rescue and evacuate 
the families of his friends and relatives. Describing those events, he 
has testified that:
  ``No one would halt the Armenian pogroms in Baku, although there were 
eleven thousand soldiers of internal troops in the city. No one would 
intervene until the ethnic cleansing was carried out. The pogroms were 
happening not in a random place, but in the huge capital city with 
blocks of flats. In such a megapolis as Baku, the crowd simply cannot 
carry out targeted operations like that. When the pogrom-makers go 
purposefully from one district to another, from one apartment to 
another, this means that they had been given the addresses and that 
they had a coordinator.''
  I don't mean to simplify the complex history and people of this 
region, but these pogroms set the stage for more than two decades of 
aggression by Azerbaijan against Armenians, during which Azerbaijan 
initiated and lost a war against Nagorno Karabakh. Azerbaijan's 
persecution of Armenians continues even today in attacks against 
Nagorno-Karabakh, now known as the Republic of Artsakh.
  There has yet to be an independent investigation of the events that 
occurred between 1988 and 1990 that emptied Azerbaijan of its Armenian 
population. No one has been held accountable for the violence and the 
deaths. Azerbaijan remains in turmoil because of the fanaticism and 
thirst to ethnically cleanse the entire region ofArmenian Christians.
  The U.S. Congress forcefully spoke out during the period of 1988 to 
1990 against these massacres and expulsions of Armenians by Azerbaijan. 
We have rejected the Azeri war against Nagorno Karabakh and stood in 
solidarity with the Armenian people of Artsakh. We will continue to do 
so.
  Madam Speaker, today I remember all the victims and I honor all the 
survivors of these terrible acts of ethnic cleansing. May all the 
people of Armenia and Artsakh live in peace and freedom for which they 
have sacrificed and suffered so much.

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