[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 38 (Wednesday, February 26, 2020)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E217-E218]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        ANNIVERSARIES OF THE SUMGAIT POGROM AND KHOJALY MASSACRE

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. ALCEE L. HASTINGS

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 26, 2020

  Mr. HASTINGS. Madam Speaker, I rise to mark two painful anniversaries 
this week in the decades-long conflict over the territory of Nagorno 
Karabakh. Although separated by four years and 200 miles, the Sumgait 
Pogrom in 1988 and Khojaly Massacre in 1992 both demonstrated the 
heinous potential of interethnic hatreds to tear apart communities and 
trample human dignity. The commemoration of these horrific events is an 
opportunity to reflect on the innocent lives lost in this ongoing 
conflict as well as a chance to affirm the need for urgent steps to 
heal these wounds and find peace for all those afflicted once and for 
all.
  The Sumgait Pogrom occurred in the early days of the conflict between 
ethnic Armenians and Azeris over the semi-autonomous Soviet oblast of 
Nagorno Karabakh. At the time, the Armenian-majority region was self-
governing but ensconced in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. In 
1988, a mass Armenian political movement sought to capitalize on 
administrative reforms in the Soviet Union to unite the territory with 
the Armenian state. This self-determination campaign quickly unmasked 
mutual suspicions and interethnic resentments that degenerated into 
violence.
  Azeri counter-protests emerged in Baku in early February 1988 as 
ethnic tensions in Nagorno Karabakh intensified. Later that month, the 
reported murder of ethnic Azeris in Nagorno Karabakh lit a tinderbox of 
tensions that had built up in the town of Sumgait, 20 miles northwest 
of Baku. Gangs broke off from an Azeri rally in town and began looting, 
beating, raping, and murdering ethnic Armenians. Ethnic Azeris killed 
approximately 26 Armenians and injured hundreds more in the violence. 
The trauma of the pogrom sparked fears of escalating violence and led 
to the first major wave of relocations that eventually resulted in the 
near complete displacement of ethnic Armenians out of Azerbaijan and 
Azeris from Armenia.
  Reciprocal atrocities coinciding with the collapse of the Soviet 
Union caused the outbreak of all-out war in the early 1990s. The 
Khojaly Massacre on February 26, 1992 is the single greatest loss of 
life in the history of the conflict, which continues to this day under 
a shaky ceasefire agreed in 1994. In the early morning hours, advancing 
Armenian fighters opened fire on a stream of mostly civilian Azeris 
fleeing the town of Khojaly in the Nagorno Karabakh region.

[[Page E218]]

  Although estimates vary, Armenian militiamen killed several hundred 
Azeri civilians in the snow-covered woods of Nagorno Karabakh that 
morning. All told, the Nagorno Karabakh War claimed approximately 
20,000 lives and displaced more than a million people in both 
directions.
  Madam Speaker, as Chairman of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, I am 
deeply familiar with the efforts that the United States, in partnership 
with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, has made 
over the past quarter-century to resolve this conflict. The United 
States is a co-chair alongside France and Russia in the trilateral 
Minsk Group process the OSCE established in the late 1990s to 
facilitate de-escalation and peace talks between the sides. This 
process has largely succeeded in keeping all-out war at bay for more 
than 20 years, but the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides bear 
responsibility for advancing the cause of peace, including by preparing 
their populations for a lasting resolution.
  I am encouraged by the significant decrease in ceasefire violations 
over the past couple of years as well as the steady pace of high-level 
encounters between Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders during this period. 
Yet no meaningful progress has been made in these talks. Moreover, the 
Armenian Prime Minister and Azerbaijani President punctuate their 
private discussions with inflammatory public statements that often 
distort the historical record and damage the cause of peace.
  Madam Speaker, I strongly encourage the political leadership in 
Yerevan and Baku to use these solemn commemorations of Sumgait and 
Khojaly this week to turn a new page in this terrible conflict. The 
most fitting way to honor the lives of those lost would be through 
words of reconciliation and steps toward peace. Together, the peoples 
of Armenia and Azerbaijan can ensure such atrocities are never repeated 
and that future generations will know a life of secure and prosperous 
coexistence.

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