[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 43 (Monday, March 8, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E210]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





                 SUMGAIT, KIROVABAD, AND BAKU MASSACRES

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BRAD SHERMAN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, March 8, 2021

  Mr. SHERMAN. Madam Speaker, I stand in solidarity with the Armenian 
American community in commemorating the pogroms against Armenians in 
the cities of Sumgait (February 27-29, 1988), Kirovabad (November 21-
27, 1988) and Baku (January 13-19, 1990).
  Thirty-three years ago, in the Azerbaijani town of Sumgait, peaceful 
Armenian residents were brutally targeted on the basis of their 
ethnicity and subjected to unspeakable crimes. The New York Times 
reported Armenians being ``hunted'' down and an account of a pregnant 
Armenian woman, who had been disemboweled. The U.S. Senate passed an 
amendment in July of 1989, noting that even the Soviet government had 
termed the murder of Armenians in Sumgait a ``pogrom.''
  The Sumgait Pogroms were the beginning of an escalation of violence 
against the Armenian minority, with a wave of anti-Armenian violence 
spreading to Kirovabad in November 1988 and to Baku in January 1990, 
which culminated in the forcible expulsion of 390,000 Armenians from 
Azerbaijan and the 1991-94 war over Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh).
  In response to the Sumgait and Kirovabad pogroms, over 100 leading 
academics and human rights advocates, including the Executive Director 
of the NAACP and Elie Wiesel, placed an advertisement in The New York 
Times titled: ``An Open Letter to International Public Opinion on Anti-
Armenian Pogroms in the Soviet Union.'' The letter appealed to the 
international community to condemn the atrocities and prevent further 
violence by stating: ``The international community of states . . . must 
prove the authenticity of its commitment to human rights in order to 
ensure that, due to indifference and silence bordering on complicity, 
another genocide does not occur.'' (July 27, 1990, The New York Times)
  Unfortunately, Azeri attacks against Armenian civilians have only 
continued. In its latest bout of aggression against Armenia and Artsakh 
in the fall of 2020, Azerbaijan carried out indiscriminate attacks 
against civilians. A report by Human Rights Watch found that Azeri 
forces used inherently indiscriminate cluster munitions and artillery 
rockets or other weapons that did not distinguish between military 
targets and civilian objects. Multiple strikes hit residential homes in 
less than a minute, suggesting bombardment of civilian areas.
  Today, Armenians are still held captive in Azerbaijan, with no 
planned date to be returned to Armenia. Armenian prisoners of war have 
been subjected to physical beatings and other inhumane treatment at the 
hand of Azerbaijan. The government of Azerbaijan must be held 
accountable by the international community, and I will continue to work 
in Congress to shed light on and learn the lessons of such past and 
present atrocities.

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