[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Page 2884]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             RECOGNIZING THE VICTIMS OF THE SUMGAIT POGROMS

  Mr. PETERS. Madam President, I wish to recognize the victims of the 
mass murder of Armenians 27 years ago during the state-sponsored 
pogroms in Sumgait, Azerbaijan.
  The citizens of Nagorno Karabakh peacefully petitioned to be reunited 
with Soviet Armenia and spoke out against the arbitrary borders 
established by Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union. This democratic 
exercise of free speech expressing a natural desire for self-
determination was met with 3 days of violence and brutality against 
Armenian civilians, who were hunted down in their homes. Security 
forces in Soviet Azerbaijan turned a blind eye, allowing the mass 
murder of Armenians in a futile attempt to defeat this movement. The 
massacres of Armenians did not stop in Sumgait but were followed in 
other Azerbaijani towns such as Kirovabad in November 1988 and the 
capital Baku in January 1990. The U.S. Congress strongly condemned 
these massacres at that time. Hundreds of thousands of Armenians fled 
Azerbaijan, many finding their home in my State of Michigan, where 
there is a monument to the victims of the Sumgait massacres.
  True democracies must respect the rights of the minority, allow 
citizens to peacefully speak freely, and protect the human rights of 
all residents. The people of Nagorno Karabakh and the victims of this 
senseless massacre played a critical role in promoting a democracy 
movement which helped to end the Soviet Union.
  Today, I remember the victims and ask my colleagues and the American 
people to join me in honoring their memories.

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