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REWRITING AZERI HISTORY
By The Washington Times
Thursday, January 24, 2013
It is hard to believe that Azerbaijan has so quickly forgotten
its own history, starting with the horrific events that took place
from Feb. 26 to Feb. 28, 1988, in the city of Sumgait, 16 miles away
from capital city of Baku. During this three-day period, violent,
rioting mobs of ethnic Azeris attacked and killed Armenians both on
the streets and in their homes ~W while the police observed and let
the events unfold and medical personnel refused to treat the victims.
These days entered the history under the name of ~SSumgait pogroms.~T
Azerbaijan doesn~Rt seem to recollect that soon after the
Sumgait pogroms, more Armenian citizens suffered the results of
government-orchestrated violence, and in November 1988, the Kirovabad
pogroms unfolded. Azerbaijan also has forgotten that after months of
riots in January 1990, the violence reached Baku, the capital where
I was born and lived, the city which prided itself on tolerance,
multiculturalism, diversity and peace. For a span of a week, the
Armenian citizens of Baku were tortured and killed. The violent mobs
traveled from home to home, attacking only Armenian households. These
massacres were orchestrated by the Azeri government, and the only
reason they were stopped was the entry of the Soviet forces into
Azerbaijan.
The very people who brutally tortured and killed innocent Armenians
are now honored by the Azeri government as heroes who stood up to
Russian oppression in the turn of events they call ~SBlack January.~T
This was not a ~SSoviet attack against innocent civilians,~T as they
now claim. It was a delayed measure by the Soviet forces to stop the
ethnic cleansing of Armenians in Baku.
Azeri leadership continuously attempts to rewrite history instead of
drawing lessons from it. It continues to make heroes out of murderers,
just as it did in the recent pardon of an ax murderer, Ramil Safarov,
who brutally killed an Armenian colleague in his sleep during a NATO
study program in Hungary.
ANNA ASTVATSATURIAN TURCOTTE
Westbrook, Maine
Read more:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jan/24/rewriting-azeri-history/#ixzz2ItbjIx38
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter
By The Washington Times
Thursday, January 24, 2013
It is hard to believe that Azerbaijan has so quickly forgotten
its own history, starting with the horrific events that took place
from Feb. 26 to Feb. 28, 1988, in the city of Sumgait, 16 miles away
from capital city of Baku. During this three-day period, violent,
rioting mobs of ethnic Azeris attacked and killed Armenians both on
the streets and in their homes ~W while the police observed and let
the events unfold and medical personnel refused to treat the victims.
These days entered the history under the name of ~SSumgait pogroms.~T
Azerbaijan doesn~Rt seem to recollect that soon after the
Sumgait pogroms, more Armenian citizens suffered the results of
government-orchestrated violence, and in November 1988, the Kirovabad
pogroms unfolded. Azerbaijan also has forgotten that after months of
riots in January 1990, the violence reached Baku, the capital where
I was born and lived, the city which prided itself on tolerance,
multiculturalism, diversity and peace. For a span of a week, the
Armenian citizens of Baku were tortured and killed. The violent mobs
traveled from home to home, attacking only Armenian households. These
massacres were orchestrated by the Azeri government, and the only
reason they were stopped was the entry of the Soviet forces into
Azerbaijan.
The very people who brutally tortured and killed innocent Armenians
are now honored by the Azeri government as heroes who stood up to
Russian oppression in the turn of events they call ~SBlack January.~T
This was not a ~SSoviet attack against innocent civilians,~T as they
now claim. It was a delayed measure by the Soviet forces to stop the
ethnic cleansing of Armenians in Baku.
Azeri leadership continuously attempts to rewrite history instead of
drawing lessons from it. It continues to make heroes out of murderers,
just as it did in the recent pardon of an ax murderer, Ramil Safarov,
who brutally killed an Armenian colleague in his sleep during a NATO
study program in Hungary.
ANNA ASTVATSATURIAN TURCOTTE
Westbrook, Maine
Read more:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jan/24/rewriting-azeri-history/#ixzz2ItbjIx38
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter