YEREVAN. – The 1988 pogroms in Sumgait were not hooliganism, but rather an organized slaughter of the Armenians, who lived in their native land for centuries and accidentally found themselves in the Azerbaijan state that was created in 1918.

Armenia's first Human Rights Defender, "Against Legal Arbitrariness" NGO Executive Director, and public activist Larisa Alaverdyan told the abovementioned at a press conference on Thursday.

"Twenty-six years have passed since the large-scale massacres of the Armenians in the neighboring state, and it is accepted to say that the Sumgait pogroms had taken place between February 27 and 29. But facts have now emerged, according to which the pogroms continued until April—of course, not to that extent," Alaverdyan added.

In her view, the matter needs to be moved to a legal dimension, and Azerbaijan should be held accountable.

"Ten criminal proceedings were instituted on the fact of the events in Sumgait. They also include Azerbaijani accounts on the organization of the Armenian pogroms in Sumgait; these are important evidence," Armenia's first ombudswoman noted.

Larisa Alaverdyan also informed that the second volume of the eyewitness accounts on the Armenian pogroms in Sumgait will be published in the near future.

In addition, a march will be held, on Friday in Armenian capital city Yerevan, toward the cross-stone which is placed at the Armenian Genocide Memorial, and in memory of the Armenians who were killed and tortured in 1988 in Sumgait, Azerbaijan.