YEREVAN. – At the start of Thursday’s Cabinet meeting of the Government of Armenia, Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan—who is chairing the session—stated that he wished to pay tribute to the victims of the crime that was committed in Sumgait, Azerbaijan, in late February 1988.

“Thirty-one years ago, a wave of violence started against Armenians in Sumgait, which were followed by the pogroms of [capital city] Baku, Kirovabad [today’s Ganja], and in numerous other Armenian-populated settlements [in Azerbaijan],” Avinyan said. “The pogroms in Sumgait are from the examples when our compatriots have been targeted on ethnic and racial grounds. Such cases have not been sole in our history. [But] I believe we have drawn our lessons from history.”

Subsequently, members of the Armenian government Cabinet stood up and observed a minute of silence in memory of the victims.