Ethnic Armenian MPs of the Romanian Parliament, Varujan Vosganian, Varujan Pambuccian and Lucian-Eduard Simion, have issued a statement on the 31st anniversary of the Armenian pogroms in Sumgait, Azerbaijan, the embassy of Armenia in Romania informed on Facebook, Armenpress reported.

“Thirty-one years have passed since the tragic events that took place in Soviet Azerbaijan where nearly half a million Armenians were living,” the MPs said in their statement. “The massacre against the Armenian population was carried out in three major cities: Sumgait, Kirovabad [today’s Ganja], and capital Baku.”

The lawmakers recalled that after being annexed to the Azerbaijan Republic for 70 years, the people of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) had decided to pacifically and lawfully express their will to self-determination and live freely.

“At this phase it is important for the international community to grasp the authenticity of what has been carried out in Sumgait, in order to lead to the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, since the anti-Armenian propaganda continues also today,” the statement also reads. “Like previously, the Azerbaijani leadership regularly violates the ceasefire regime and brings threats for resuming the war operations.”