YEREVAN. – The victims of the Sumgait massacres were commemorated during a ceremony in Yerevan on Thursday.

The witnesses of the Armenian pogroms and their families visited a cross-stone (a khchakar) in the alley leading to the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan. They were soon accompanied by Deputy Speaker of the parliament Alen Simonyan, secretary of Bright Armenia party Gevorg Gorgisyan, political analysts and public figures.

Earlier in the day President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian visited the memorial complex to honor memory of the innocent victims of the Sumgait events.

“The Sumgait crime has no period of limitation, and we have to do our best for this terrible crime to be strictly condemned, to be acknowledged and to have correct assessment by the world community,” he said.

Deputy Speaker Alen Simonyan believes that the Azerbaijani authorities are well aware that the international community will not allow them to continue their policy of lies and falsification.

“This is evidenced by the action that took place in Baku the day before. I think they held it [the action] because of despair,” Simonyan said.

Gevorg Gorgisyan, secretary of the Bright Armenia Party faction, said that deputies from his faction raised the issue of Sumgait pogroms during the meeting of the three standing committees,  adding that they plan to meet with the government in connection with the case of Karen Ghazaryan, who was represented by the Azerbaijani authorities as a saboteur and sentenced to 20 years in prison.