The last days of February mark the 33rd anniversary of another crime committed against the Armenian people: the Sumgait genocide. The Media and Public Relations Department of the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) National Assembly noted this in a statement.

"These massacres are fully in line with the legal definition of genocide, crimes against humanity as defined by the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

The Sumgait genocide was the response of the Azerbaijani authorities to the struggle of the Artsakh Armenians for their freedom and self-determination, which began in February 1988.

The peaceful population of the [then] NKAO [i.e., Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast] also became the target of large-scale aggression by Azerbaijan. It was manifested more inhumanely during the new war unleashed by Azerbaijan in the fall of 2020.

The factions of the National Assembly of the Artsakh Republic call on the international community, countries and organizations respecting fundamental human rights and freedoms to recognize and condemn the Sumgait genocide and Azerbaijan's anti-Armenian policy," the statement also reads.