The France-Artsakh Friendship Circle has issued a statement on the 30th anniversary of the pogroms in Baku.
The statement particularly reads as follows: “Independence is the only guarantee for the right of the people of Artsakh to life.
Thirty years after the Armenian pogroms in Baku, Azerbaijan continues to apply anti-Armenian racism as a priority of its state policy.
The France-Artsakh Friendship Circle joins all Armenians of the world and the authorities of the Republic of Artsakh in commemorating the 30th anniversary of the pogroms in Baku.
On that day, under the instruction of the leadership of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Azerbaijan, hundreds of Armenians became victims of the massacres organized in the capital of Azerbaijan, and according to official sources, 90 were killed and 700 were injured. Azerbaijan perpetrated these massacres in response to the peaceful and democratic demand of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Circle recalls that the pogroms in Sumgiat, Kirovabad and Baku were the prelude to the large-scale armed attack of the Azerbaijani authorities aimed at extirpating the entire Armenian population from Nagorno-Karabakh. The war that Azerbaijan imposed and that the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh won in 1994, incited the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh to declare independence in order to avoid annihilation. The Circle also recalls that, on several occasions, the dictatorial president of Azerbaijan has characterized “all Armenians of the world” as “enemies of Azerbaijan” and that this durable and informed course of Azerbaijan’s policy is the main hindrance to the establishment of ultimate peace in the South Caucasus.
The France-Artsakh Friendship Circle calls on the OSCE Minsk Group to take into consideration the political realities in the South Caucasus and ensure the return of the Republic of Artsakh to the negotiating table, in accordance with the provisions of the ceasefire agreement signed in 1994.