There are wonderful conditions for the new authorities of Armenia to show that Armenia is ready to give a legal evaluation of the criminal acts that Azerbaijan committed in 1988 and continued to commit until the Four-Day Artsakh War in April 2016, as well as the military crimes that were committed during that period. This is what President of the “Against Legal Arbitrariness” NGO, first Ombudswoman of Armenia Larisa Alaverdyan told reporters today.

“If the authorities work consistently, they can also solve the problem with the social status of those who were affected and the legal successors of the victims. In addition, this issue is linked to Armenia’s responsibility before the whole world since genocide is a crime against humanity,” she stated.

Alaverdyan praised the fact that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia finally stated the term “genocidal acts of Azerbaijan” in its recent statement, but added that the Armenian parliament must adopt a document qualifying the massacres as genocide perpetrated by Azerbaijan once and for all and that this will make it possible to grant a special status to those affected by the crime and the legal successors of the victims.

The first Ombudswoman noted that several international officials and organizations were the first to use the term ‘genocide’ to describe the massacres of Armenians in Azerbaijan, and the facts about the crimes of Azerbaijan are enough to lead an active struggle against Azerbaijan’s misinformation and to file a claim with an international court.

From February 26 to 29, 1988, Armenians were massacred in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait. Based on official statistics, 27 Armenians were killed and hundreds were injured. In a couple of days, 18,000 Armenians left the city. Two years later, from January 13 to 19, 1990, Armenians were massacred in Baku. The massacres left 100 dead, and more than 200,000 Armenians were exiled.