Pallone and Schiff commemorate Sumgait Pogroms

Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chairman Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) today commemorated the 25th anniversary of the Azerbaijani pogroms against the Armenian population of the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait, and condemned the ongoing atmosphere of violence and intimidation being fostered by the government of President Ilham Aliyev, reported the Armenian National Committee of America.

“The history of the past quarter century has been one of Artsakh’s enduring democratic triumph over relentless Azerbaijani government aggression, blockades, intolerance, and war. We look to American leaders, revolutionary heirs to the world’s greatest independence movement, to help support and sustain the proud victory of a free people against foreign tyranny, against massacres, outright war, economic blockade, ongoing sniper attacks, and, now, a Baku-led international campaign to demonize each and every Armenian on the planet,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “We join with Armenians in New Jersey, California and across the nation in thanking Congressman Pallone and Congressman Schiff for continuing to raise their voices in support of a peaceful, democratic, secure, and sustainable resolution that will end Azerbaijani threats against the free citizens of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic.”

In remarks submitted to the Congressional Record, Representative Pallone reminded his colleagues, “it was on the evening of February 27, 1988, that hundreds of Armenians were brutally murdered, some burned alive and others thrown from windows.” Pallone went on to explain that the Sumgait pogroms were the beginning of decades of violence, fomented by successive Azerbaijani government leaders. “For more than two decades, authorities in Azerbaijan have attempted to ignore and cover up these crimes and have instead fostered hatred toward the Armenian people. In an affront to basic senses of justice, the Azerbaijani government recently pardoned Azerbaijani military officer, Ramil Safarov who was sentenced to life in prison in Hungary for murdering an Armenian military officer during a NATO-sponsored training program in 2004. I continue to be outraged by this promotion of violence against innocent Armenians,” stated the New Jersey legislator. Rep. Pallone went on to urge the immediate reincarceration of Ramil Safarov by the Aliyev government.

In additional to citing Azerbaijani brutality in Sumgait and Safarov’s murder of Armenian Lieutenant Gurgen Margaryan, Rep. Schiff cited the Aliyev regime’s recent crackdown against 75-year-old Azerbaijani writer Akram Aylisli. “According to a report in the BBC, ‘[h]is books have been publicly burnt. He has been stripped of his national literary awards. And a high-ranking Azeri politician has offered $13,000 as a bounty for anyone who will cut off his ear. Aylisi’s crime: in his short novel Stone Dreams, he dared to look at the conflict between Azeris and Armenians from the Armenian perspective,” explained Rep. Schiff. “With these disgusting acts, the Azeri state reminded the whole world why the people of Artsakh must be allowed to determine their own future and cannot be allowed to slip into Aliyev’s clutches, lest the carnage of Sumgait a quarter century ago serve as a foreshadowing of a greater slaughter,” concluded the legislator.

Last August Safarov was sent home to Azerbaijan, purportedly to serve out the remainder of his sentence. Instead of prison, he was greeted as a hero by the Azeri government and promenaded through the streets of Baku carrying a bouquet of roses. President Ilham Aliyev immediately pardoned Safarov and he was promoted to the rank of major and given a new apartment and eight years of back pay.

In recent weeks, 75-year-old Akram Aylisli, one of Azerbaijan’s most celebrated writers, has been subjected to a campaign of hatred. According to a report in the BBC, ‘[h]is books have been publicly burnt. He has been stripped of his national literary awards. And a high-ranking Azeri politician has offered $13,000 as a bounty for anyone who will cut off his ear. Aylisi’s crime?’ - in his short novel Stone Dreams, he dared to look at the conflict between Azeris and Armenians from the Armenian perspective.