14.12.2024


After the beginning of the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) movement, a new wave of ethnic-based persecutions and discrimination against the Armenian population living in Soviet Azerbaijan started. From February 27 to 29, 1988, in the city of Sumgait, which was considered a symbol of Soviet internationalism, massacres of the Armenian population took place. These were the first acts in a chain of crimes against Armenians in Azerbaijan. They marked the beginning of the mass deportation of the Armenian population from the Azerbaijan SSR. The Sumgait massacres were presented by the Soviet central authorities as "hooligan actions," and the perpetrators were not identified or prosecuted. The lack of proper legal and political assessments of the Sumgait massacres led to the further spread of anti-Armenian sentiment in Azerbaijan and new massacres of the Armenian population.

Another wave of anti-Armenian sentiment in Soviet Azerbaijan emerged in the fall of 1988. On November 18, 1988, the Supreme Court of the USSR issued a verdict regarding one of the Sumgait perpetrators, Ahmed Ahmedov, sentencing him to death. This decision was followed by anti-Armenian rallies in nearly all Armenian-inhabited areas of Azerbaijan. The wave of hatred reached its peak in Kirovabad, Azerbaijan's second-largest city. On November 21, 1988, in Lenin Square, calls of "Death to Armenians" and "Go away, Armenians" were heard. Participants of the rally, escorted by police, marched towards the Armenian quarter of Kirovabad. Massacres of the Armenian population occurred near the St. Gregory the Illuminator Church, but in the Red Village area of the city, Armenians put up resistance, and the attackers were forced to retreat. In the following days, the perpetrators carried out a "hunt" for Armenians in the city, searching for and killing those of Armenian descent, destroying their homes. The Armenian population formed an initiative group to protect the Armenian quarter, gather necessary information, and support Armenians who had fled from the Azerbaijani part of the city or were wounded. Thanks to self-defense, the overwhelming majority of the Armenian population in the city was saved from physical extermination, with many being able to relocate to Armenia.

As with other Armenian-inhabited areas of Azerbaijan, the exact number of victims and wounded in the Kirovabad massacres is unknown. Some sources (including international ones) have mentioned 130 murdered Armenians. According to eyewitness testimonies, many of the perpetrators had lists of Armenians, with specific addresses of their residences. Following the Kirovabad massacres, there was an exodus of the city's Armenian population, as well as large-scale emigration of Armenians from several other Armenian-inhabited areas of Azerbaijan.

The photos are from KarabakhRecords website.



Gayane Hovannisyan, PhD,
AGMI researcher, Department of Repressions of Armenians in Artsakh, Nakhichevan, and Azerbaijan's other regions