The crime that should be called by its right name: 30 years after Sumgait massacres

While the National Assembly is preparing to circulate a statement on Sumgait massacres, eyewitnesses offer to call the events by their true name – genocide.

The events in Sumgait 30 years ago constituted genocide and should be called by their right name, says historian Armen Marukyan.

According to him, this is a principled issue in the Karabakh negotiations as well. To him, the Armenian side’s approach of not including the issue in the talks is a gross mistake.

Mariam Avagyan, coordinator of the Assembly of Armenian Refugees from Azerbaijan shares the opinion that the events should be labeled “genocide” and offers raising the issue of 860 thousand Armenian refugees.

Writer and publicist Bakur Karapetyan says the Sumgait events were the continuation of what happened between 1915 and 1923 [the Armenian Genocide]. He visited Sumgayit a month after the massacre and chronicled the events in the “Sumgait Diary” book.