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On January 18, on the occasion of the 30^th anniversary of Baku pogroms the special sitting of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee on Cooperation between the National Assemblies of the Republic of Armenia and Artsakh Republic was held. The RA President Ararat Mirzoyan delivered a speech.

“Distinguished Mr Ghulyan,

Dear Colleagues, Dear guests,

During these days thirty years ago, in the capital Baku of Soviet Azerbaijan, by evident connivance and support of the authorities events painfully very familiar for us from history took place – Armenians' massacres. Arkady Avanesov, Sergey Harutyunyan, Arusyak Markosyan, Petros Harutyunov, Satenik Sarkisyan, Anna Sarkisova, Mkrtich Petrosyan and dozens of others, who were killed, hundreds of people, who were undergone inhuman tortures, thousands of them were forced to leave their houses and continue their life in the status of refugees. These people were killed, subjected to tortures and persecutions only because of being Armenian. Their only “ guilt “ was having Armenian national affliation.

A few days ago the ArmSSR Supreme Council has justly recorded that the events of Baku are considered to be an obvious manifestation of chauvinistic policy being pursued by the Azerbaijani authorities.

By irony of fate these massacres had been already the third one only during the 20th century in Baku declared as a centre of multi-culturalism. The same events, with the same handwriting, in the same city happened in 1905 and in 1918. Very short time before these 1990 massacres Armenians' massacres occurred also in Sumgait and Kirovabad-Gandzak. After the very time from Baku massacres began in Maragha and in other places.

This Armenophobia policy had also its manifestations in the 21st century. A person with the name Ramil Safarov was declared a hero by the Azerbaijani authorities, who axed the sleeping Armenian soldier, and in April 2016 in Talish civilians were severely killed. We can find the evidence of the same policy in Azerbaijan everywhere – from the school textbooks up to the president's statements of that country, where the whole Armenian nation is declared an enemy subject to annihilation of the Azerbaijani people.

The Baku pogroms were considered only to be part of the long lasting anti-Armenian policy pursued by the Azerbaijani authorities, the more visible part of the block of ice. The steps, more social, cultural, educational distinctly organized beginning still from the 80s preceded them, made the Armenians abandon their houses and leave Baku, as a result of which the number of the Armenian population of Baku had essentially decreased.

It is also typical that today already the Azerbaijani authorities have adopted the same handwriting towards other ethnic minorities residing in the territory of Azerbaijan. I would like to warn the international community that the indigenous peoples living in Azerbaijan today face almost the same danger what the Armenians faced at the end of the previous century. To prevent similar behaviour of the Azerbaijani authorities and the new crimes against humanity I emphasize the right assessment to the crimes committed by the international and partner parliaments.

I will remind that the massacres and the violence committed against Armenians have been condemned by the European Parliament three times.

In the resolution of 18 January 1990 the European Parliament criticizes the Armenians' massacres being continued in Baku, as well as the violence against the Armenians living in Nagorno Karabakh and the blockade of Armenia. The Resolution particularly notes that the anti-Armenian actions have restarted by the Azerbaijanis and numerous crimes have been committed. In the Resolution the attacks to the Armenian villages being outside the territory of Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Marz, particularly to Shahumyan and Getashen regions are also condemned. In the Resolution of 18 January 1990 a reference is also made to the Resolution on Soviet Armenia adopted by the European Parliament on 7 July 1988, where the massacres committed against Armenians in Sumgait and the violence against Armenians in Baku were condemned. The European Parliament adopted another important Resolution touching upon the Armenians’ massacres of Sumgait and Baku on 14 March 1991. In the Resolution on the Situation Related to the Blockade of Armenia and Human Rights it is noted that 300.000 Armenians who have fled from Azerbaijan (massacres of Baku and Sumgait) need urgent aid.

Dear colleagues,

At today’s sitting of Armenia-Artsakh Inter-Parliamentary Committee we shall listen to the speeches of the parliamentarians of the two states, the Human Rights Defenders and the survivors of that great tragedy. I would like to note that despite the policy pursued by the Azerbaijani authorities of those days Azerbaijanis were found in Baku, who helped the Armenians to escape death. I would like to thank these individuals and call on them to voice their memories on the massacres committed by the Azerbaijani authorities, to break the wall of Armenophobia to prevent the repetition of similar cases, by which they can also ensure the security of their life.

And in the end as Speaker of the RA National Assembly I would like once again record and reaffirm the whole abovementioned, the massacres of Sumgait, Baku, Kirovabad, the regular character of those massacres, the repetition during one century several times, other manifestations of the anti-Armenian policy preceded and followed them make impossible the physical secure existence of Artsakh Armenians under the sovereignty of Azerbaijan.

According to that, the only possible way of the Arstakh Armenians’ existence is the self-determination of Artsakh, and the Republic of Armenia is the warrant of the execution of the Artsakh people’s that right.”