Riots in Sumgait Planned by KGB of USSR

Baku / 22.02.18 / Turan: Riots in Sumgait were a provocation against Azerbaijan, organized by the Armenian special services and the State Security Committee (KGB) of the USSR. This is stated in a joint statement of the Prosecutor General's Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan in connection with the 30th anniversary of the unrest in Sumgait.

As noted in the document, the protest action against the murder of two Azerbaijanis in Nagorno-Karabakh as a result of a planned provocation developed into mass riots.

Armenian ideologists and representatives of the highest echelons of power of the USSR understood the illegality of the requirements of the separation of Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan on the basis of the Soviet Constitution. Therefore, they resorted to provocations and discrediting of Azerbaijan, justifying their actions with the idea of ​​"the impossibility of further joint coexistence of Armenians and Azerbaijanis," the statement said.

The purpose of this provocation by the KGB was to increase tension on the "Soviet periphery" to curb centrifugal tendencies and justify repressive methods.

The authors of this idea also wanted to show that the Soviet republics "cannot survive alone without the strong centralized power of the USSR."

Similar riots and provocations took place later in Osh (Kyrgyzstan), Fergana (Uzbekistan), Tbilisi (Georgia) and Vilnius (Lithuania) and in other republics of the Soviet Union.

Despite the fact that on the eve and during the riots in Sumgait and around the city there was enough personnel and equipment of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR and the Ministry of Defense, they did not take any preventive measures to take control of the situation.

Attacks on apartments and other brutal actions were carried out in accordance with a pre-prepared plan and a list of Armenians living in Sumgait, and led by a Sumgait resident, ethnic Armenian Eduard Grigoryan, previously repeatedly convicted.

And the Armenians who were attacked were those who had refused to pay donations to the secret Armenian organizations Krunk and Karabakh, the statement said.

Grigoryan was sentenced to imprisonment by the court, later transferred to prison in Armenia, but then released. Currently, Grigoryan lives in a different country.

Investigative materials once again demonstrated that if it were not for the humanism and courage of the Azerbaijani population of Sumgait, the scale of the riots would be large in accordance with the plans of the organizers of this provocation. Armenian eyewitnesses testify that dozens of Armenians were saved and protected by Azerbaijani families during the riots.

Currently, to investigate and prosecute all the organizers and executors of the riots in Sumgait and the forces supporting them, the investigation teams continue to conduct complex investigative and operational actions, the document concludes.

* During the riots on February 27-29, 1988, 32 people were killed in the city of Sumgait, including 26 Armenians. The leadership of the USSR admitted that it could not prevent the riots in time. Later, dozens of people were convicted of the crimes committed, and three were sentenced to death. -06D-