Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Catholicos Karekin II and National Assembly Speaker Ararat Mirzoyan bow their heads in memory of the victims of the Baku Pogroms

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Monday led a group of government officials to Yerablur National Cemetery to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the pogrom of Armenians in Baku, which was the third such systematic massacre to be carried out by Azerbaijan beginning with the Sumgait Pogrom in 1988.

Pashinyan was accompanied by National Assembly Speaker Ararat Mirzoyan and His Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians, as well as other government officials.
Pashinyan issued a statement on the 30th anniversary of the Baku pogroms, saying, “we will not allow new attempts to exterminate or deport Armenians”

“Even today, perpetrators who committed atrocities against helpless people are regarded as heroes of Azerbaijan, while their crimes are considered a glorious chapter in the fight for Azerbaijan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” said Pashinyan.

“Regretfully, the past three decades failed to be a time of reflection, repentance and reconciliation in Azerbaijan,” added Pashinyan. “Meanwhile, we have witnessed attempts to exterminate the population of Artsakh, we have witnessed the release and glorification of the convicted murderer Ramil Safarov, in April 2016 we witnessed tortures and brutal killings of elderly and helpless people in Artsakh’s border settlements. Armenophobia has become a state policy and creed in Azerbaijan.”

President Armen Sarkissian also remembered the victims of the Baku pogroms on Monday, pointing out that the Armenian population of Baku, which had endured similar violence in 1905 and 1918, ceased to exist after the 1990 pogroms as they were either killed or driven out.
“Despite the entreaties of the international community, the Azerbaijani authorities until today have not been held responsible for the ethnically motivated murder of hundreds of people, for torture, forced exile, grabbing of the Armenians’ property and estate,” said Sarkissian.

“Because of impunity for the crime and a continuous hate propaganda campaign against Armenia and the Armenian people, they [Azerbaijanis] continue to encourage similar crimes, put in peril the regional peace and security,” added the president.

“There is no statutes of limitations for this crime,” said Sarkissian.