U.S. Embassy joins Armenians in honoring Sumgait massacre victims

PanARMENIAN.Net - The U.S. Embassy in Armenia has extended its condolences to the Armenian people on the anniversary of the 1988 Sumgait pogroms.

"Today, we join Armenians in mourning and honoring the memory of those who lost their lives in Sumgait in 1988," the statement reads.

From the afternoon of February 26 to February 29, 1988, anti-Armenian massacres in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait marked the first large-scale ethnically motivated violence in modern Soviet history. The attacks lasted for three days, involving mass violence, looting, and killings, leading to the first wave of Armenian refugees fleeing Azerbaijan for Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. No proper investigation was conducted, the perpetrators were not identified or punished, and the violence against the Armenian population of Azerbaijan escalated further.

According to official data from the Azerbaijani Prosecutor's Office, the USSR authorities reported that "27 ethnic Armenians were killed in Sumgait." However, unofficial sources estimate the number of victims at up to a thousand, with remains still being discovered in the outskirts of Sumgait during new construction projects.