Armenians’ main task is not to forget Sumgait and keep speaking about it – Vitaly Harutyunyan

Speaking with Alpha News, journalist Vitaly Harutyunyan recalled the events in Sumgait, which he witnessed 38 years ago, and analyzed the consequences they had later.

“Let’s remember that Sumgait was, after all, the precursor. Then came Kirovabad, then Baku, and very quickly, in the conditions of limited information in the Soviet Union, the Sumgait events were hushed up, not given proper significance. As a result, this spilled over into further pogroms in Kirovabad and Baku. And now, it’s clear why Azerbaijan works in this direction. This is a history they don’t want to bring into the public eye; they want to keep silent about it as much as possible, or even say it never happened. And, as practice shows, such efforts in this direction have quite broad success, because from the media standpoint, they work very well. And the main task of Armenians is not to forget and to keep speaking about it,” Harutyunyan said.

Harutyunyan recalled how he and his parents witnessed the pogrom that took place nearly four decades ago.

“As my parents recounted, during the pogroms there were slogans such as: ‘Do whatever you want with the Armenians, don’t touch their apartments, they will be yours.’ So this was also being fueled in some way. And those people who lived in shacks and illegal constructions realized: ‘Wow, we have a chance to live in a proper apartment. Who is to blame for everything? Armenians.’ This is fertile ground, easy to stir up and manipulate,” he said.

According to Vitaly Harutyunyan, the Armenian people drew lessons from the Sumgait events, but have partly forgotten them, which could lead to the loss of Armenia.

“At that time, the lessons were learned. Now, unfortunately, everything has been forgotten, this is why we face what is happening today—it has already reached Armenia, literally, meaning there is already expansion into Armenia itself,” the journalist concluded.