36 years  since massacres of Armenians in Baku

ArmInfo. On this day, 36 years ago, the Armenian massacres took place in Baku. On January 13, 1990, mass ethnic unrest erupted in the capital of Azerbaijan, accompanied by widespread violence against the Armenian population, including looting, murder, arson, and  property destruction.

According to various sources, between 48 and 90 people (some sources  suggest up to 300) became victims of the massacres. According to  Human Rights Watch rapporteur Robert Kushen, "the pogroms were not  entirely spontaneous, as the perpetrators had lists of Armenians and  their addresses." At the beginning of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,  approximately 200,000 Armenians lived in Baku, out of a total  population of 1.7 million. In late February 1988, a pogrom with  numerous casualties among Armenians occurred in Sumgait, becoming a  landmark event and a turning point in the escalation of the Karabakh  conflict.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry has not responded to this tragic date  in the fate of the Armenian people.  However, despite the current  Armenian authorities' attempts to erase from memory the historically  documented events committed by Azerbaijan, members of the expert  community and individual citizens remember Azerbaijani atrocities  against Armenians during those years.