(in Russian – https://aga-tribunal.info/aga-15/)

The issue of recognition of the Armenian Genocide in Azerbaijan (AGA) is directly connected with the issue of the rights of refugees-exiles and with the international recognition of the Republic of Artsakh, that heroically won the fascist Azerbaijan in the war. The legal recognition of the AGA is the key to the resolution of the Karabakh issue.

From the first day of the beginning of the bloody genocidal acts in Sumgait in February 1988, some brave public figures, eyewitnesses and organizations talked about the truth, wrote articles, gave interviews, published books, produced documentary films. But these efforts were itomized and without coordination. As a result the truth has remained since 1991, unrecognized by all modern Armenian authorities, parties, communities in the Diaspora, international organizations, other countries. Three dozen years there was an unofficial taboo on the words “The Armenian Genocide in Azerbaijan”. Authorities and self-appointed foreign curators allowed to speak and write these words only at the level of journalism in order to “release of steam.” It is important to adopt a legal act, but until today (March 2019), the Armenian authorities are hesitant to do so. In February 2018 the Armenian authorities had accepted a shameful text of the Parliament Resolution after the Hearings on 22.2.2018, in which neither the word “genocide” nor the word “refugees” is found. Although in the Hearings, most of the speakers were for qualifying the crimes of Azerbaijan as the Genocide.

Since the end of 2016 the process of merging various organizations, groups and individuals has begun, which recognize the need of:

• legal recognition of the Armenian Genocide in Azerbaijan
• joining of the voices, resources, efforts in this matter.

Certain milestones can be considered as turning points:

• recognition by the Parliament of the Republic of Artsakh in February 2018 of the genocidal nature of the crimes of Azerbaijan (1988-90), however, the issue should be considered only as a whole and counted since 1918
• conference in September 2018 in Yerevan and Stepanakert
• laying wreaths of flowers at the khachkars in Tsitsernakaberd on February 28, 2019 by the government, the president and the parliament.

Below are some facts and activities from the beginning of this process.

Chronology

2016

October 25, 2016 – a meeting in the Information agency “Noyan-tapan” (Yerevan), where the participants confirmed the fact of AGA – in Armenian and Russian https://miaban.ru/events/anounce/oct-25-2016/

Interview – http://www.aravot-en.am/2016/10/26/182768/

2017

January 10, 2017  – gathering of hundreds different publications of dozens authors in one place  – https://miaban.ru/themes/gen-in-azer/gen_in_azer/

January 18, 2017 – a letter to the authorities of Armenia and Artsakh – in 3 languages. https://miaban.ru/themes/gen-in-azer/obrash_17_1_2017/   For half a year there was no answer from one of the 17 addressees.

August 8, 2017 (together with a lawyer) again went with a letter and a copy of the first appeal and handed in personally to the department for receiving applications from the government. Again there is no answer. They said verbally that the letter was forwarded to the Foreign Ministry.

September 18, 2017 – Vahan Babakhanyan talked in Yerevan at the “Armenia-Diaspora” forum with two Deputy Foreign Ministers Shavarsh Kocharian and Armen Papikyan. Negative response.

September 19, 2017 V. Babakhanyan made a short speech at this forum (in Armenian, in Russian) and distributed the books to the key people (with 200 statements of 70 public figures about the AGA) –  – https://miaban.ru/themes/gen-in-azer/aga-0/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/armpeterburg/permalink/1292294637547859/

October 2, 2017 – a meeting in Yerevan – with the initiation of the “Yerevan Group for the Legal Recognition of the Armenian Genocide in Azerbaijan” (in Russian, in English) and with accepting a Statement (in Armenian, in Russsian)

2018

January 13, 2018 – press conference in Yerevan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzbWBsqADg4

January 20, 2018 – Statement of the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations of the National Assembly of the Republic of Artsakh in Connection with the 28th Anniversary of the Mass Pogroms of the Armenian Population in Baku:

“… insists that the violence organized against Armenians of Baku, the whole Eastern Transcaucasia, as well as the North Artsakh and Nakhijevan fully corresponds to the legal formulation of the crime of genocide defined in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide”  (in Armenian, in Russian, in English)

January 21, 2018 – a campaign of laying flowers and a meeting in St. Petersburg https://miaban.ru/themes/aydat/21-1-2018-2/

January 31, 2018 – Statement of the “Yerevan Group” in connection with the act of the Standing committee of the National Assembly of the Republic of Artsakh on 20-1-2018 (in Russian, in English)

February 6, 2018 – a critical letter to OSCE (in Armenian, in English, in Russian)

February 22, 2018 – positive speeches at the Hearings in the parliament of Armenia

February 23, 2018 – critisism of the speeches at the parliament, that question the fact of AGA

https://www.facebook.com/groups/armpeterburg/permalink/1431631273614194/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/armpeterburg/permalink/1431980210245967/

February 25, 2018 – accepting a Resolution on AGA by the activists of the Armenian community of Sankt Petersburg – the first community that made this step and called upon other communities to join this initiative (in Russian, in English)

February 26, 2018 – Armen Marukyan (Institute of history), public figures Mariam Avagyan and Bakour Karapetyan made speeches on the Armenian Radio and unequivocally qualified crimes commited by Azerbaijan as Genocide (audio recording in Armenian in the article)

February 27, 2018 – a Statement by Coordinating council of Russian-Armenian organizations on AGA.

February 28, 2018 – Statement of the National Assembly of the Republic of Artsakh on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the massacres of the Armenian population of the city of Sumgait (the words genocide and genocidal policy are mentioned 4 times in the text) (in English, in Armenian, in Russian)

March 1, 2018 – Criticism of the text of the adopted Resolution by parliament (various articles in Russian in Facebook: Forgery, “Arithmetic“, Keynote speeches, On strategy, Continuation of Gorbachevism)

March 6, 2018 – Letter from the Permanent Representative of Armenia to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General with 2 Annexis – Statements of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia (where facts of genocide is mentioned)  (in English, in Russian, in other languages)

 

May 31, 2018 – Videos with the speeches of the members of the Yerevan group Vahan Babakhanyan, Hrayr Ulubabyan, Grigory Ayvazyan at the 9th pan-Armenian forum of journalists in Yerevan.

Vagan Babakhanyan collected the signatures of the participants under the Memorandum of acknowledging AGA.

June 1, 2018 – The books by Levon Adyan on AGA were distributed among journalists from Diaspora.

June 2, 2018 – Letter to MFA of Armenia

June 4, 2018 – The initiative of the Yerevan Group to hold an international scientific-practical conference in Yerevan in September 2018 on the justification of the AGA fact, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the massacres of 30 thousands Armenians in Baku (in September 1918). Discussion at the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences.

June 8, 2018 – interview on Public Radio (“Kamurj”)

June 11, 2018 – working meeting of the Yerevan group in Yerevan

June 12, 2018 – Appeal to the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (in English, Russian, Armenian)

June 13, 2018 – the 3rd letter to the Prime Minister of Armenia

June 13, 2018– discussion of the theme of AGA at a meeting of the presidium of the Parliament of Western Armenia.

 

June 28, 2018 – announcement of the conference in Yerevan on September 14-15 “Baku, 1918. Continuation of the policy of the Armenian Genocide in Azerbaijan…” (To the 100th anniversary of the memory of the victims of the massacre of Armenians in September 1918 in Baku)

July 7, 2018 – a new specialized trilingual website on the topic of AGA https://aga-tribunal.info/

July 9, 2018 – the 4th letter to the Prime Minister of Armenia

July 11, 2018 – “Recognize the Truth” campaign at the House of writers in Yerevan (in Russian)

 

August 4, 2018 – presentation of the film and the book by Levon Adyan, as well as Nelli Avakova, in Stepanakert and in Yerevan

August 13, 2018 – the first letters from the Ministry of Culture and the City Hall

September 4, 2018 – Open Address to the deputies of the National Assembly of Armenia (in English, in Armenian, in Russian)

September 14-17, 2018 – International Scientific Conference on AGA in Yerevan and Stepanakert. (Resolution – here)

December 10-11, 2018 – Information on АGA distributed among a number of participants of the 3rd global forum on genocide (in English, in Russian)

December 20, 2018 – Meeting of the “Yerevan Group on Legal Recognition of the AGA” (in Russian)

2019

January 15, 2019 – About Statement in the Armenian Parliament (in Russian)

January 18, 2019 – Statement of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly of the Artsakh Republic on Foreign Relations in connection with the 29th anniversary of mass pogroms of the Armenian population in Baku (in English, in Armenian, in Russian)

January 19, 2019 – Discussion at the Voskanapat IAC (video, in Russian)

February 3, 2019 – Liturgy in memory of the victims of the massacre of Armenians in Baku in 1990 in the temple of St. Gayane in Echmiadzin (in Russian)

February 14, 2019 – Open Appeal to the Parliament of Armenia (in English, in Armenian, in Russian). Video comments to the appeal – here.

February 26, 2019 – Artsakh Ombudsman Artak Beglaryan: the crimes of Azerbaijan is a Genocide (in English, in Armenian, in Russian)

February 28, 2019 – Memory Action in Tsitsernakaberd – for the first time with the participation of the President of Armenia, the Vice Speaker and the Deputies of Parliament (in English, in Russian)

February 28, 2019 – Statement of the Artsakh Union of Armenian Refugees from Azerbaijan (in English, in Armenian, in Russian)

February 28, 2019 – Deputy Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Alen Simonyan: Sumgait is a Genocide

March 6, 2019 – Member of the Chamber of Deputies of Italy Giulio Centemero: “Sumgait massacre has happened as a murder of people as such” (in English, in Armenian, in Russian)

March 7, 2019 – Appeal to the UNESCO Secretary-General on the culturecide in Nakhijevan (in English, in Russian)

March 15, 2019 – K. Zatulin: “Pogroms in Azerbaijan were genocidal crimes” (in Russian)

April 10, 2019 – Statement of Coordinating Council of Russian-Armenian NGOs “To the 27th anniversary of the genocidal crimes by Azerbaijan in the village of Maraga” (in English, in Russian)

May 31, 2019 – Round table “Operation “Ring”. Military terrorism as an instrument of genocidal politics” (in English, in Russian)

July 24, 2019 – Open Letter to UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay about culturicide from Azerbaijan (in English, in Russian)

August 7, 2019 – About genocidal policy and crimes of Azerbaijan in the Statement addressed to UN (in English, in Russian)