Pogroms in Baku as a response to the struggle
The weeklong pogroms of Armenians in Baku began 21 years ago this day.
A day before the pogroms, the first and last president of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev made a sinister statement:
"Nagorno-Karabakh's demand for self-determination will inevitably call the fate of 250,000 Armenians of Baku into question."
That announcement led to the unprecedented Armenian pogroms during the years of the Soviet Union and Armenians were saved only after General Alexander Lebed commanded Soviet forces to seize Baku.
In just a matter of days, 250,000 Armenians were wiped out from Baku. They left their homes and took refuge in Armenia, Georgia, Russia, the CIS and other countries.
The pogroms in Baku, which killed nearly 300 people, were the Azerbaijani authorities' response to the Armenians' liberation struggle for self-determination of the nation.
To this day, the international community has not condemned Baku for the pogroms.
According to political scientists, the issue of Armenian refugees is still not sufficiently discussed during the negotiations on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
