Sumgait, 1988: bloody Sunday

Bloody Sunday – this is how former resident of Sumgait, Karine Melkonyan remembers the February 28, 1988 events in Sumgait.

“Our pain is strong, our wounds are incurable. Killings of Armenians went on for three days, Azerbaijanis came to our house three times a day shouting that they must kill all Armenians,” K. Melkonyan told reporters.

She told that the Armenians decided to leave Sumgait but soon they learnt that the city is cordoned off and it’s safer to stay at home. Eventually, it proved to be just Azeris’ trick.

“A group of Azerbaijanis burst into our house, they demanded money, jewelry. We gave them everything we had. Another group burst in demanding the same. We called the police but the police never came,” she told.

“They were merciless, they killed us for being Armenians. Azerbaijanis shouted – “death to Armenians,” “death to Christians,” “we’ll finish with Armenians and pass on to Russians.” The police saw it all but never interfered,” the witness said.

The witnesses will never cease wondering how Azeris could rape a 18-year-old girl and pour petrol on a pregnant woman and then burn her.

“Even underage persons participated in these crimes. Now they are 30-35 years old and must be bringing up their children in the same way,” she said.

There were tears in the eyes of K. Melkonyan’s sister, Irina Melkonyan when she told that five of her family members were killed.

“We went over to our Azerbaijani neighbors’ balcony hoping to escape but they drove us out. No one wanted to help Armenians. Only our Lezgin neighbors helped us hiding us in their bathroom,” I. Melkonyan said.