Presidential Administration: New facts revealed in case on Sumgait events - UPDATE

Upon Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's instructions a criminal case on the 1988 Sumgait events has been resuscitated, Fuad Alasgarov, Head of Department for Coordination of Law Enforcement Agencies of the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration said on Monday at the presentation of the www.sumqait.com website.

He said that a new investigation group led by the Deputy Prosecutor General Rustam Usubov will deal with the investigation.

“After resuscitating the investigation, witnesses of the Sumgait events and investigators, included in the investigation group of the USSR Prosecutor's Office testified. It is known that Mikhail Gorbachev, pro-Armenian circles, represented in the Soviet leadership, the Armenian nationalists and separatists ordered and organized these events," Alasgarov said.

He said that the USSR State Security Committee sent subversive groups to Sumgayit, which later organized similar riots in other republics.

"The organizers of these events were Eduard Grigoryan and his two brothers, and emissaries from Nagorno-Karabakh. Emissaries gave a list of the Armenians residing in Sumgayit. They provided Grigoryan with psychotropic and narcotic substances, and distributed cold weapons to the population," Alasgarov said.

According to him, Sargsyan, Ohanian and other agents were sent to Sumgayit, and later to the Central Asian republics to organize sabotage.

As a result of the clashes in Sumgayit on Feb. 27-29 1988, 32 people of different nationalities were killed, 26 of which were Armenians, while 6 were Azerbaijanis.

These events were part of the USSR State Security Committee’s scenario, organized and carried out jointly by the Armenians. A person chosen to organize these events in Sumgayit was a twice convicted Armenian, Eduard Grigoryan.

Azerbaijani Ahmad Ahmadov, who was sentenced to death, was recognized as the organizer of the crime. However, according to the witnesses’ testimonies, the true perpetrator was Eduard Grigoriyan, who is Armenian by origin.


/Trend/