Armenian Community Stages Protest in Opposition to the Azeri Genocidal Campaign in Sumgait

Unified Young Armenians (UYA), Inc. have organized a protest at the Azeri Consulate and have staged a rally at the CNN Los Angeles Bureau for the 23rd Anniversary of the Sumgait massacres.

Los Angeles, CA. February 27, 2011 – Pogroms, beatings, and ethnic cleansing of Armenians in Azerbaijan escalated to inconceivable measures 23 years ago, on February 27, 1988, in Sumgait. UYA has organized a protest to mark the anniversary of the Sumgait massacres and end the Azeri Genocidal Campaign.

On Sunday, February 27, 2011, at 10:00 AM, UYA has planned a protest at the Azerbaijan Consulate, located at: 11766 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90025. Another rally will be held on the same day, at 12:00 PM, in front of the CNN Los Angeles Bureau, located at: 6430 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90028, in an effort to alert the international media.

The Sumgait tragedy and its bloody repetitions in Azerbaijan, lasting through the years of 1988 to 1991, led to the disappearance of 450,000 inhabitants living in an established Armenian community in Azerbaijan. It stimulated the military aggression against the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh from 1992 until 1994, as the latter pushed for peaceful demands for self-determination.

Dozens of Armenians were killed, majority of whom were set on fire alive, after being beaten and tortured. Hundreds of innocent people recieved injuries of varying severity. Women, among them minors, were raped.

In his address to the Supreme Council of the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Region, a leader of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, Mr. Hidayat Orujev, stated days before the massacre of Armenians in Sumgait: “If you do not stop campaigning for the unification of Nagorno Karabakh with Armenia, and if you do not sober up, 100,000 Azeris from neighboring districts will break into your houses, torch your apartments, rape your women, and kill your children.” This same Orujev is currently the Chairman of the State Committee for Work and Religious Organization for the Republic of Azerbaijan.

UYA is a non-profit grassroots youth organization. It is non-partisan and non-religious. UYA’s goal is to encourage activism among the Armenian youth, while advocating justice and human rights. It upholds the power of knowledge and education. UYA’s mission is to serve the collective good and promote a world free of genocides.