This weekend marked the 34th year since the anti-Armenian pogroms in Sumgait. It was in late February of 1988 that Armenians in the town of Sumgait, Azerbaijan, were targeted for violence, murder, and expulsion by mobs of Azerbaijanis acting with the complicity of the government and police.
The pogroms were unleashed in retaliation for the Karabagh independence movement, then in its earliest stages. Other anti-Armenian atrocities would follow in subsequent months. As a result, nearly the entire Armenian population was forced to flee Azerbaijan over a short a period.
After more than a generation, the Armenians who survived those bitter days have overcome great adversity to build their lives anew. Yet the tragedy of Sumgait—as well as Baku, Kirovabad, and elsewhere—is still painfully present among our people, as we all witnessed just one year ago.
This past Sunday, many Diocesan parishes offered prayers of remembrance for the Armenian souls lost during that dark time. In the days to come, solemnly remember those who perished, and offer a prayer of gratitude for those whom God saved—34 years ago, and down to the present day.