- Askeran clash
The Askeran clash (February 22-23, 1988) was one of the starting points of Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict resulting in
Nagorno-Karabakh War .Background
On February 22, two days after the request of
Karabakh National Council to transfer the region ofNagorno-Karabakh toArmenia , a crowd of Azeris surrounded the local Communist Party headquarters, demanding information about rumors of an Azerbaijani having been killed inStepanakert . They were informed that no such incident had occurred, but refused to believe it. Dissatisfied with what they were told, thousands began marching towardNagorno-Karabakh , “wreaking destruction en route.” The authorities mobilized roughly a thousand police to stop the riots; the result was a clash in the Askeran region ofNagorno-Karabakh that left two Azerbaijanis dead, 50 Armenian villagers, and an unknown number of Azerbaijanis and police, injured. [Elizabeth Fuller, “Nagorno-Karabakh: The Death and Casualty Toll to Date,” RL 531/88, Dec. 14, 1988, pp. 1–2.] [Modern Hatreds: The Symbolic Politics of Ethnic War - Page 63 by Stuart J. Kaufman]On "Azerbaijani Radio", deputy attorney general Katusev reported the fact that "two inhabitants of the Agdam district fell victim to murder", giving two Muslim surnames [The New York Times, 11 March 1988, p. A6] . These news, according to Tamara Dragadze, were announced to show the gravity of the conflict and to calm down sentiments [The Armenian-Azerbaijani Conflict: Structure and Sentiment”, in Third World Quarterly, No. 1 (January) 1989, p. 56; or Dragadze] .
The news of these clashes along with ongoing deportation of Azerbaijanis from Armenia sparked
Sumgait pogrom against Armenian residents of the city ofSumgait in Azerbaijan on February 27 [Ethnic Fears and Ethnic War In Karabagh - Stuart J. Kaufman - Page 23] . The violence was led, to some degree, by refugees fromArmenia , perhaps as many as 2000 [Tamara Dragadze, “Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijanis,” in Graham Smith, ed., TheNationalities Question in the Soviet Union (London: Longman, 1990), p. 175.] of them made even more desperate by being forced to take shelter in the appalling conditions of Sumgaits shantytown. [Moskovskie novosti, April 17, 1988, tr. in CDSP vol. 40, no. 17, pp. 12–13.]References
See also
*
Armenian-Azerbaijani War
*Sumgait Pogrom
*Khojaly Massacre
*Nagorno-Karabakh War
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