"Confronting History: Sumgait, Khojaly..."

27 February, 2012

On February 27, the Embassy of the Republic of Armenia in Georgia and Georgian Diocese of Armenian Apostolic Church organized a theme evening entitled: "Confronting History: Sumgait, Khojaly..."

Prior to the main event, a requiem mass, in memory of the innocent victims of Sumgait, Baku and Maragha was held in the Church of St. Etchmiadzin in Tbilisi.

Thereafter, in the cultural center “Hayartun” was held an evening of remembrance. The event, which brought together various cultural and public organizations, was opened by the speech of the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to Georgia, Mr. Hovhannes Manoukian. In his speech, the Ambassador particularly drew attention to the following: fair and legitimate demands of people of Artsakh to self-determination; intolerance and nonconstructivity by Azerbaijan side, occurring from the beginning of Artsakh movement and up to the present times; brutality performed under the patronage and with the connivance of authorities of the Soviet Azerbaijan at the end of the 80s of the 20th century; fabrication and falsification of historical evidences; policy of nonconstructivity in the negotiation process and Armeno-phobia propaganda being conducted by the leadership of Azerbaijan at present days.

Primate of the Georgian Diocese of Armenian Apostolic Church, Bishop Vazgen Mirzakhanyan during his speech, after a brief historical excursus, called on a necessity of tolerance in interethnic relations and expressed the hope that good sense eventually prevails, and the peaceful Caucasus will become a reality and paramount aim for coexistence of the peoples of region.

In the course of the evening, were demonstrated parts of documentary screening on tragic events in Sumgait. Afterwards, the active public figure Yenok Tadevosyan also gave a historical background to these events.

The second part of the event was dedicated to happenings in Khojaly. The participants touched upon several themes such as fabrication and falsification of historical evidences by the authorities of Azerbaijan, as well as leading propaganda towards this direction. Also the historian Karen Oganesyan made some comments regarding the same topic. For the further disclosure of true facts episodes of the documentary film about the events in Khojaly were demonstrated during the evening.

In conclusion of the event, the well-known to Georgian community writer, translator and publicist Givi Shakhnazari made a speech.

Those who attended the event were handed the full version of the named-above films, as well as booklets disclosing the attempts of fabrication of true story of Khojaly events.

After the event, the Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia gave the interviews to the Georgian mass media representatives.

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