Background and Clash
On 22 February, two days after the request of Karabakh National Council to transfer the region of Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia, a crowd of Azerbaijanis surrounded the local Communist Party headquarters, demanding information about rumors of an Azerbaijani having been killed in Stepanakert. They were informed that no such incident had occurred, but refused to believe it. Dissatisfied with what they were told, thousands began marching toward Nagorno-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 of Nagorno-Karabakh that left two Azerbaijanis dead, 50 Armenian villagers, and an unknown number of Azerbaijanis and police, injured.
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. These news, according to Tamara Dragadze, were announced to show the gravity of the conflict and to calm down sentiments.
The news of these clashes along with ongoing deportation of Azerbaijanis from Armenia sparked the Sumgait pogrom against Armenian residents of the city of Sumgait in Azerbaijan on 27 February. The violence was led, to some degree, by Azerbaijani refugees from Armenia, perhaps as many as 2000 of them made even more desperate by being forced to take shelter in the appalling conditions of Sumgait's shantytown.
Read more about this topic: Askeran Clash
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