The end of February marks the 28th anniversary of the Sumgayit tragedy, the trigger for which was the intensifying conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. The Azerbaijani city of Sumgayit was founded after World War II, at that time it became a massive construction site, which gathered people from all over the Soviet Union. They say that Sumgayit could compete for the title of one of the most international cities in the Soviet Union – Azerbaijanis, Russians, Armenians and Jews lived there. During the massacres of 1988 in Sumgayit, Armenians and Azerbaijanis were killed. Historians are still studying the events, trying to understand the origins of the tragedy. Those who have studied dozens of criminal cases claim that the pogroms in Sumgayit were committed by Armenian nationalists and imperialist circles in Moscow, including KGB and anti-Azerbaijan-minded individuals in the Central Committee of the Communist Party. However, the perpetrators and executors of the tragedy have still not been punished. Vestnik Kavkaza presents an article by the deputy editor-in-chief of Milli.Az, Elchin Alyoglu, about one of them.
Back in 1998, standing near the memorial plinth at the Piskaroyvskoye Cemetery in St. Petersburg, where many victims of the Leningrad blockade are buried, I looked at the granite wall, on which Olga Bergholz's lines are carved: "But know this, those who regard these stones: No one is forgotten, nothing is forgotten."
For us, these words are also an immutable moral law, a measure of our entire social existence, and therefore, we, the nation that carried its memory through the thorns of centuries, the blood of battles, the bitterness of betrayal and the joy of victory, we know for sure that punishment always awaits a criminal.
There can be no forgiveness for the murderers of children, rapists, fiends who committed atrocities under the guise of humans and killed at instigation, who felt pleasure from the cries of innocent victims, from the powerless despair of the weak and the cries of the victims.
Such crimes have no statute of limitations, and sooner or later every wanted killer will have to answer to the full severity of the law.
... For the past 28 years, Armenia has categorically refused to accept the undeniable facts that prove that these events were organized by Armenians, by continuing their own "interpretation" of the Sumgayit events, based on fictional facts and outright lies.
The State Security Committee and the Prosecutor's Office of the former Soviet Union carried out an investigation into these events, in which numerous compelling and convincing facts were revealed, which prove that the true organizers of the Sumgayit events were Armenians themselves.
Eduard Robertovich Grigoryan, born in 1959, is listed as the main organizer of the Sumgayit events in the investigative materials, which is confirmed by numerous testimonies and evidence. The investigation revealed that six out of 26 of those killed were killed by Grigoryan personally. In addition, during the investigation the last names of other Armenians emerged among the organizers – Oganyan, Samoylov and Pavlovsky, as well as the names of the brothers of the previously mentioned Grigoryan.
The investigative materials say that Edward Robertovich Grigoryan, who was previously convicted three times and spent a total of 9 years, 2 months and 13 days in prison, was the main instigator of the mob, the very man who directed groups, mostly made up of juveniles and various criminal elements, to the addresses of residence of Armenians who refused to pay the 'Karabakh' separatist committee and the 'Krunk' community.
Grigoryan has actively participated in robberies and other crimes, and personally committed the murders of six Armenians.
During the Sumgayit events Grigoryan was arrested by chance, as a witness, but was identified by an Armenian family – sisters Marina and Karina Mezhlumanyan and their mother, Rosa Mezhlumanyan.
His crimes were led by criminal intent, not coincidence.
From the indictment of criminal case №18/55461-88: "... Eduard Robertovich Grigoryan, born on December 16th 1959, native of the city of Sumgayit, Armenian, non-partisan, married, has two underage children, registered at the address: Sumgayit, 2nd micro-district, 19/13 Mir Street, apartment 20. Actually resides at the address: Sumgayit, 1st micro-district, 122, apartment 71. Worked as a fitter at the Azerbaijani Pipe Rolling Plant. Was convicted. For the first time – on December 17th 1976 by Sumgayit City Court under Article 201, part 3 of the Criminal Code of the Azerbaijan SSR, sentenced to 3 years of conditional imprisonment.
For the second time – on January 30th 1981 by Sumgayit City Court under Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Azerbaijan SSR, sentenced to one year of corrective labor with retention of 20% of earnings.
For the third time – on April 5th 1982 by Sumgait City Court under Article 108, part 2, article 143, part 2, article 215, part 2 of the Criminal Code of the Azerbaijan SSR, sentenced to 5 years, 2 months and 13 days in prison."
"Сriminal, murderer and cold-blooded sophisticated maniac"
That is how Grigoryan was described by one of the Moscow investigators seconded to Sumgayit in those days to investigate the massacres and murders, committed, as it would be known later, by Armenians.
The investigation revealed that Grigoryan was an active participant and organizer of the riots. As a result, he was arrested by the investigating authorities. Despite the fact that Grigoryan committed the murders of six Armenians, under pressure from Armenians and the forces behind these events, established by the investigation, the Soviet court sentenced Grigoryan to only 12 years in prison, he was sent to Armenia to serve his sentence, where he was released from custody a few years later. Later, an investigation conducted by the law enforcement agencies of Azerbaijan clearly established that, along with Grigoryan, two of his brothers actively participated in the riots.
On the basis of numerous testimonies, the investigation revealed that before the Sumgayit events, Grigoryan and his brothers maintained close connections with Armenian emissaries from Nagorno-Karabakh. They drew up a list of addresses of Karabakh Armenians who did not want to recognize the Armenian separatism and who refused to transfer money to their funds. On February 27th Grigoryan and his gang arrived at the square, which was hosting peaceful protests against the violence against the Azerbaijani population of Armenia. They introduced themselves as "Azerbaijanis from Kafan."
Grigoryan made a speech at the square, in which he said that in the Kafan district, Armenians were carrying out mass exterminations of the Azerbaijani population, and urged the crowd to take revenge on the Armenians. He shouted: "I have a list of addresses of the Armenians, I know where to go." Then, he and his gang, consisting of nearly 100 people, went to the addresses of the Armenians to perpetrate massacres and robberies. An aggrieved resident of Sumgayit, L. Mezhlumanyan, says the following in her testimony: "Grigoryan broke into our apartment, broke a chair and hit my ill mother with it. I tried to resist him several times. But I'm a woman, and my strength was not enough. He threw me to the floor and began to rape me."
From the testimony of a participant of those events with the surname Najafov: "The gang led by Grigoryan broke into apartment №512 of an Armenian woman named Emma. Grigoryan threatened to strip her and throw her into the street. Later, Emma was brutally murdered by Grigoryan." Another excerpt from the investigation materials: "Grigoryan broke into the apartment of M. Petrosyan, located in the first micro-district, and stunned him by hitting his head."
Killer with lists
The investigation of the Sumgayit events also found that the Soviet intelligence agencies were involved in the organization of the disorders. Suspicions and materials appeared after the results of investigations conducted in 1989-1990. Thus, enough material was found how E. Grigoryan, the gang leader, took an active part in the murders and rapes of Armenians, the looting and burning of their property. On the threshold of the events in Sumgayit he met with suspicious people, received a list of Armenians living in Sumgayit from them and during the riots he gave alcohol and psychotropic drugs to the members of his gang.
But the investigative group of the USSR Prosecutor's Office didn't begin to investigate this information, but on the contrary, concealed and hid all the materials and facts that could expose the true organizers of the disorders. In addition, all individuals with Armenian surnames detained during the Sumgayit events were attributed to the victims and released. As a result, a large number of perpetrators escaped punishment.
According to E. Grigoryan's criminal case, he was brought up without a father for 10 years. His mother brought him up. He studied poorly in secondary school. Investigators spared no efforts and time to create Grigoryan's "portrait" as an uneducated, feeble-minded person from the lower classes of society, almost mentally defective and with a ruined fate.
But it was incorrect information.
Grigoryan was a clever, devilishly artful, insidious, vindictive individual and he was undoubtedly specially trained. For example, sometimes during the trials defendants could not clearly answer questions, entangling themselves in their framed-up, easy pretexts and false constructions, but Grigoryan was a full-grown wolf. It was impossible to confuse him, or upset his routine.
Answering a simple, not a leading question at first sight, he would think carefully, analyze the situation, and only then begin to speak. He did not answer questions immediately.
Yes, Grigoryan didn't have a good education, but he was much cleverer than all his henchmen together.
The instigator and organizer of the Armenian disorders was Eduard Robertovich Grigoryan, who was that very ''element of realization" of the scenario prepared in Yerevan. It is not a matter of the Armenian surname, or his national origin as the main perpetrator of the disorders on February 26-29th in 1988 who led an organized group of two of his brothers, and another 40-50 Armenians.
They all wore in black leather jackets and spoke the Azerbaijani language excellently. They were Armenians, residents of regions of the country subordinated to the Armenian diaspora and Yerevan. Although they were citizens of Azerbaijan, they hated the state that brought them up and the Azerbaijanis who considered them to be normal people, good neighbors and friends.
During the investigation, Eduard Grigoryan behaved arrogantly and self-righteously because his masters promised that he should not fear about his future.
He had a cunning and quirky mind, thirst for murder, inferiority complex, and a perfect knowledge of the Azerbaijani language. In general, he was the right person for recruitment by special services and the implementation of the most heinous plans in the country.
It is no coincidence that during the trial Grigoryan admitted telling his accomplices that Sumgait was "a great chance for him to get out of the mire of poverty and obscurity."
His behavior and self-satisfied smile were more proof that the events in Sumgait were planned and organized not only by Armenian forces, but also the Union center of that period.
The majority of investigators who interrogated him noted that "Grigoryan was a man who was specially trained. He was psychologically resistant, as if he was also prepared to be resistant "during interrogations."
Thanks to his cunning, E. Grigoryan is still alive.
Justice should be considered as retribution for what a person deserves
A photograph of him is in front of me.
A frozen facial expression, and most importantly, dimmed, almost glassy eyes. The look of a dead soul that has gone into oblivion from the mortal body, leaving the body at the discretion of "the Sumgait Ripper".
He could not be mistaken for someone else and it is hard to go wrong. Characteristically atrophied fingers, tattoos on the hands and forearms.
Now he lives in the Sergiev Posad district of the Moscow region.
In 2008, during the re-investigation, Eduard Grigoryan accidentally said that his aunt lived in Sergiev Posad and she met with his sister and family.
E. Grigoryan, arrested after Sumgayit events, didn't spend much time in prison: in 1991 Russia extradited him to Yerevan for further imprisonment in Armenia, but he was released. After that he spent a little time in his "historical homeland" and moved to Russia. The law-enforcement bodies of Azerbaijan repeatedly appealed to the relevant structures of the Russian Federation, sent requests, wrote that Eduard Grigoryan had avoided punishment and lived in Sergiev Posad. Even forensic evidence irrefutably proved the facts of the photos belonging to E. Grigoryan and that he was in the photos. But Moscow hasn't given a clear answer....
"Just remember that he is guilty..."
There is the Yad Vashem Museum in Jerusalem on Har HaZikaron on the western slope of Mount Herzl. There is a hall in this museum with the names of people who were tortured by the Nazis.
The names of people brutally tortured, burned alive, shot, hanged and drowned by fascists may be heard in the hall.
There are empty rooms for sheets of testimony in order to immortalize the names of the victims. Because those who committed atrocities don't deserve impunity or mercy – the greatest encouragement of crimes.
Eduard Grigoryan was the same fascist executioner. The tortures and sufferings of many innocent people are on his conscience, which was broken a long time ago.
He is at liberty, living an unremarkable life. He has a family, relatives and maybe friends and, certainly, neighbors.
Do they know that every day they greet and have a conversation with a beast in human form, a creature who sold his soul to the devil a long time ago in return for an ephemeral, false reward? I think they don't. And if people who don't know about Grigoryan's crimes were to be shown pictures of tortured Armenian people, raped and killed women, they would shudder.
We also have a Hall of Names. It was created in our hearts, and the names of the people tortured by Armenians in Sumgait, Khojaly, Aghdam, Agder, Zangilan, Kalbajar, Lachin, other cities and towns of the country, can be heard daily.
The citizens of our country, murdered by the likes of Grigoryan like terrorists, monsters, who didn't abstain from anything in their wickedness.
Eduard Grigoryan now lives, or to put it more specifically, exists.
After all, there is no life without a heart and soul. And he lost his soul a long time ago. However, now he remains beyond bars...
Eduard Grigoryan avoided a righteous and just punishment, but he is afraid, as a fear of punishment lives inside him.
And only the echo of Sumgayit in his emaciated brain, knocking at the old heart of the murderer and rapist, which is shaking due to the horror of his crimes.
