Sumgait: the silence

Abstract

This Master’s Essay examines the level of importance attached to the issue of the official recognition of the ethnic cleansings of the Armenian population in the Azerbaijani city Sumgait as genocide on the foreign policy agenda of the Republic of Armenia. The issue is discussed through the prism that the official recognition of genocide is not a singular political project, but a dynamic political stance taken by a subject of international law, e.g. sovereign state. The politics of genocide recognition is shaped by the influence of domestic politics, as well as regional and international relations of the state which sponsor initiatives to obtain official genocide recognition. The case of the Sumgait massacres is examined in the chronological order starting from the politics of the Soviet Union to the policy developed by the Third President of the Republic of Armenia.