The Armenian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the events in Azerbaijan’s Sumgayit city and brought accusations against Azerbaijan, Spokesperson for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Leyla Abdullayeva said.

Axar.az reports that Abdullayeva made the statement commenting on the journalists’ question on the statement of the Armenian Foreign Ministry in connection with the events in Sumgayit city.

"Unfortunately, the issue is again about the statement of the Armenian side, full of lies and fabrications," the spokesperson said. "We have repeatedly responded to the groundless claims of the Armenian side regarding the events in Sumgayit and today I would like to emphasize once again that the bloody events in Sumgayit of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic in late February 1988 were a deliberate and well-planned provocation against Azerbaijan."

"As is known, the General Prosecutor's Office of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics filed a criminal case in connection with the incident," Abdullayeva added. "The investigation was carried out. As a result of the investigation, the perpetrators and accomplices of the riots, the victims, and those injured - a total of 32 people were identified. I would like to emphasize that six of those injured were Azerbaijanis."

"Numerous testimonies of Armenians living in Sumgayit were collected about Eduard Grigoryan, an Armenian by nationality, who led this campaign (movement, riots), personally killed six people and raped three women of Armenian origin," Abdullayeva said. "Grigoryan, sentenced upon a court decision to 12 years in prison, was sent to Armenia to serve his sentence, and then was released."