The Sumgayit events of February 1988 marked the primary stage of the Armenian policy aimed at justifying further occupation of Azerbaijani territories.
The number of overall population was 258000, out of which 18000 were ethnic Armenians. No any ethnic tensions were recorded in Sumgayit until February 1988. On 26th of February, the central square of Sumgayit was captured by protestors who objected to the killing of 2 Azerbaijanis who had been shot during the clashes between Armenians and Azerbaijanis in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan on February 22, 1988. Soon the protests were upraised to the pogroms against the Armenian residents of the city. The riots claimed the lives of 32 people, 26 of which were Armenians and 6 Azerbaijanis. Among the injured, there were 54 Armenians and 74 Azerbaijanis.
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