At a roundtable discussion today, dedicated to human rights in Armenia and ethnic pogroms unleashed against Armenians in Azerbaijan, former RoA Human Rights Ombudsman Larisa Alaverdyan stated that the attacks against Armenians in Baku in January, 1990, could only be described as "genocide". The pogroms continued for a week and resulted in scores of Armenians being murdered, mostly by beatings and knife wounds. "It was the most brutal manifestation of pan-Turkism. I regard Azerbaijan as a breeding ground of genocide. It has adopted a policy of ethnic-cleansing, of getting rid of all other nationalities from its territory," stated Mrs. Alaverdyan, now a Heritage Party MP.

She stated that such policies were particular to those nations who do not possess a ancient history and usurp the territory of others, wishing to build their own nation-state. "This policy was directed against the multi-national city of Baku. The hatred shown to others by the Azeris stems from this historical source. It is not only directed at the living but the dead as well, as witnessed by the destruction of the Armenian cemetery at Jugha," MP Alaverdyan argued. Hayk Demoyan, Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum, stated that a policy of Armenian ethnic cleansing has been going on since the beginning of the 20th century by the Azeris and gave examples during his talk. Gagik Yeganyan, who heads the Refugees’ Union in Armenia, talked about the plight of displaced persons both in Azerbaijan and Armenia. He argued that Azerbaijan was deliberately keeping thousands of Azeris who left Armenia living in tents merely to prove to the world that they have suffered. He claimed that none of the Azeri refugees have received any compensation from Baku. The roundtable discussion took place at the Congress Hotel in Yerevan and was organized by the current Human Rights Ombudsman, Armen Harutyunyan.