Conflict coverage · South Caucasus

Sumgait pogrom

27 – 29 Feb 1988Key eventSumgait

Explore the system13 analytical layers in this conflict

Understand

Military & security

Effects & resilience

HumanitarianArmenia–Azerbaijan / Karabakh legacy

Anti-Armenian pogroms in the Azerbaijani industrial city of Sumgait kill at least 26 Armenians by the official count — with higher estimates — days after the NKAO vote. Soviet troops restore order late; most of the city's Armenian population flees.

Why it mattersSumgait set the conflict's violent pattern and its psychology: for Armenians it fused the Karabakh question with survival, and it began the mutual population flight that unmixed both republics before full war started.

Confidence: HighSources: Established historical recordMethodology Corrections

Related structure

2 records that this event names, or that name it. Every one is an explicit reference in a published record — nothing here is inferred from subject matter.

Part of

Campaigns whose record places this event inside them.

Karabakh conflictMovement, pogroms and the Soviet collapse

Actors

Actor records this event names.

Azerbaijan

Where this fits

This is one entry in the Caucasus timeline. The full Key Events surface carries every dated turning point with its filters and its essential subset, and this event in place shows what came before and after it. How Vigil grades, dates and sources its claims is set out in the methodology.