What happened
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.
Sumgait 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: High
See this event in the timeline Interactive: select this record and follow what connects to it.