burn down their homes and property and blame Azerbaijanis." According to their investigation a "diversion group" of 20-25 people who "weren’t residents of Sumgayit and were speaking in Armenian among themselves" instigated the attacks. Other According to CPSU Politburo member Alexander Yakovlev, the Sumgait pogrom was arranged by KGB agents provocateurs to "justify the importance of the Soviet secret services". George Soros wrote in a 1989 article in the New York Review of Books: "It is not far-fetched to speculate that the first pogroms against Armenians in Azerbaijan were instigated by the notorious local mafia, which is controlled by the KGB official G.A. Alieev [Heydar Aliyev], in order to create a situation in which Gorbachev would lose, no matter what he did." Two authors commented in 2004, "Although that possibility cannot be ruled out, hard evidence is still lacking." American analyst Paul A. Goble suggested in a 2015 interview with the Armenian service of Voice of America that the pogrom was perpetrated by a "group of Azerbaijani criminals by the provocation of the KGB." Davud Imanov, an Azerbaijani filmmaker, expanded on this theory in a series of films called the Echo of Sumgait where he accused Armenians, Russians and Americans of conspiring together against Azerbaijan and claiming that Karabakh movement was a plot organized by the CIA. See also Anti-Armenian sentiment in Azerbaijan Gugark pogrom (1988) Kirovabad pogrom (1988) Pogrom of Armenians in Baku (1990) Operation Ring (1991) Maraga Massacre (1992) Khojaly Massacre (1992) Shelling of Stepanakert References Notes Bibliography Aslan Ismayilov Sumgayit — Beginning of the Collapse of the USSR. Baku: Çaşıoğlu. 2010 External links sumqayit1988.com sumqait.com Уголовное Дело № 18/55461-88. Сумгаит. 1989. (I) Уголовное Дело № 18/55461-88. Сумгаит. 1989. (II) Nationalism at Its Nastiest - The New York Times Vladimir Kryuchkov. Hardline Soviet Communist who became head of the KGB and led a failed plot to overthrow Mikhail Gorbachev, Times Online Sumgait Pogroms. Hon. Howard L. Berman, United States House of Representatives, Congressional Record, Feb. 2012 Conflicts in 1988 Massacres in Azerbaijan Mass murder in 1988 Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic First Nagorno-Karabakh War Anti-Armenian pogroms Persecution of Oriental Orthodox Christians 1988 in the Soviet Union 1988 in Azerbaijan Sumgait February 1988 events in Asia March 1988 events in Asia