Talk:Massacres in the course of the Nagorno-Karabakh War

LA Times

The quote from LA Times:

In Boston, Andrei D. Sakharov, the Soviet nuclear physicist and Nobel Peace laureate, said that he and his wife, Yelena Bonner, who is in Moscow, had received information from Kirovabad that more than 138 Armenians had been killed and more than 200 wounded by Azerbaijani mobs. Sakharov is on his first trip to the United States.

But Gennady I. Gerasimov, the Soviet Foreign Ministry's chief spokesman, said that, while there had been serious Azerbaijani attacks on Armenians, the death toll at Kirovabad stood at six. "There have been deaths, there are victims, but there has been no massacre as is being alleged," Gerasimov said. Gerasimov said he understood a fourth soldier had been killed, in addition to the three who died in the initial clashes Tuesday.

Also, three Azerbaijanis were shot and killed by troops in two separate incidents Friday night in Kirovabad, according to Soviet officials. An Armenian also died in one of the incidents.

And later in his memoir Sakharov admitted that the figure of 130 dead was false, and him making this claim was a serious mistake. The quote from Sakharov's memoir is available in Kirovabad pogrom article. Please read before inserting inaccurate figure of 130, derived from false info by Sakharov. Grandmaster 22:02, 24 August 2013 (UTC)

Who said I was refering to Sakharov alone? Here's another quote from your source, the LA Times, not refering to Sakharov:

„Human rights activists continue to insist, however, that the toll is far greater--as high as 130 dead in the strife-torn Azerbaijani city of Kirovabad alone--and, with warnings of possible genocide, they have appealed for swift action by the government to halt Azerbaijani attacks on Armenians.“--Markus2685 (talk) 19:30, 26 August 2013 (UTC)

This is obviously a reference to Sakharov and his wife, as they are the only ones mentioned in that article. In any case, these figures were never officially confirmed, and were proven false by Sakharov himself, who admitted that they came from an unreliable source, as well as by the Soviet authorities. [1] Moreover, NYT also wrote that "official and unofficial informants in the two republics who have provided reliable reports during the last nine months of unrest discounted the higher figures, saying they were based on second- and third-hand accounts". [2] Grandmaster 19:54, 26 August 2013 (UTC)

You are only assuming that it is a reference to Sakharov. But in any case… the death toll of 130 seems to be false. But also the death toll of seven seems not to be correct:

"Official reports from Armenia on Friday said that two more people had been killed there on Thursday, but it was unclear why Gerasimov had not included them in his total."[3] and Angus Roxburgh during the violence reported that at least six more Armenians were killed due to ethnic rioting in Kirovabad. (Source: The second Russian Revolution: the struggle for power in the Kremlin by Angus Roxburgh - page 123)

Also the wounded victims should be mentioned: "[Gerasimov] said more than 126 people had been injured." [4]--Markus2685 (talk) 21:31, 26 August 2013 (UTC)

The line about official reports from Armenia is a bit confusing. Two more people appear to had been killed in Armenia, not Kirovabad, as Armenian authorities would not have any accurate info on casualties in another republic. With regard to Roxburgh, it would be good to have another source to support his claims. And I agree that the number of wounded should be mentioned. Grandmaster 21:38, 26 August 2013 (UTC)