Sumgait pogrom

Three-day mob violence against Armenian civilians in the industrial city of Sumgait, 27–29 February 1988. Officially 32 killed (26 Armenians, 6 Azerbaijanis); independent estimates and survivor testimony place the figure considerably higher. The incident ended the Armenian community of Sumgait, accelerated the Armenian–Azerbaijani estrangement of the late Soviet years, and is the founding atrocity of the modern Karabakh conflict.