On February 20, 1988, the Regional Council of the People’s Deputies of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast of the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic adopted a resolution for the transfer of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region from Soviet Azerbaijan to Soviet Armenia. In the days following, thousands of Armenians participated in demonstrations at Yerevan Opera Square, in support of that decision. On February 26, 1988, the leader of the Soviet Union (USSR), Mikhail Gorbachev, addressed the people of Armenia and Azerbaijan urging them to end the demonstrations.
While Armenians responded to Gorbachev’s call immediately, mass public disorder occurred in Sumgait, Azerbaijan, in the presence of Soviet army units. Beginning on February 27 and continuing for three days, official sources reported that 26 citizens of Armenian origin were killed. According to unofficial sources, several hundred were estimated to be killed. Armenians were severely tortured, mutilated and killed during these massacres.
On April 24, 1988, a khachkar was placed at the Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex, in memory of the Armenian victims killed as a result of the Sumgait massacres. Engraved on this khachkar is a large cross surrounded by 26 small crosses which symbolize the innocent victims.