ANCHOR:

Armenians around the world are calling for legal proceedings against the instigators and perpetrators of the Armenian pogroms in Sumgait and Baku. They say that those responsible for a wave of crimes against humanity were released after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Armenia TV's Paul Chaderjian reports.

REPORTER:

Thousands gathered in Yerevan to protest the anti-Armenian hysteria being promoted by officials in the Republic of Azerbaijan. At the center of Azerbaijan's malice is a border dispute with Armenia over a sliver of land
where Armenians have lived for centuries.

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan can be traced back to Joseph Stalin, who in an attempt to control the ethnic communities in the Soviet Empire, placed the centuries-old Armenian region of Mountainous or Nagorno Kharapagh under Azeri rule.

In reaction to talks of Armenian autonomy in Kharapagh, Azeris attacked Armenians with the approval and support of local authorities.

What resulted were massacres of native Azerbaijanis of Armenian decent. Hundreds were killed, tortured, burnt alive, stabbed with crude and barbaric weapons, children were held over the open flames of stoves. More than 300 thousand Armenians were forced to flee Azerbaijan, but the world didn't take notice.

STAND UP: Rally organizers say the Sumgait massacres were never fully acknowledged and addressed by Soviet authorities. Further, they say, those who orchestrated and carried out these brutal and barbaric attacks were never punished by the courts.

It took the Red Army three days to march into Sumgait and put a stop to the violence, but violence broke out in other Azerbaijani cities and forced Armenians in Kharapagh to defend themselves.

For 18 years now, Armenia's government has been trying to find a diplomatic solution to the Armenian Republic of Nagorno Kharapagh's referendum to break away from Azerbaijan and be part of Armenia. As recent as a few weeks ago, another meeting between the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, failed to achieve any results.

Adding insult to injury, an Azerbaijani political party awarded its man of the year award to an Azeri solider who hacked to death and decapitated an Armenian officer attending a NATO peace conference in Hungary.

Armenians are asking Azerbaijanis to stop the desecration, destruction and vandalism of ancient Armenian holy sites, cross stones and cemeteries.

For the CNN World Report, Paul Chaderjian, Armenia TV