First Nagorno-Karabakh War
However, there were not many differences between Soviet Armenians and Azerbaijanis; in Sumgait, both of the peoples basically had conversation in an almost identical Russian while many Armenians in the city spoke Azeri well, which means that it was difficult for the rioters to find whom they were going to attack. In order to catch Armenians, they asked people to pronounce the Azerbaijani word fundukh, whose pronunciation is hazelnut and Armenians were said to have difficulty in pronouncing the f, and with regard to this, Thomas de Waal states that Sumgait pogroms brought about dissolution of 'a "Soviet" identity.'