In February 1988 in Yerevan, Armenia SSR, demonstrations demanding the incorporation of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast of the Azerbaijan SSR into the Armenian SSR occurred. Nagorno-Karabakh's regional council voted to secede from Azerbaijan and join with the Armenian SSR. On 26 February, a pogrom in the city of Sumgait, resulted in the deaths of about 30 Armenians, although other estimates reach up into the hundreds of victims. This led to a rise of Anti-Azerbaijani sentiment in Armenia, leading to massacres, expellings and human right violations of Azerbaijani people both in Armenia and lands occupied by Armenian forces in Azerbaijan .