Sattar Mohbaliyev: The events of March 1918 are indelible pages of Azerbaijan's history
30 Mar 2021
The Decree "On the Genocide of Azerbaijanis" signed by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev on March 26, 1998 gave a relevant political assessment to the horrific genocide committed against Azerbaijanis in 1918 and declared March 31 "Azerbaijani Genocide Day". The decree said:
"All the tragedies of Azerbaijan in the XIX-XX
centuries, accompanied by the occupation of their lands, formed separate stages
of the deliberate and planned policy of genocide pursued by the Armenians
against the Azerbaijanis. An attempt was made to give a political assessment to
only one of these events - the March 1918 massacre. Today, as the successor of
the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, the Republic of Azerbaijan accepts the
obligation to give a political assessment to the events of the genocide as a
logical continuation of the decisions that it could not implement until the
end.
Usually, when talking about the genocide of Azerbaijanis,
we are talking about the massacres committed by Armenian military forces in
March 1918 in Baku, Shamakhi, Guba, Goychay, Kurdamir, Salyan, Lankaran and
other regions.
After the October 1917 coup, Armenians began to realize
their claims under the Bolshevik banner. In March 1918, Stepan Shaumyan was
appointed Extraordinary Commissioner of the Caucasus and sent to Baku. Since
then, disguised as the "struggle against counter-revolutionary
elements," the Baku Commune, under the leadership of the Dashnak-Bolshevik
Shaumyan, began to carry out a nefarious plan to rid Baku of Azerbaijanis. In
those days, from March 30 to April 3, 1918, tens of thousands of civilians were
killed in Baku, as well as in Shamakhi, Guba and other cities and districts of
Baku province for their ethnic and religious affiliation, settlements were
destroyed, cultural monuments and mosques were destroyed. and cemeteries were
destroyed. In the following periods, the Armenian nationalists, who became even
more depraved, continued their inhumane acts, carrying out massacres, looting
and ethnic cleansing in Karabakh, Zangazur, Nakhchivan, Shirvan, Yerevan and
other regions.
After the establishment of the Azerbaijan Democratic
Republic, special attention was paid to the investigation of the events of
March 1918. On July 15, 1918, the Council of Ministers established the
Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry to investigate this tragedy. According to
the materials of the Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry established by the
Government of the Azerbaijan People's Republic, Armenian bandits who committed
genocide against Azerbaijanis killed about 8,000 civilians in Shamakhi. 28
villages of Javanshir district and 17 villages of Jabrayil district were
completely destroyed together with the population. Near Gyumri, 3,000
Azerbaijanis, mostly women, children and the elderly, were ambushed and killed.
Armenian armed groups burned several villages in Nakhchivan district, killed or
maimed 10,068 Azerbaijanis in Zangazur district, and displaced 50,000
Azerbaijanis. 135,000
Azerbaijanis living in 199 villages of Iravan province were killed and the
villages were destroyed. Armenian armed groups then marched on Karabakh,
destroying 150 villages in the mountainous part of Karabakh between 1918 and
1920 and destroying their population. In 1919 and 1920, March 31 was marked as
a day of national mourning by the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. In fact, this
was the first attempt in history to give a political assessment to the genocide
against Azerbaijanis and the occupation of our lands, which lasted more than a
century.
National
leader Heydar Aliyev said in connection with March 31 - "Day of the
Genocide of Azerbaijanis": No matter how difficult it may be, it must be
continued today and in the future as an honorable and sacred work. This is the
sacred duty of the present generation to the memory of the victims of the
genocide. "
On
January 18, 2018, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev signed
an order "On the 100th anniversary of the 1918 genocide of
Azerbaijanis." The order reads: "The revealed historical facts prove
that the geography of the bloody actions carried out by the Armenian
nationalists in March-April 1918 and later was wider and the number of victims
of the tragedy was many times higher."
The people of Azerbaijan, despite all the tragedies,
difficulties and injustices they have faced throughout history, have maintained
their determination for independence, demonstrated strong will, invincible
unity and solidarity, especially in the last 17 years under the leadership of
President Ilham Aliyev.
