-Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan
The following article was contributed to the NDNnews
(www.ndnnews.co.kr) for its publication from the
Embassy of Azerbaijan. -Ed.
March 31, commemorated in the Republic of Azerbaijan
as the Day of Genocide of Azerbaijanis, reflects the
memory of the victims of the bloody massacre committed
by Armenians against Azerbaijanis in March 1918.
After the October Revolution in Russia in 1917, the Bolsheviks
seized power in Baku and viewed the Armenian nationalist
party of Dashnaksutyun as an ally to capitalize the
situation on the ground. Leader of the Russian Bolsheviks
Vladimir Lenin appointed ethnic Armenian Stephan Shaumyan
Extraordinary Commissar of the Caucasus.
At the beginning of tragic March events, the Baku Soviet
and Dashnaksutyun Party, under the pretext of combating
counter-revolutionary elements, set about the plan to liquidate
Azerbaijanis throughout the Baku Province. By the
acknowledgements of Stephan Shaumyan, 6000 armed
soldiers of the Baku Soviet and 4000 armed men from
Dashnaksutyun Party took part in the massacre of Azerbaijani
civilians. On 30 March Armenian-Bolshevik units subjected
Baku to volley fire from ships.
Then, armed Dashnaks attacked the homes of Azerbaijanis
and carried out their merciless slaughter only because of
their ethnicity. In this period, Armenian-Bolshevik units wiped out more than 20,000 Azerbaijani civilians in Baku.
Genocide of the Azerbaijanis by the Dashnaks was not
limited to Baku. Within a short period of time, Armenians
committed massacres in Shamakhy, Guba, Irevan, Zengezur,
Karabakh, Nakhchivan and Kars. As a result, more than
16,000 people were killed with utmost barbarity in the Guba
province in the first five months of 1918; a total of 167
villages were destroyed, 35 of which do not exist to this day.
Armenian forces also slaughtered local Jews in Guba.
The massacre of March 1918 was well prepared and ruthlessly
implemented act against Azerbaijanis based on deliberate
policy of racial discrimination and ethnic cleansing.
The March events of 1918 became the focus of attention
following the proclamation of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
(ADR). The Extraordinary Investigation Commission (EIC) was
established by ADR on July 15, 1918 in order to investigate
the violence against Azerbaijani population. An important
trait of this commission was that it was comprised of the
best lawyers of that time representing different nationalities
– Russians, Jewish, Polish, Georgians and even Armenians.
Based on this evidence, the EIC prepared 128 reports
and drafts to file lawsuits against 194 persons accused of
different crimes against a peaceful population. Thus, by mid-August, 24 people in Baku and about 100 people in Shamakhy
were arrested. This was the first attempt to conduct a
political and legal assessment of the policy of genocide
perpetrated against the Azerbaijanis. However, the demise
of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic made it impossible
to complete this work.
After restoring its independence in 1991, the Republic of
Azerbaijan resumed political assessment of genocide of
March 1918 and is committed to complete ADR’s unfinished attempts to bring about justice. On the eve of
the 80th anniversary of the tragedy, the then President
Heydar Aliyev issued a Decree to announce 31 March as
a national day of mourning. The Decree has become a key
document for conducting a political and legal assessment
of the genocidal acts committed against Azerbaijanis in
the beginning of 20th century.
The commemoration of the Day of Genocide of Azerbaijanis
raises the awareness of the world community to the facts
of the massacre and ethnic cleansing of Azerbaijanis in
the past and present.
Since late 1980s, unleashing the war against Azerbaijan
and occupying its territories, Armenia continued the policy
reminiscent of March Massacre by carrying out ethnic
cleansing of more than million Azerbaijanis in Armenia
and in the seized lands of Azerbaijan and committing
numerous war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts
of genocide, including Khojaly Genocide of February 1992.
While commemorating 100th anniversary of March
Massacre and remembering the innocent victims, we
strongly condemn the deliberate and continued policy
of genocide, crimes against humanity, racial discrimination
and ethnic cleansing of Armenia against the people of
Azerbaijan and reiterate the importance of ceasing
impunity of Armenia to prevent occurrence of such inhumane crimes.