By Vestnik Kavkaza
Killing people on the basis of ethnicity cannot be justified by anything, but it is even more frightening when people die during ethnic cleansing just because they are ethnically close to those who are considered to be the culprits of the killer’s troubles.The events of 1918 on the entire territory of Azerbaijan are described as ethnic cleansing by historians, who say that the riots were part of ambitious plans of nationalists, who were seeking to maximize the reduction in the number of Muslim population in all regions of Azerbaijan. However, it is not entirely clear why the Armenian massacres of 1915 in the Ottoman Empire became the basis for the ethnic cleansing of Azerbaijanis in 1918.
The Azerbaijanis who were living in the Russian Empire (and other Turkic peoples - Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Turkmens, Gagauz, Karachai) had a very indirect relationship to the Turks living in the Ottoman Empire.
In the struggle for the throne of the "oil kingdom" of Baku, the Baku Bolshevik leader Stepan Shaumyan (Lalayants) found support from the radical Dashnaks and Armenian combat units stationed in Baku, which were evacuated from the front and fought on the side of the Entente for the towns and villages of Turkey, who were dreaming of revenge.
The involvement of the struggle for power of the national democratic party Musavat turned the battle into massacres of Azerbaijani civilians, who had nothing against the Armenians, living peacefully with them for many years on the same land. In March 1918 Azerbaijanis were eliminated merely because they ethnically belonged to the family of Turkic peoples, although they had their own history, different from the history of the Ottoman Turks.
It was then that the ideology of the hostile policy of Armenians against Azerbaijanis started, which is based on the massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.
Today, Armenia is seeking recognition of the events in 1915 as genocide.
Thus, in freedom-loving France, where cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad and Christ are considered the sacred right of the individual, and the right of freedom of expression,there was an attempt in late 2011 to pass a law punishing denial of the Armenian genocide with a fine of 45,000 euros and imprisonment for one year.
It is not clear how condemnation of the evil committed in 1915 on the territory of the Ottoman Empire can explain the claim on present-day Azerbaijani territory, since the events of a century ago can explain the actions of Armenia’s recent history - the Khojaly tragedy, and the occupation of Karabakh.
Nevertheless it happens, and is probably inspired by those who think about their own political and economic capital, forgetting about the interests of their own people and their nearest neighbors. For most of these people Armenia is their historic homeland, but the Armenian Diaspora is not much concerned about the fact that this kind of policy leads to hostile relations with two (Turkey, Azerbaijan) of the four neighbors of Armenia.
Nevertheless, today Armenia finds itself in an economic impasse, and people are forced to leave the country. Recently, the first president of Armenia, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, called the attempts to continue the search for enemies as an anti-Armenian policy, urging to abandon the idea of creating a 'Greater Armenia'.
Indeed, the policy of mutually beneficial cooperation with its neighbors, will sooner or later make the Caucasus a prosperous land.
As an act of condemnation of the policy of hostility, as an example of the consequences of revenge, as well as the disclosure of objective facts, Vestnik Kavkaza is publishing materials about the March events of 1918, prepared by the Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry to investigate instances of violence, riots and looting in Transcaucasia from the period of the First World War.
Vestnik Kavkaza provides the historical documents without any changes, but urges readers not to take the frequently used word "Armenians" as a general quality. We are talking only about the people of Armenian origin who were participants in those events, and the majority of this nationality were themselves hostages of the situation.
In addition to well-organized military units, ARF party members also took part in the March riots. This fact is confirmed by the testimony of witnesses, and the fact that during one of the meetings of the Council of Workers, Soldiers and Sailors Deputies, its chairman Stepan Shaumyan openly admitted participation in the pogroms by Dashnaktsakans.
Meanwhile, after the termination of the pogroms, many representatives of the Armenian intellectual society insisted that Armenian organizations and Armenian intellectuals didn't take part in the March riots, only an Armenian mob and individual soldiers were engaged in plundering out of revenge on the Muslims because they didn't miss them at home in their villages when they returned (Vol. I, page 153).
During the March events about 11,000 Muslims were killed; the bodies of many of them were not found because the Armenians threw them into the burning houses, the sea and the wells (Vol. II, page 3). According to Heydar Cooley Guliyev, during a walk near Muslim apartments he found terribly mutilated corpses in some areas of the city. For example, he found the body of his nephew Bashir Jafarov with a severed head, a severed arm and three bayonet wounds to the body. Then he saw the corpse of a man with his genitals cut off and embedded in the mouth of a murdered Muslim women. A young Muslim woman lay with a slit throat, and on her chest a one-year-old boy who had been killed by a dagger had been placed so that his mouth was lying on the woman's nipple. There were bodies of Muslim women with babies carved out of their wombs, with amputated breasts, noses, ears, sticks in their vaginas. Burned child, who died, apparently in great agony, were found on a slab. A boy with his belly pierced by a wooden stake was found pinned to the ground. They could see that many Muslim women had been raped before death (Vol. lI, page 18, Vol. l page 12).
On March 24, 10 armed sailors under the command of the pilot Rosenblum were sent to guard the mountainous part of Baku, under the title 'Chemberekend' to former members of the Soviet of Workers, Soldiers and Sailors Deputies, assistant commander of the steamer 'Nicholay Buniyatov', Kyazimu Akhundov. From March 25, Akhundov started cleaning bodies from Nykolaev Street, he found the bodies of three Muslim schoolboys, 11 schoolgirls, Russian women, three Muslim boys aged 3 to 5 years, 8 Russian men, 19 Persian Muslims and 67 Muslim Azerbaijanis pierced with bayonets and dissected by swords. These corpses were taken to the mosque by the cars. In addition, 6748 Muslim corpses of men, women and children were transported to the old pier of the "Volcano" society. From the urban areas of Mammadli and Pohl Dere, Muslim corpses were removed to the cemetery, but this could be completed only by 31 March (1).
Akhundov took his friend Vladimir Sokolov to the Karpich Khan area, where Sokolov took three photographs. There is the corpse of a woman with a bullet wound to the head, with five bayonet wounds to the body and a severed right clavicle in the first picture; a still-alive child with a bayonet wound in the leg who had been placed on the right breast of her corpse as if sucking the mother's breast. The second photograph was taken of a two-year-old child, who was nailed to a wall with a large 7-8 inch nail; it was clear that he had been nailed to the wall with a stone that lay nearby. The third picture was taken of the corpse of a 13-14 year-old girl, who was raped by many men; the bed under her legs was covered with blood. When Akhundov and Sokolov entered the fourth house, they saw that there were corpses of naked women 22-23 years old, two older women, girls aged six years old, a boy of eight years and an infant lying on the floor of a large room; three dogs crunched the hands and feet of the baby. This picture impressed Sokolov so much that he refused to continue the taking of photographs (Vol. II, pages 49-52).
At number 33 of the 'Forward' newspaper, the Central Committee of the Baku Armenian Revolutionary Dashnaktsutyun Party, the Armenian National Council, trying to highlight the March events, says that Muslims were taken under the protection of the Armenian National Council with the energetic assistance of Dashnaktsutyun; the Council even appointed a commissioner for protection and care of Muslim citizens. Most of the ward Muslims were rescued by conscious soldiers and representatives of the Armenian parties. While for the establishment of peace and tranquility Muslims were taken from the Armenian part of the city to the Muslim part. How Muslim prisoners were taken to the Mailov Theater, the Record Theater and other places intended for the maintenance of all wards of the Armenian National Council, can be seen from the following facts: on March 19, at 15:00 14 Armenian soldiers who were looking for 11 rifles came to the house of Agha Hussein Babaev, which was placed at the corner of Nykolaev Street and Zavedenskaya Street. According to them, rifles were supposed to be in the house. Finding one rifle, the Armenians arrested Ashan Mustafayev, Medzhidulla Osman oglu, Rahim Rahim Khan oglu, Aga Huseyn Babaev, brother of Dr. Narimanov and Sarkisyants' gardener, who had moved with his family to the Armenian part of the city a few days before the March events. The detainees were taken down Nikolaev Street, while a delegation consisting of three elderly Muslims marching with a flag of truce, who met them on the road, were arrested too.
Arriving at the Velikoknyazhesky Prospect, the Armenian soldiers lined all the detained persons along the Kalantarov Passage and shot them. Two survived the execution: Askhadin Mustafayev was injured in the right hand and right side, Mejidully Osmanogly was shot in the leg. Officer Sergey, the son of a house-owner on Ofitserskaya Street, was the head of the squad responsible for the shooting.
On the same day, armed Armenians entered house N148 on Bondarnaya Street. There they robbed 50 Muslim women, children and men and took them to Birzhevaya Square as prisoners. They separated all the men from the crowd, took them to the 12th infirmary, shot them and finished them off with bayonets. 14-year-old teenager Mamed Ibrahim Meshadi Movlatogly was shot twice and stabbed 18 times; the teenager was picked up by nurses and taken to the 12th infirmary, where his life was saved. Ali Jelalzadeh was shot in the hand and groin, stabbed four times in the back and once in the leg, he was saved by doctors at the 12th infirmary.
Such incidents had been regular until Baku was taken by Azerbaijani-Turkish forces. For example, in late August 1918, Baku resident Sadykh bek Mamed Rza bek obly left Baku at Pirshagi and was on his way to his family. At Mamedly, the man and female Muslims accompanying him, 20 people in total, were imprisoned by 17 Armenian soldiers who took them to Zabrat. They were all tied together and shot. They were then stabbed with bayonets, daggers and sabres. Sadykh bek was shot once, stabbed twice with a dagger, about 18 times with a bayonet and twice with a sabre. He was treated in a hospital at Ramany.
By exterminating unarmed Muslims, the Armenian intelligentsia was trying to set the sailors and red guards against them. For example, on the morning of March 19, the Persian consul and sailor Natanson entered the fortress and told Muslim officials that there were rumours about Muslims committing a massacre of Russians in the fortress and Armenians. The Muslim officials took both of them to the house of Mir Ali Nagi Useynov, where 240 Christian men, women and children, including Armenians, stayed. Making sure the Christians were well treated and fed and that they were hiding from shells, Natanson and the consul left the fortress. Three hours later, they returned and said that two Armenian figures had informed them by phone that Muslims cut up all the Christians as soon as the consul and Natanson had left the fortress. The two left 20 sailors in the fortress for protection from Armenian attacks and left it.
On March 20, Armenian officer Tatevos Amirov and three soldiers entered the Muslim Charity Society 'Ismailiye' near the editorial office of 'Kaspiy' and the Muslim Charity Society 'Ismailiye'. Smoke and flames were soon seen after they had entered. The building, which was the pride of Baku Muslims, was burned down. Muslims could not put the fire out because the street was under machine-gun and rifle fire.
The 'Kaspiy' newspaper's office and Muslim hotels 'Dagestan', 'Iskenderie' and 'Islamiye' were burned down. They were significant for the Muslim population. 'Ismailiye' had all the Caucasian Muslim committees, it contained the money and documents of the committees, hosted Muslim assemblies and conventions, for example, the Muslim assembly of February 15, 1918. The 'Kaspiy' office was releasing books in the Muslim language, it had 5,000 copies of the Quran stored in the basement before the fire. The three hotels accommodated Muslims visiting Baku. Many bodies of Muslims were found in them. Bodies of Doctor Kerim bek Sultanov, Javad bek Ashurbekov, administrator of Chechen craft 'Gajinsky Cheleken' Abdullah bek Bababekov and others were found at the remains of the 'Dagestan' Hotel.
Breaking into Muslim houses, Armenians would steal all valuables, break or burn other things. The lower part of the city, on Tsitsianovskaya Street, not a single Muslim apartment, except for Haji Zeynal Abdin Tagiyev's, was not an object of pillagers. Some districts of the Mamedli District or the bazaar were burned down or pillaged. The Muslim population of Baku suffered a loss of 400,000,000 rubles according to the old assessment.
