Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
29 March 2013
The Day of 31st of March, 1918 is commemorated in the Republic of Azerbaijan on a state level as the Day of Genocide of the Azerbaijanis. This is a manifestation of the national memory to the tragic events in the history of Azerbaijan during the last century. The massacres , repressions, mass deportation from their homelands are included to the black pages of the history of Azerbaijan in the 20th Century. Acts of the Armenian chauvinists, who had been crazy with the fantasy of “the Great Armenia” and had resorted to all kinds of means to achieve this aim, are clearly seen in this tragic history of the Azerbaijani people.
Gulustan and Turkmanchay treaties of 1813 and 1828 at the end of the first and second wars between Russia and Iran resulted in division of Azerbaijan. As a result, the northern part of Azerbaijan was included in the territory of Russia and the southern one in the territory of Iran.
Right after the Turkmanchay Treaty the Russian Emperor Nicholas I on March 21, 1828 declared the establishment of “Armenian Province” in the territory of Iravan and Nakhchivan khanates of Azerbaijan. Thereafter, in accordance with Turkmanchay Treaty, resettlement of Armenians from Iran to Iravan, Karabakh and Nakhchivan was carried out. The purpose of these resettlements was to force Azerbaijanisto leave their homelands. The historical sources shows that 40,000 Armenians from Iran and 84,600 Armenians from Turkey had been resettled to the Caucasus during 1829-1930, and they had mostly been settled in Nakhichevan, Karabakh and Iravan.
Armenians have taken advantage of collapse of Russian Empire and joint hands with Bolsheviks. Under the slogan of struggle against the counter-revolutionaries in March 1918 the Baku Commune decided to completely eliminate the Azerbaijanis in the Baku Province. The crimes committed by Armenians on those days were engraved on the memory of the Azerbaijani people forever. Thousands of Azerbaijanis were killed just for their ethnic identity , houses were set on fire, people were burnt alive. Architectural monuments, schools, hospitals, mosques and other buildings were destroyed, most of Baku turned into ruins. Genocide of the Azerbaijanis have been carried out in Baku, Shamakhy, Guba, Karabakh, Zangazour, Nakhchivan, Lankaran and other places with medieval barbarity. In February and March 1918, Armenians killed about 50,000 people in Baku, Shamakhy, Guba, Mugan, Lankaran and other cities of Azerbaijan. Their homes were robbed, tens of thousands of people were forced out of their homes. Only in Baku about 30,000 people were mercilessly killed. Altogether 626 villages were completely destroyed in Shamakhy, Karabakh, Zangazour, Iravan and Kars.
Establishment of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic on May 28, 1918 and forming a National Army put an end to the massacre. The Georgian and Armenian Republic came to being in the same year. Azerbaijan had to give some of its territories including Iravan to Armenia which did not satisfy them and made putting forward other territories claims to Azerbaijan and Georgia.
The efforts to grab lands by force have led to the war with Georgia and Azerbaijan in December 1918. As a result 565,000 out of 755,000 Azerbaijanis that had lived during 1918 to 1920 in the territory of today’s Armenia were either killed or forced out of their homes.
28 April, 1920 was a last day of Azerbaijan’s independence, which was again occupied by Soviet Russia. During the Soviet regime the Armenians continued expanding their territories at the cost of their neighbors.
Right after the end of WW- II the start to mass resettlement of Armenians was given. 509 thousands Armenians were shifted from Syria, Greece, Lebanon, Iran, Bulgaria, Romania France, USA, Greece and Palestine to Armenia.
In 947 the leadership of Armenian SSR appealed to Moscow complaining about the difficulties faced in the accommodation of the resettled Armenians and proposed that the Azerbaijanis living in Armenia be shifted to the districts of Azerbaijan engaged in cotton-growing. This idea was approved on December 23, 1947 and as per this decision during 1948-1950 100 thousands Azerbaijanis were moved to Azerbaijan. The second such decision was signed on March 10, 1948 and served for resettlement of another thousands of Azerbaijanis. Those who were deported, used to live in mountainous regions and could not resist the heat of the plane area and were dying in hundreds. Even under these circumstances the appeals of Azerbaijan requesting to shift them to the mountainous Karabakh had been turned down.
One can arrive at only one conclusion from the abovementioned that the move of Azerbaijanis from Armenia did neither pursue the aim of settlement of Armenians coming from abroad, nor was it for the purpose of increasing productivity of the cotton-growing in Azerbaijan. The primary objective was to implement the policy of creating a mono-national state, which was the long-standing dream of Armenian shauvinist.
The processes of restructure and glasnost in the USSR have led to the new wave of anti-Azerbaijani mood and territorial claims. The tactics used in 1945 was launched again and the Armenian nationalists started forcing the Azerbaijanis out of Armenia and trying to annex the Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia. Permanent threats, physical and moral pressures, mass killings, destruction of villages that started in 1988 forced 250,000 Azerbaijanis to leave their homelands.
The events of 1905-1920 were repeated again: women, children, elderly moved to Azerbaijan having passed snowy mountains and suffered big losses. And again as it was during 1948-1953 accommodation of the refugees in Karabakh was not permitted by central Soviet Government and they had to settle in the refugee camps. Ultimately, Armenia became a mono-ethnical country and the idea of Dashnaks “Armenia without Azerbaijanis” has become a reality.
After 1988, the military aggression of Armenia against Azerbaijan resulted in occupation of 20% of the Azerbaijani territory, turning the occupied districts into ruins. More than one million people becoming refugees and internally displaced people. 30,000 Azerbaijanis lost their lives, tens of thousands of people were wounded.
Khojaly Genocide committed in 26 February, 1992 will remain in the memories of the people as a display of inadmissible and cruel policy of Armenian nationalists. At that night 613 people were killed with brutality. Among them: 63 children, 106 women, 70 elderly. 150 people were missing. The dead bodies were mutilated.
The Republic of Azerbaijan gained its independence on 18 October, 1991and got a chance to evaluated the historical events taken place in Azerbaijan during the 20th century. On March 26, 1998, on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the March of 1918events , the acts committed by Armenian nationalists were given a political appraisal by special Decree signed by President of Azerbaijan Mr. Heydar Aliyev. This Decree was a first legal document testifying the genocide committed against the Azerbaijanis in 20 century.
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