Azerbaijan, Baku, March 30 / Trend A.Huseynbala /
"Armenians have pursued a genocide policy against Azerbaijanis since the beginning of the twentieth century," deputy director of the History Institute of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) said.
"The genocide that began March 24, 1918 against the Azerbaijanis, led by Shaumian lasted several days. Up to 700,000 people were killed during this period in the Azerbaijani territory," deputy director of the History Institute of ANAS Jabi Bayramov was quoted as saying by New Azerbaijan Party's (NAP) internet site.
In March 1918, Stepan Shaumyan's Dashnak-Bolshevik government seized power and launched genocide against the Azerbaijani people. Under the decree signed by National Leader Heydar Aliyev in 1998, March 31 is marked as the Day of Azerbaijanis Genocide.
"According to data published by the Extraordinary Investigation Commission established by the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, over 12,000 Azerbaijanis were killed in Baku during those events. According to other sources, this figure is much higher. For example, the then published Azerbaijan newspaper wrote over 30,000 Azerbaijanis were killed in Baku and its suburbs during the March events. On the other hand, one of Armenian representatives said: "We killed 25,000 people in Baku. In general, 150,000 Azerbaijanis were killed in Southern Azerbaijan, 10,000 people just in the city of Urmiya," the historian said.
According to Bahramov, during the March events, Armenians completely destroyed 75 Shamakhi, 122 Guba and 115 Zangazur villages.
"In general, 700,000 people were killed in Azerbaijan in that period. I should emphasize that tsarist Russia, some European countries and then the Soviet government backed Armenians, who have historically committed exterminations," he said.
According Bahramov, this process also continued after Azerbaijan's occupation by the Soviet Russia in 1920.
"Armenians killed 48,000 people in Azerbaijan from May 1920 to November 1921. Too many graves will be found like graves in Guba should excavations continue in the country. The mass terminations took place all over Azerbaijan. Our people suffered from genocide committed by the Bolshevik government under the pretext of various repressions in 1930s. This process continued in 1941-1945 war. 700,000 Azerbaijanis participated in this war, while roughly half did not return. Almost 70-80 percent of young men, who were taken to war, did not speak Russian. Azerbaijanis were shot by Armenians under the pretext of non-compliance of Russian chauvinists orders. The then Azerbaijani leader, Mirjafar Bagirov, interfered in the case and achieved creating national divisions. Azerbaijanis demonstrated that their military spirit is not weaker than other people and proved it with heroism manifested in the war," Bahramov said.
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