Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov. 4 / Trend M. Aliyev /
The Azerbaijani National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography will create a center to protect the mass graves of individuals killed by Armenians in the 1918 genocide, the academy's president told Trend today.
"Employees of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography were sent to Guba to agree on a plan to establish this center with the local executive authorities," Mahmud Karimov said.
The Armenian Dashnaks who seized the power under Stepan Shaumyan's leadership in March 1918 cruelly killed tens of thousands of civilian Azerbaijanis.
According to a decree signed in 1998 by Azerbaijani national leader Heydar Aliyev, March 31 is marked as Azerbaijani Genocide Day.
According to the Azerbaijani National Academy of Sciences' Institute of History, about 700,000 people were killed on the territory of Azerbaijan on March 24. About 75 Shamakhi, 122 Guba, 115 Zangazur villages were completely destroyed within a few days.
The remains of those found in a mass grave in Guba were identified as belonging to the victims of the 1918 genocide. The Heydar Aliyev Foundation has prepared a memorial complex to these victims.
"The mass grave in Guba has a great spiritual and historical value to the Azerbaijani people," he said. "Work will be conducted to protect it."