Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar. 31
By Elena Kosolapova - Trend:
CNN's website has presented an article by Azerbaijani journalist, Azer Hasret, dedicated to the Genocide of Azerbaijanis, committed by Armenians in 1918.
"According to documents available, Armenian paramilitaries on March 30 - April 3, 1918 had committed genocide against Azerbaijani population in the regions of Baku, Shamakhi, Guba, Khachmaz, Lenkeran, Hajigabul, Salyan, Zengezur (now in the territory of Armenia), Karabakh (for now under occupation of Armenia), Nakhchivan and others," Hasret said in the article.
The author said his late mother told him about the atrocities of Armenians.
"My mother used to say, that Armenian bands had killed thousands of villagers even burning down some villages in total," Hasret said, adding that his grandfather mobilized a group of young people to help victims of the Armenian gang raids in Guba.
His mother's tales are also proved by documents and evidence, Hasret noted.
As a result of a deliberate policy of ethnic cleansing, genocide and deportation of Azerbaijanis, pursued in the last two centuries by Armenian nationalists and their supporters, Azerbaijani people faced severe challenges.
This policy even more intensified in 1918-20. The genocide was committed on March 31, 1918, when hundreds of towns and villages of Azerbaijan were destroyed, as well as 150 Azerbaijani villages in Karabakh were turned to ruin, an unprecedented bloodshed in Shusha was committed.
More than 700,000 Azerbaijanis, including 30,000 persons in Baku and in surrounding villages were brutally murdered, mosques and schools were burned down.
Edited by CN
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