Kitab indd

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their diff erent provocation and blackmail campaign to increase 
hostility towards Muslim population. The Baku Soviet under the 
leadership of Shaumyan promoted Armenians to high-ranking 
posts in the Soviet agencies. 
The head of the Baku Commune, established in April 1918, 
Shaumyan, did not only recognize the right of self-determi-
nation, but also did not accept using the word “Azerbaij an”. 
“Bakinskyrabochy”newspaper, Amiryan as the editor, did also 
mock at this word. (17) 
Aft er the elimination of the Caucasian frontt he Russian soldiers 
sold their weapons very cheaply to Armenians. As there was fam-
ine in Russia the majority of soldiers prefer to stay in Baku. Ar-
menian nationalist party “Dashnaksutun”declared the necessity 
to seize the power in Baku until a week remained to the March 
massacre. Under this circumstance the Muslim population set up 
self-defense forces in Ganja, Baku andLankaran, however the pro-
cess did not gather momentum.
Western powers exacerbated the situation by their eff ort to use 
Armenian military forces to their own interests, and thus to be-
ing indiff erent to the tragedy of local population. The confi dential 
information of the Ministry of Foreign Aff airs of the United King-
dom, dated January 4, 1918, clearly refl ected the interest of the 
British in the South Caucasus. This document att ached a special 
importance to the propaganda against Turkey. Mr. P. Kok’s report 
stated: ”The model of propaganda among CaucasusMuslims is 
simple. We shouldurge the king of Saudi Arabia to send infl uential 
delegation to the Caucasus and receive support from Muslims of 
Caucasus and Crimea to liberate holy sites of Arabs from Turkish 
invaders. Apart from that they should be encouraged to continue 
war and keep great number of Turks in the Caucasus front”. (18) 
The Armenian armed forces responded to the agreement 

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79
reached between religious leaders in order to prevent killing dur-
ing the confl ict: ”Muslim religious leaders may reconcile with Ar-
menian religious leaders, however Armenian nation is willing to 
wage a war towards Muslims and Britain will support Armenia in 
this fi ght”. (19) 
Pro-British propaganda of Armenian politicians aft er the col-
lapse of the Russian Empire led to the change of att itude of Mus-
lims towards the British. Muslims addressed to the Transcaucasian 
Seim and demanded to stop negotiations with the British govern-
ment and expressed their dissatisfaction against the arrival of the 
British military forces to Caucasus.
In January 22, 1918 Captain Noel wrote about deterioration of 
relations: “when I was here 6 weeks ago head of the Azerbaij ani 
community behaved us friendly. Now, upon return to Baku, I no-
tice the change of att itude as it was replaced with the hostility. It 
can be explained as the follows:
1. 
The common view on our support to Armenian interests.
2. 
The facts show that the Armenians emphasize this view 
and easily abuse it. 
3. 
Priority given to the establishment of Armenian national 
forces. I assume that it overlaps with the view of Russian head-
quarters “we back Armenians, but do not count on Muslims”. To 
my mind this policy is wrong and it will most likely lead to disas-
ter. (20) 
Dashnaks, pursuing their cunning policy, preferred to achieve 
their target with the help of Bolsheviks in March–April 1918 since 
the western forces were away.

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Conditions created aft er the bourgeoisier evolution in February 
1917 positively infl uenced the development of national conscious-
ness in “Prison of nations” of Russian satellites, including in Azer-
baij an. Bolsheviks’ declaration of “the right to self-determination” 
of nations aft er the 1917 October revolution cultivated some hopes 
for nations to establish their independent states. However, imme-
diately aft er the October revolutiondivergence between the Bol-
sheviks’ words and deeds dragged the nations, who strived for 
independence, into tragedy.
Bolsheviks commenced to pursue genocidal policy against the 
local population in order to hamper the independence of the oil-
rich Azerbaij an. The view expressed “not Azerbaij anis, but Azer-
baij an is necessary for us” by Communist leaders in the March 
massacre of 1918and 20 January massacre of 1990 clearly refl ects 
the essence of this policy. At present, the main reason for having 
more than one million Azerbaij ani refugees in their homeland, 
commitment of Khojaly, Garadaghli, Agdaban and other trag-
edieson the basis of the genocide in Nagorno-Karabakh confl ict, 
occupation of the 20 percent of the territory of Azerbaij an is the 
continuation of this policy. 
Member of the Cadet party B. Baykov, who previously lived in 
Baku, but later immigrated to Germany, wrote in his memories on 
the main reasons of the March of 1918 massacre: “Baku entirely 
supplied the Tsarist Russia with oil. The majority of oil was car-
ried to Russian cities through Volga river. The operation of ships 
in Volga river began in the mid of March with the melting of ice 
in Volga river. Urgent task of the Bolsheviks was to occupy Baku 
soon. “ (21)  
Crimes committ ed by 
Armenians in Shamakhi in 1918

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From March of 1918 on,Armenians played an active role in the 
genocide against Azerbaij anis in Baku province under the slogan 
of fi ght of Shaumyan-led Baku Soviet against counter-revolution-
ary elements. 
Starting from the end of 1917 and beginning of 1918, Stepan 
Lalayev, with the instruction of S.Shaumyan,secretly supplied Ar-
menians, living in Shamakhi, with weapons and ammunition, in 
order to prepare them for crimes against the local population. Sev-
en thousand Armenian soldiers were brought to Baku from diff er-
ent fronts and were incorporated into military forces of the Baku 
Soviet. The Armenian scholar G. Avetisyan notes on this matt er: 
“there were 4 brigades of the Red Army, which composed of 25 
divisions and 18 thousand fi ghters, of which 70 percent were Ar-
menians.” (22) 
According to the document made up by the Investigation Com-
mission, 15 vehicles with guns in January, 60 vehicleswith guns 
in the middle of March, and 2000 Armenian soldiers were sent to 
Shamakhi.
 On March 28, 1918, chairman of Yelizavetpol (Ganja) Muslim 
National Council, Khajmammadov, sent a lett er to the chairman of 
the government of the South Caucasus noting that the Bolsheviks 
had sent 2000 well-armed soldiers with a machine gun from Baku 
to Shamakhi. The soldiers destroyed more than 15 Muslim villages 
along the road and annihilated the city of Shamakhi. Thousands of 
Muslims, including women and children were killed. It is impos-
sible to describe the tragedy. Violence and abuse were rampant. 
Emergency assistance of the government is seriously needed. (23)  
With the demand of Azerbaij ani representatives the South Cau-
casianSeim allocated 100 thousand manat money, troops and cav-
alry units, two planes, armored train, a lot of weapons and am-
munition against the Baku Soviet. At the beginning of April, 1918, 

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