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roughly 2000 well-armed soldiers under the command of Magalov 
captured Hajigabul station att acking from the direction of Tbilisi 
and Ganja. At the same time, Najmaddin Gotsinsky’s forces at-
tacked towards Baku from Dagestan direction. (24) 
Despite this, it was impossible to prevent Azerbaij ani massacre 
by Armenians.
Regretfully, the exact dates of Shamakhi genocide have not 
been indicated in books or articles. Some books and articles de-
scribe that is was broke out in March 18, 1918, whereas in others 
in April, or on April 3-16. Comparative analysis of existing sources 
can determine the exact date of the crime committ ed. The research 
done shows that Shamakhi genocide had taken place with short 
intervals in several stages even before the massacres committ ed in 
Baku and Guba (the dates in brackets are in new calendar dates-
author):
Phase I–beginning of March-15 (27) March, 1918-the year (it 
started with the advancement of 400 Armenian soldiers from Kur-
demir to Shamakhi, it was temporarily suspended with the agree-
ment of the religious leaders in 15 (27) March).
Phase II–18 (30) March-28 March (April 09) 1918. (it started on 
March 18 (30) 1918 and was temporarily prevented with the lib-
eration of Shamakhi by the troops of Ziyadkhanov in March 28 
(April 9) ) 
Phase III-April 6 (April 18) -July 20 (August 01) 1918. (it be-
gan with the departure of Ziyadkhanov’s troop from Shamakhi 
and with the recapture of Shamakhi by Armenians six days aft er 
March 31, that is from April 6 (1918) and continued until the lib-
eration of Shamakhi by Caucasian Islamic Army of Turkey and by 
the National Army in 20 July (August 01) ).
The tragedies continued aft er the fall of Azerbaij an Democratic 
Republic and with the recapture of Shamaki by XI Russian Army 

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in 29 April, 1920. It should be noted that from the spring 1920 to 
the beginning of 1921 more than 4000 civilians undergone to po-
litical repression and were shot dead. (25) Repressions continued 
in the following years. Academician Z. Bunyadov writes in this 
book “Red Terror”: “roughly 70-80 thousandAzerbaij aniintellec-
tuals were killed in the years 1936–1937.” (26) 
The crimes committ ed by Armenians against the civilians in Sh-
emakhi began with arrival of 400 Armenian soldiers, coming from 
Russian–Turkish front at the beginning of March 1918, to Sha-
makhi from Kurdamir. Having been unaware of their goal, Baku 
Muslim Committ ee informed the head of the Shamakhi city Tey-
murbey Khudaverdiyev and requested him to render assistance 
to Armenian solders coming to Shamakhi. To this end, the del-
egation was sent to Agsu to meet them. However, the delegation 
was informed that the Armenian solders had att acked vulnerable 
villages, such as Bidjo and Lengebiz. During the shooting several 
Muslims and Armenians were shot dead. Armenians immediately 
informed Baku Armenian Committ ee about this event. Thus the 
Committ ee sent the well-equipped 3000 Armenians to Shamakhi 
to completely remove the local population. Having known of this 
event the local department of Muslim Committ ee sent the head of 
the Shamakhi province Hadji Jamalbeyov, head of the province 
Abdulkhalig Afandi Afandiyev and Armenian bishop to conduct 
talks to them. Then the delegation asked them to go back.Head of 
the Armenian criminal gang responded “we have come here to ut-
terly destroy Shamakhi and entirely kill the Muslim population”.
Aft erwards the delegation returned to Shamakhi and searched 
for way-outs. The following day Armenian bishop Bagrat and the 
representative of Malakans Karabanov came to Shamakhi depart-
ment of Muslim Committ ee and pledged to coexist with Azer-
baij anis in peace and friendship and never fi ght with them. The 

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next day, at 06 a.m. in March 18, 1918, the Armenians surrounded 
Shamakhi and began shooting using 100 machine guns and other 
ammunitions. Aft erwards, fi re began in several parts of the city. In 
the evening of the same day the vulnerable population of the city 
was forced to surrender. Later Armenians began to loot the city 
and kill the civilians. The remaining constructions were burned 
in the city and the cemeteries adjacent to the city were abused. 
The savage Armenians used special brutalities in Shamakhi. That 
is, they cut off  legs, arms, noses, and ears, chopped off  eyes, cut 
bellies of the dead people, burnt and eventually killed them with 
special brutalities. 
Shamakhi events was described in the article, number 19 of 
1918 “Azerbaij an” newspaper, and was noted that the crime com-
mitt ed towards Shamakhi Muslims by S. Lalayev was unprece-
dented. The brutality of Lalayev, who headed Shamakhi massa-
cre, reached to the extent that even T. Amirov and I. Bogomolov 
showed their dissatisfaction. 
The address of I. Bogomolov to A. Chaparidze reads: “Once 
again I ask you to arrest savage Lalayev. He killed a number of 
women and children and looted houses. When Amirov wanted 
to arrest him he evaded. All confi rmed that he burnt the mosque 
and eventually killed many women”. But Chaparidze did not give 
any feedback to this address because he was aware of objection of 
Shaumyan, who supported Lalayev, to the chairman of Military 
Investigation Commission Kojemyakoy on the arrest of Lalayev. 
(27) 
Along with the anti-Turk and anti-Muslim policy of Russian 
and Armenian nationalists in committ ing the crimes with brutal-
ity in Shamakhi, S. Lalayev’s personal hatred and hostility to local 
population played a certain role. He committ ed unprecedented 
brutalities against the civilians in Shamakhi in order to avenge his 

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