Kitab indd

99
The Emergency Investigation Commission that operated a year 
and a half gathered 35 volumes, 3500 pages materials on crimes 
committ ed by Armenians working under the fl ag of diff erent 
political nationalist parties. On the basis of these documents 128 
reports were made up and 194 persons were sued. In addition, 
it was impossible to sue many criminals due to diff erent reasons 
although their names were made public. Furthermore, the Com-
mission made up 6 volumes additional documents, composed of 
95 photo album, and 80 slides in order to send to the Azerbaij ani 
delegation in Paris.
Regretfully, immediately aft er the de-facto recognition of Azer-
baij ani independence, the law on amnesty, adopted in February 
2, 1920 by the Parliament of the Azerbaij an Democratic Republic 
with the pressure of western countries, prevented punishment of 
criminals sued with regard to the 1918 genocide.The second ar-
ticle of the law stipulates that “those who were sued due to crimes 
on national hostility” are released of punishment and persecution. 
According the article 10, all the cases were permanently annulled 
raised as an outcome of the research of the Emergency Investiga-
tion Commission. Although few of the criminals, 194 of them were 
sued as a result of the hard work of the Emergency Investigation 
Commission, all of them were released aft er the adoption of the 
amnesty law. Even the money of those who were released by pay-
ing compensation was returned. However, Stephan Lalayan, who 
headed the atrocities in Shamakhi, could not survive; he died in 
custody. (46) 
Shamakhi massacre plays a crucial role since today there is a 
fi ght against terrorism in the international arena. Therefore, these 
facts should be thoroughly and impartially explored, and the truth 
should be disseminated to the world community.

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100
Currently, signifi cant work is done towards the study and dis-
semination of the 1918 genocide to the international communi-
ty. Att empt to falsify the 1918 March genocide in writings of some 
Armenian and Russian authors and endeavor to confuse the in-
ternational community further stimulates this issue. Russians did 
even made fabricated cartoons, such as“three Heroes and Shamak-
hi tsarina”that dealt with love between the king of Kiev Russian 
state and daughter of Shamakhi king. Regretfully, the communists 
reiterated mistakes made by the followers that served the enemy 
in 1918–1920 even aft er the political assessment of the 1918 March 
events in a state level. They tried to blur public opinion by writing 
a book, such as “the year 1917 and Azerbaij an”, and by putt ing 
diff erent false materials into the webpage www.kommunist.az. 
These persons make unsuccessful eff orts to bring false opinions, 
writt en on the 1918 events during the Soviet period, to the agenda, 
and support criminals who killed thousands of Azerbaij ani civil-
ians. By doing this, they do not even understand the treason done 
to their nation.
Presence of such att empts in the international arena stipulates 
further expansion of research on the 1918 events. 
Discovery of new facts in this sphere as a result of the research 
done recently plays a signifi cant role in exposing criminals. 
One of the new facts is the discovery of massive graves of 1918 
which were uncovered by accident while construction of city sta-
dium in Guba in 2007. There is a great possibility that such mas-
sive graves exist in Shamakhi region as well. The sources of the 
Soviet period, where archeological excavations were carried out 
in the historically rich Shamakhi, do not indicate any information 
about existence of such massive graves which in fact do not coin-
Conclusion 

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101
cide with the policy of the communist regime to gather facts on 
the 1918 massacres. Therefore, there is a great need to expand ar-
cheological excavations in the former Shamakhi district in order to 
att ain new facts on Armenian atrocities of 1918. Reportedly, Sha-
makhi residents killed in 1918 by Armenian criminals were buried 
in Kalakhana and Suleyman valley, and fi nding massive graves in 
future as the result of archeological excavations in these areas are 
not necessarily ruled out.
Modern researches prove that Armenians not only committ ed 
crimes against Muslim population but also to national minori-
ties, such as Jews and Germans in the 1918 massacres. During 
this period 3 thousand Jews were killed by Armenians. Defi ning 
the identities of 104 killed Jews as a result of recent researches, 
representative of the Red Sett lement of GubaRegional Authority, 
IsakovPisakhDavidovich, submitt ed the list of 104 Mountainous 
Jews, killed during the massacres by Armenians in diff erent re-
gions of Azerbaij an in 1918, along with 18 Jews of the Red Set-
tlement, to the Prosecutor’s offi
  ce. Amazasp headed the massive 
killing of Jews. The killed Jews were thrown to the so-called Shi-
miholes. (48) 
According to the memories of baronGresKremsenshtain, head 
commander of German Forces in the Caucasus region in 1918, in 
his book “My Caucasus Mission”, Armenians had killed 400 Ger-
man civilians with no reason in Yekaterinfeld village of Barchali 
in December 1918, and had buried them in the well in the adjacent 
area to the village. (49) 
Currently, the conduct of propaganda in this sphere and erecting 
genocidal monuments of 1918 in diff erent sett lements, including 
in Shamakhi should be highly valued. One of the important works 
done in this area is the fi lming of Turkish prestigious “A” channel 
of the genocide by the Bolshevik–Armenian forces in March 1918 

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