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sued. In addition, it was impossible to sue many criminals due to different
reasons although their names were made public. Furthermore, the Commission
made up 6 volumes additional documents, composed of 95 photo album, and 80
slides in order to send to the Azerbaijani delegation in Paris.
Regretfully, immediately after the de-facto recognition of Azerbaijani
independence, the law on amnesty, adopted in February 2,1920 by the
Parliament of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic with the pressure of western
countries, prevented punishment of criminals sued with regard to the 1918
genocide.The second article 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 Investigation 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 after the
adoption of the amnesty law. Even the money of those who were released by
paying 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 fight
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.
Conclusion
Currently, significant work is done towards the study and dissemination
of the 1918 genocide to the international community. Attempt to falsify the 1918
March genocide in writings of some Armenian and Russian authors and
endeavor to confuse the international community further stimulates this issue.
Russians did even made fabricated cartoons, such as “three Heroes and
Shamakhi 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 after 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 Azerbaijan”, and
by putting different false materials into the webpage www.kommunist.az. These
persons make unsuccessful efforts to bring false opinions, written on the 1918
events during the Soviet period, to the agenda, and support criminals who killed
thousands of Azerbaijani civilians. By doing this, they do not even understand
the treason done to their nation.
Presence of such attempts in the international arena stipulates further
expansion of research on the 1918 events.
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Discovery of new facts in this sphere as a result of the research done
recently plays a significant 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 stadium in Guba in 2007.
There is a great possibility that such massive 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 coincide with the
policy of the communist regime to gather facts on the 1918 massacres.
Therefore, there is a great need to expand archeological excavations in the
former Shamakhi district in order to attain new facts on Armenian atrocities of
1918. Reportedly, Shamakhi residents killed in 1918 by Armenian criminals
were buried in Kalakhana and Suleyman valley, and finding 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 committed crimes
against Muslim population but also to national minorities, such as Jews and
Germans in the 1918 massacres. During this period 3 thousand Jews were killed
by Armenians. Defining the identities of 104 killed Jews as a result of recent
researches, representative of the Red Settlement of GubaRegional Authority,
Isakov Pisakh Davidovich, submitted the list of 104 Mountainous Jews, killed
during the massacres by Armenians in different regions of Azerbaijan in 1918,
along with 18 Jews of the Red Settlement, to the Prosecutor's office. Amazasp
headed the massive killing of Jews. The killed Jews were thrown to the so-called
Shimiholes. (48)
According to the memories of baron Gres Kremsenshtain, head
commander of German Forces in the Caucasus region in 1918, in his book “My
Caucasus Mission”, Armenians had killed 400 German 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 different settlements, including in Shamakhi
should be highly valued. One of the important works done in this area is the
filming of Turkish prestigious “A” channel of the genocide by the Bolshevik-
Armenian forces in March 1918 in three parts. (50) However there is an
enormous need to increase the activity in this sphere.
The researches prove that the massacre was committed by Armenians
in most of the regions of Azerbaijan in 1918. If one part of the genocide was
studied, however another part is not yet examined. Therefore, there is an
immense need to explore the crimes of Armenians in Kurdamir, Goychay,
Hajigabul, Salyan, Nefchala, along with Baki, Shamakhi, Guba, Zengezur,
Garabag and Nakhchivan. One of the unexplored regions, which undergone to