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Kluge, wrote that Armenians att acked the Muslim (Azerbaij ani) 
streets and killed them with brutality. Aft er a few days of this mas-
sacre 87 Azerbaij ani corpses were uncovered and their ears and 
noses were cat off , bellies were torn, sex organs were cut off . Ar-
menians did not show any mercy to the kids and to the old. M. 
A. Rasulzade wrote referring to A. Y. Kluge: “The photos taken 
by Kluge and other foreigners, which exist today as memories of 
those days, clearly describe the tragedy. The shepherd dogs ab-
sorbed bulk of corpses of kids… and naked women laid dead on 
the ground…alive baby sucks dried gland of a dead mother...” “Is-
tiqlal newspaper published in Munchen under the leadership of 
M. A. Rasulzade dedicated its XXXI number, dated Aprel 1, 1933, 
entirely to 15 anniversary of the 1918 massacre. (42) 
M. A. Rasulzade wrote about Shamakhi tragedy: “The old capi-
tal of Shirvanshakh was att acked and the historical mosque was 
destroyed... like Shamakhi Lenkeran, Salyan, Guba, Nevahi and 
Kurdemir were undergone to this tragedy. Even the description 
of the destroyed property, abuse, killing of the old and looting is 
tragedy”. (43) 
The address of the chairman of the Emergency Investigation 
Commission, Alakbarbey Khasmamadov, to Azerbaij ani  nation 
with regard to assistance to the people in Shamakhi, who were 
in diffi
  cult situation, was published in “Azerbaij an” newspaper in 
the anniversary of March events in March 31, 1919. The address 
reads: “The miserable people are in need of great help. They have 
been deprived of almost everything even they have no strength to 
ask for assistance. However, they will not survive unless there is 
any assistance. Namely those who are engaged in grain cultiva-
tion were deprived of husbandry, labor tools and of seeds. There 
are villages that even do not possess any cow or hen… diseases 
emanating from famine and coldness destroy a number of people 

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every day. Obviously our government, which att aches great im-
portance to improvement of well-being of people, will assist to the 
people of Shamakhi who suff ered more. But this assistance does 
not release any citizen, especially any Muslim, of moral duty and 
citizen obligation to help the people of Shirvan, which has histori-
cal traditions that faced death threat. Muslim citizens, do save the 
people of Shamakhi who face death threat!”
Aft er this address, despite the diffi
  cult situation, att ention and 
care began to increase to Shamakhi people from the diff erent re-
gions of Azerbaij an along with the government. 
Most importantly,the 1918 events were refl ected in the literature 
regardless of the Soviet censorship. Uzeyir Hajibayov, Mahammed 
Hadi, Mirze Bala Mammedzade, Ibrahim Khelil and other intel-
lectuals created diff erent works on this issue. Along with other 
works, JafarJabbarli wrote the story (Ahmad and Gumru) that 
dealt with two Shamakhi youth. The story is related to Shamakhi 
youth’ love and to the March events that brought about tragedies 
to this innocent youth. The work depicts that Ahmad and Gumru, 
having their parents been killed by Armenian gangsters and their 
houses brunt, meet in front of Ismailiyye building in a miserable 
condition. Having known each other in diffi
  culty aft er being in 
tragedy and deprivation and the calling “wounded, disabled Sha-
makhi hostage”, they could not hug each other because Armenian 
criminals had cut off  their arms. (44) 
The Emergency Investigation Commission had already proved 
that the main criminals of Shamakhi massacre were Stephan 
Lalayev, born in Shamakhiand lived in Baku, Shamakhi residents 
Gavril Karaoglanov, Arshak Gulbandiyan, Mikhayil Arzumanov, 
Karaped Karamanov, Armenak Marterosyants, Aleksandr Kha-
chaturov, Michail Khajaturov who were composed of 31 persons.
The research materials constitute 7 volume, 925 pages collected 

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by the commission on the genocide committ ed by Armenians in 
Shamakhi and in its villages play a crucial importance in exposing 
Armenian crimes. 
Along with Shamakhi, the Emergency Investigation Commis-
sion had also explored the atrocities committ ed by Armenians in 
Jengi, Garavelli, Garbujag, Musafali, Khelil–Gasimbey, Arab-Me-
hdibeyli villages, and moreover in Sultanov and Sadali residents 
of Kurdamir and Goychay districts.
The research did also clarify that Armenians had burnt 5 hous-
es, 127 residents, 2 mosques and rich library on “Koran” interpre-
tation in Kurdamir. (45) 
Azerbaij ani delegation had used part of the materials of the 
Emergency Investigation Commission in the Paris Peace Confer-
ence. In addition, part of the materials of the Commission was pub-
lishedin French as 73 pages “documents on Armenian atrocities 
against the Muslim population” in 1919 in Istanbul. This wasthe 
fi rst att empt to disseminate the truth to the world community and 
it played an important role at that time. In the Paris Peace Con-
ference, the head of the Azerbaij ani delegation, A. Topchubashov, 
submitt ed the materials of the Emergency Investigation Commis-
sion to the U.S. president W. Wilson in May 28, 1919. Later the 
U.S. delegation was sent to the South Caucasus to collect impar-
tial information. The general Harbor, sent by the U.S. to Baku in 
summer of 1919, met with many people to gather impartial in-
formation. The Armenian representative bishop Bagrat made an 
att empt to deny involvement of Armenians in the March events. 
In general, Russian and Armenian organizations functioning in 
Baku made an obstacle to and put a pressure on the work of the 
Emergency Investigation Commission. However, the Commission 
managed to do much work in the short run despite the constraints 
and challenges.

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