48
Crimes committed by Armenians in
Shamakhi in 1918
Conditions created after the bourgeoisier evolution in February 1917
positively influenced the development of national consciousness in “Prison of
nations” of Russian satellites, including in Azerbaijan. Bolsheviks' declaration
of “ the right to self-determination” of nations after the 1917 October revolution
cultivated some hopes for nations to establish their independent states. However,
immediately after the October revolution divergence between the Bolsheviks'
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 Azerbaijan. The
view expressed “not Azerbaijanis, but Azerbaijan is necessary for us” by
Communist leaders in the March massacre of 1918 and 20 January massacre of
1990 clearly reflects the essence of this policy. At present, the main reason for
having more than one million Azerbaijani refugees in their homeland,
commitment of Khojaly, Garadaghli, Agdaban and other tragedieson the basis of
the genocide in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, occupation of the 20 percent of the
territory of Azerbaijan 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 carried 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)
From March of 1918 on,Armenians played an active role in the
genocide against Azerbaijanis in Baku province under the slogan of fight of
Shaumyan-led Baku Soviet against counter-revolutionary elements.
Starting from the end of 1917 and beginning of 1918, Stepan Lalayev,
with the instruction of S.Shaumyan, secretly supplied Armenians, living in
Shamakhi, with weapons and ammunition, in order to prepare them for crimes
against the local population. Seven thousand Armenian soldiers were brought to
Baku from different fronts and were incorporated into military forces of the
Baku Soviet. The Armenian scholar G. Avetisyan notes on this matter: “there
were 4 brigades of the Red Army, which composed of 25 divisions and 18
thousand fighters, of which 70 percent were Armenians.” (22)
According to the document made up by the Investigation Commission,
15 vehicles with guns in January, 60 vehicleswith guns in the middle of March,
and 2000 Armenian soldiers were sent to Shamakhi.
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On March 28, 1918, chairman of Yelizavetpol (Ganja) Muslim
National Council, Khajmammadov, sent a letter 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 impossible to describe the tragedy. Violence and abuse were
rampant. Emergency assistance of the government is seriously needed. (23)
With the demand of Azerbaijani representatives the South Caucasian Seim
allocated 100 thousand manat money, troops and cavalry units, two planes,
armored train, a lot of weapons and ammunition against the Baku Soviet. At the
beginning of April, 1918, roughly 2000 well-armed soldiers under the command
of Magalov captured Hajigabul station attacking from the direction of Tbilisi
and Ganja. At the same time, Najmaddin Gotsinsky's forces attacked towards
Baku from Dagestan direction. (24)
Despite this, it was impossible to prevent Azerbaijani massacre by
Armenians.
Regretfully, the exact dates of Shamakhi genocide have not been
indicated in books or articles. Some books and articles describe 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 committed. The research done shows that Shamakhi genocide had taken
place with short intervals in several stages even before the massacres committed
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 Kurdemir to Shamakhi, it
was temporarily suspended with the agreement of the religious leaders in 15 (27)
March).
Phase 11-18 (30) March-28 March (April 09) 1918. (it started on
March 18 (30) 1918 and was temporarily prevented with the liberation of
Shamakhi by the troops of Ziyadkhanov in March 28 (April 9))
Phase Ill-April 6 (April 18) -July 20 (August 01) 1918. (it began with
the departure of Ziyadkhanov's troop from Shamakhi and with the recapture of
Shamakhi by Armenians six days after March 31, that is from April 6 (1918)
and continued until the liberation of Shamakhi by Caucasian Islamic Army of
Turkey and by the National Army in 20 July (August 01)).
The tragedies continued after the fall of Azerbaijan Democratic
Republic and with the recapture of Shamaki by XI Russian Army in 29 April,
1920. It should be noted that from the spring 1920 to the beginning of 1921
more than 4000 civilians undergone to political repression and were shot dead.
(25) Repressions continued in the following years. Academician Z. Bunyadov