March 31 – is the Day of Azerbaijanis’ Genocide, APA reports. In 1918 Armenians committed plunders, arsons, terror acts against Azerbaijanis in Baku, Shamakhy, Guba, Goychay, Karabakh, Zengezur, Yerevan and Nakhchivan.

Tens of thousands of Azerbaijani civilians – women, children, the old were atrociously killed just because of their nationality, their houses were burned, plundered, national cultural monuments, religious places were destroyed.

Armenians also committed mass slaughters in Baku. The genocide started by Armenians on March 28 in 1918 lasted for three days. Over 30,000 civilians were atrociously killed in Baku within three days.

Dashnaks misappropriated Azerbaijanis’ jewelries worth 400 million manat, destroyed a number of sanctuaries and historical monuments. Armenians fired at Tezepir mosque and burned building of “Ismailiyye”, one of the famous samples of the world architecture.

Armenians committed atrocious plunders in Shamakhy in March, 1918. Dashnaks burned the part of Shamakhy populated by Muslims, 13 mosques and famous Juma mosque. Armenians killed 8077 Azerbaijanis in 53 villages of Shamakhy. 4190 of them were men, 2560 women, 1277 children. It caused 339.8 million damage on the villages.

Armenian-Bolshevik units headed by Stepan Shaumyan savagely killed more than 16 thousand innocent people in Guba during the first 5 months of 1918. Nearly 12 thousand lazgis, more than 4 thousand Azerbaijanis were killed during the massacre. 162 villages in Guba were razed to the ground by Dashnak-Bolshevik units and 35 of them do not exist even today.

Mass Grave of genocide victims committed by Armenians in Guba has been found recently.

Azerbaijanis living in Western Azerbaijan were also massacred by Armenian-Bolshevik units beginning from spring of 1918. Armenians had already plundered 199 Muslim villages by the end of April.

Slaughters and massacres committed by Armenian-Bolshevik units against Azerbaijanis in Baku City and in regions of Azerbaijan in spring of 1918 are assessed as genocide.

On March 27, 1998, Heydar Aliyev ordered to declare March 31 as the Day of Azerbaijanis’ Genocide.
APA