Azerbaijan’s ombudsman calls for international recognition of 1918 genocide ahead of March 31

Sabina Aliyeva, the Human Rights Commissioner (Ombudsman) of Azerbaijan, issued a statement ahead of March 31, the Day of Genocide of Azerbaijanis, highlighting the mass atrocities committed against Azerbaijanis during the early 20th century.

According to the Ombudsman’s press service, Azerbaijanis were repeatedly subjected to ethnic cleansing and genocide, systematically targeted and killed based on their ethnic and religious identity. The statement cites widespread massacres during March–April 1918 in cities and regions including Baku, Shamakhi, Guba, Garabagh, Zangezur, Iravan, Nakhchivan, Lankaran, Ganja, Goychay, Sheki, Sabirabad, Salyan, and Kurdamir.

“Incidents [that] occurred in March-April of 1918 were one of the manifestations of the most bloody and tragic policy, and carved their place in history as massacres of thousands of innocent people due to their ethnicity and religion,” Aliyeva said. 

Historical documents and archival materials confirm the scale of the atrocities, including the discovery of mass graves in Guba, which testify to the deliberate targeting of Azerbaijani communities. Aliyeva stressed that investigations under international law demonstrate that these crimes contain elements of genocide, although they have not yet received recognition at the global level.

The Ombudsman recalled that Heydar Aliyev, the National Leader, issued a decree in 1998 establishing March 31 as the Day of Genocide of Azerbaijanis, and that ongoing efforts seek political and legal evaluation, truth-finding, and international awareness of these crimes.

Aliyeva called on international organisations and UN member states to recognise the 1918 atrocities as genocide, stating that justice and acknowledgement are key to preventing the recurrence of such crimes against humanity.

The statement has been sent to the UN Secretary-General (UNSG), UN Security Council (UNSC), UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), UN International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the heads of the European Union (EU), Council of Europe (CoE), Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), International Ombudsman Institution (IOI) and European Ombudsman Institution (EOI), Asian Ombudsman Association (AOA), Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and the Association of Ombudsman of member states of this institution (OICOA), Association of Ombudsman and National Human Rights Institutions of Turkic States (TURKOMB), OIC Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (OIC-IPHRC), European Network of Ombudspersons for Children (ENOC), International Peace Bureau (IPB), ombudspersons and national human rights institutions (NHRIs) of different countries, diplomatic missions of Azerbaijan in foreign countries and the diplomatic missions of foreign countries in Azerbaijan, and diaspora organizations of Azerbaijan.

By Vugar Khalilov