MFA: Azerbaijani people will never forget bloodstained pages of 1918 genocide

Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry has issued a statement in connection with March 31 – the Day of Genocide of Azerbaijanis.

“Today, March 31, marks the Day of Genocide of Azerbaijanis. It has been 108 years since the horrific mass killings committed against our people by radical Armenian groups," Caliber.Az reports, citing local media.

The genocide carried out in March 1918 by 6,000 members of the Baku Soviet and 4,000 armed participants of the Dashnaktsutyun party has gone down in history as one of the most brutal examples of ethnic cleansing policy. Testimonies of the then Extraordinary Commissar for the Caucasus, Stepan Shaumyan, also prove that these massacres were carried out on the basis of national hatred under the guise of ‘struggle against counter-revolution.’

As a result of these crimes, systematically carried out in Baku, Shamakhi, Guba, Karabakh, Zangezur, Nakhchivan, Shirvan, and Iravan, tens of thousands of Azerbaijanis were killed. In Guba alone, more than 16,000 people were exterminated, and 167 villages were wiped off the face of the earth. Along with civilians, the religious and cultural heritage of our people was also targeted—mosques and historical monuments were destroyed.

After the establishment of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, despite the creation of special bodies to investigate these events, inform the international community, and declare March 31 a day of national mourning, the fall of the Republic prevented these crimes from receiving a political and legal assessment.

Following the restoration of independence, these mass killings were given a state political and legal assessment by the Decree of National Leader Heydar Aliyev dated March 26, 1998, ‘On the Genocide of Azerbaijanis.’

At the beginning of the 20th century, this bloody policy of genocide continued in subsequent periods and, by the end of the century, took on a systematic character in the form of mass deportations of Azerbaijanis from the territory of present-day Armenia, mass killings committed during the occupation of Azerbaijani territories, particularly the Khojaly genocide, and other war crimes.

The people of Azerbaijan will never forget these bloody chapters of their history.

On March 31 – the Day of Genocide of Azerbaijanis – we deeply mourn and honor the bright memory of all our compatriots who fell victim to ethnic hatred and genocide.

May Allah rest their souls in peace!”

By Khagan Isayev