March 31 - 104th anniversary of the Azerbaijani genocide

Baku/31.03.22/Turan: On March 31, Azerbaijan celebrates the 104th anniversary of the massacre perpetrated by the Armenians and the Bolsheviks of Russia in March 1918. Today, groups of activists of various political parties visited the Alley of Martyrs in Baku and laid mourning wreaths at the collective grave of the victims of the 1918 genocide.

The official memorable date in Azerbaijan, celebrated on March 31, was established by the decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev "On the genocide of Azerbaijanis" dated March 26, 1998.

After the October Revolution in Russia, Russian Bolsheviks and Armenian Dashnaks seized control of Baku. Stepan Shaumyan especially excelled. In the period from March 30 to April 3, 1918, Armenian and Bolshevik gangs killed 50 thousand Azerbaijanis in Baku, Shamakhi, Quba, Khachmaz, Lenkaran, Hajigabul, Salyan, Zangezur, Karabakh, Nakhchivan and other regions of Azerbaijan. The atrocities of the Armenians were stopped only after the arrival in Azerbaijan of the Caucasian Islamic Army, created on the orders of the Minister of War of the Ottoman state, Enver Pasha.

Historian Rizvan Huseynov, in a conversation with Turan, said that the events from March to mid-May 1918 are assessed by Azerbaijani historians as a national tragedy.

"The goal of the killers was not to give the Azerbaijani people the opportunity to create a state. Historians are unanimous in this opinion. After the collapse of tsarist Russia, all national Okrans sought independence. The Armenian Dashnaks and Russian Bolsheviks, led by Stepan Shaumyan, who captured Baku, tried to carry out ethnic cleansing from the Azerbaijani and in general of the Muslim population of Baku, the villages of Absheron, Shamakhi, Guba and other areas, in order to prevent the withdrawal of Azerbaijan from Russia.They did not succeed, but tens of thousands of peaceful Muslims of Azerbaijan were killed.

The difference in the opinions of our scientists lies in the fact that some historians consider Armenian Dashnaks and Bolsheviks to be the perpetrators of the genocide. Other historians place the bulk of the blame on Lenin's Russia, which supplied S. Shaumyan's forces with weapons and finances. In March 1918, the interests of the Dashnaks and Red Russia coincided," R. Huseynov said.

Historian Teymur Gasimly also shared his opinion with Turan about the historical research on the events of 1918. According to him, experts are unanimous in accusing Lenin and the Armenian Dashnaks led by Stepan Shaumyan, calling the events a genocide of Azerbaijanis. Lenin's task was to preserve Baku oil for communist Russia.

There are different versions of the participation of the Azerbaijani Bolshevik Nariman Narimanov in the March events. Some speak of his attempts to resist the pogroms. Qasimli believes that Narimanov was a political ally of Lenin in 1918.

Details about what is happening with Narimanov are described in the article by S. Rumyantsev, published in the collection of Azerbaijani, Georgian and Armenian historians (Yerevan-2009). He writes: in March 1918, Narimanov was a member of the Baku Revolutionary Defense Committee. In late March-early April, the Baku Council, with the support of the armed detachments of the Armenian Dashnaktsutyun party, as a result of bloody events, established its power in Baku. In those days, Dashnaks attacked Narimanov's apartment, he and his family were able to escape thanks to S. Shaumyan.

Nariman Narimanov recalled:

Finally, a deputation from Muslims comes to me and asks me to stop the war, recognizing themselves as defeated. I'm calling comrade Dzhaparidze right now. He promises to send deputies. At this time, the Dashnaks attack my apartment. I hide. My brother is being taken away. An hour later, Comrade Shaumyan saves me and my family from the Dashnaks, "defenders of Soviet power." After that, for three days there was a nightmarish revelry of brutalized Dashnaks in the city of Baku. As a result, a lot of Muslim women with children turned out to be captives of the Dashnaks, that is, of the “defenders of Soviet power…”… But why was it necessary, after this nightmarish story, to continue to do it in the counties. This is the question that the Soviet government of 1918 in Baku should answer. All this made me talk about not appointing Armenian comrades to a prominent post at first."--0--