Genocide of Azerbaijanis

Genocide of Azerbaijanis

Genocide of Azerbaijanis

ATAKHAN PASHAYEV
HEAD OF THE STATE ARCHIVES AT THE CABINET OF MINISTERS OF THE AZERBAIJAN REPUBLIC

As far back as in the IV century Armenians lost their statehood. Within 1500 year period they tried to re-establish it. But all in vain. The true nature of Armenians was well known to Byzantines, that joined Byzantine Empire at times. If there were not settlement of Turks in Anadolu in the XI century Armenians would have a crash of their nation. It is interesting, that these facts were reflected in Armenian sources in detail, too. Same sources point out the contribution of Turk to the formation of Armenians as nation. After Turk’s coming to Anadolu Armenians had become free of military obligations. Armenians received rights to open their own schools, to establish churches and to use their own language. As Armenians were experienced in trade affairs they soon managed to be involve in commerce in Turkey, later on they managed to involve in economy, too. Soon, they displayed their malevolent character and opposed Turkey. They dreamt the creation of the "Great Armenia" on the territories of Osman Turkey. For this purpose they appealed to the European states at first. But it was in vain and then they addressed to Russia.

Armenians misused ingeniously of Tzar Peter’s I ideas of invasion to Southwards as well as his wishes to possess Southern Seas. It should be pointed out that Armenians contributed mostly to the coming of Russians to Caucasus. Armenians supported Russians by all means during Russian - Iranian and Russian - Turkish wars. Later on, as a compensation for that Armenians got from Russians everything they wanted. Armenians were empowered to be leaders in Turkish cities, regions and villages occupied by the army of the Tzar. Misusing given authorities to Armenians, they began to pursue a policy of genocide.

At the beginning of XIX century peace agreements were concluded between Russia and Turkey and Russia and Iran. Soon 86.000 ethnic Armenians from Turkey and 40.000 ethnic Armenians from Iran migrated to our territories — Western Azerbaijan presently named Armenia. A region was also conferred to Armenians who settled on the territories of Iravan, Nakhchivan and Karabakh Khanates. Later, several times Russian writer A. Griboyedov, who played a prominent role in the sphere of resettlement of Armenians in Caucasus mentioned Armenians as a treacherous nation. It seems that, Russians guessed the prime purpose of Armenians at first. That is why in 1846 while establishing a province governing method the Armenian region was abolished.

We could divide a policy of Armenians in Caucasus into two stages (lasting from beginning of XIX century till now): - from 20-30s to 80-90s strengthening of their positions on the territories of Azerbaijan; - beginning from 90s of the X I X century — claiming to the territories of Turkey and Azerbaijan.

Another issue is too very important. On Caucasus in 1887 Armenians created "Gnchak" Party and in 1890 "Dashnaktsutun" Party. From that time their territorial claims systematically increased. Armenians used every possible means to make true their idea of creation of the "Great Armenia" in the Eastern provinces of the Osman Empire and on Caucasus populated by Turks and Azeris.

In 1905-1906 they committed massacre in Baku. Later a Governor of Elizavetpol wrote in one of his letters that Armenians misused a chance and established borders on the territories of Azerbaijan where they lived together with Muslims. In some places they even exiled Muslims and populated their lands by Armenians migrated from Iran and Turkey. In 1906 a meeting of the Azeri and Armenian representatives was held. This meeting chaired by I. Vorontsov-Dashkov discussed issues of reconciliation. While opening meeting I. Vorontsov-Dashkov proposed not to look for guilty parties. There is an interesting fact that in 1988 M.S.Gorbachev, ex-leader of the USSR said the same words while opening a meeting. The Armenians were always in guilty. But they had always been justified.

The World War I gave the best opportunities for Armenians to make their ideas true. A participation of Turkey in that War and the opening of Eastern front gave a chance to Armenians to do everything they wanted. Russian troops of Eastern front that consisted of many Armenian groupings and divisions battled against Turks. As a preventive and protective measures leadership of Osmanly government forced to move aggressive Armenians from front Sine of Eastern Anadolu to the other places of the Empire. Armenians presented those measures like a policy of genocide and launched an agitation campaign against Turks worldwide. That campaign is still in force.

A collapse of Tzarism in Russia and a victory of the October Revolution gave a new impulse to the idea of Armenians to establish their own state. Eastern front was full of Armenian soldiers after Russia had left the war. Even during the war Armenians stole a lot of ammunitions and guns and transmitted everything confidentially to the territories of Azerbaijan, concentrating it mainly in Karabakh and Shamakhy. S. Shaumyan was appointed by V. Lenin as a Commissioner for Caucasus. Thus, S.Shaumyan came in Tiflis and was forced to leave the city in the same day. Nevertheless, in Baku Shaumyan was welcomed and even elected a Chairman of the Council of People's Representatives. Using his post Shaumyan did not permit to disarm Armenian dashnak groups coming back from front to Baku. It were the same Armenian groups which in March 1918 massacred Azeris. Shaumyan headed 6.000 soldiers and officers. Dashnaks headed 4.600 of them. It is necessary to point out that 70—80% of Soviet Army troops invaded in Baku in January 1990 comprised Armenians. In I918 Armenians saw a good possibility to occupy Baku. They began to look for suitable reasons to make their plans true. A long-lasting process of negotiations was held. Azeris did not want to be involved into a military conflict with Armenians. Finally, Armenians found a reason using an accidental death of a son of Zeynalabdin Tagiyev. They ordered to disarm representatives of Muslim division coming back from mentioned funeral in Baku. Representatives of division did not want to be disarmed. It was a weighty reason for Armenians to began comprehensive massacre of Azeris in Baku. At the same time Armenians attacked Azeris in the Garabag region and other regions of Azerbaijan.

Our archives has "Events of March" book of Mammad Muradzade. During that period he was 17 or 18 years old. This book published in 1919 is very heart-touching. An author describes in an expressive way all scenes he witnessed. Armenians murdered his father and uncle at first. Then they killed his relatives. This young gentleman together with his two brothers could survive in a house of Jewish man. After conciliation on April 1 he began to look for his mother and reach Mayilov Theatre. Among persons leaving the Theatre author saw his mother. He followed her along a street full of Armenians. They were asking whether they became the possessors of Caucasus or not. It was not possible to suffer such insulting words of Armenians - the minority of the Baku population. In Baku Armenians created such conditions that did not give possibilities for some civilians to find out corpses of their relatives. A blood of innocent Azeris was like a puddle in the streets. In his book author blames ourselves, because

Azeris themselves have always been trusting Armenians. It is a fact that Armenian killers were headed by Shaumyan. Along with accidents in Baku Armenians committed outrageous crimes in Shamakhy as well. The greatest number of persons murdered by Armenians belongs to Shamakhy. Shamakhy city was completely destroyed. Its 86 villages out of 120 were completely destroyed too. Our archives has a documents prepared by Ad - hoc Research Commission. These documents indicate exact numbers of persons murdered in villages of Shamakhy. A number of civilians murdered in 53 villages is about 10.000. Exact number of those killed in Shamakhy was not defined. After 1920 different numbers are given in immigration literature. One source informs about 12.000 killed Azeris, another one about 17.000. There even were such families in Shamakhy that were completely murdered.

After Shamakhy Armenian gunmen moved towards Guba. S. Shaumyan had ordered to bolshevik Korganov and the last one sent 2000 armed Armenians headed by dashnak Amazaspan to Guba. They committed many crimes and killed thousands Azeris.

Later on, severe atrocities against Azeris were committed by Armenians in Zangazur and Karabakh. Before October -November 1918 Armenians killed 10.000 persons in Zangazur and destroyed many Azeri villages.

First Decree of newly established Azerbaijan People's Power (Jumhuriyyat) was devoted to the creation of Ad - hoc Commission aimed at investigation of crimes committed against Azeris during the World War 1st. On August 31, 1918 such Commission was established. It began its activities headed by Alakbar bay Khasmatov. Later on the Commission sent to the delegation of Azerbaijan in Paris 95 photos and 6 volumes of investigation materials. Unfortunately, neither those materials nor photos survived. During its activities Ad-hoc Investigating Commission prepared 36 volumes (more than 3500 papers) of investigating materials. Majority of those materials are being kept in our archives.

After incidents in Guba, the head of the city met with A. Japaridze and S. Shaumyan. Giving the explanations he said that Japaridze was informed in details of those incidents. He gave serious attention to mentioned issues. S. Shaumyan's attitude was with mockery. He considered a death of 5-6 Muslims as a nothing serious.

Ad-hoc Commission on Investigation prepared papers necessary to institute criminal proceedings against Armenians guilty in different crimes against Azeris. But later on all investigations on national conflicts were over. It was done because of amnesty proclaimed by Jumhuriyyat Parliament with an aim of the de-facto recognition of Azerbaijan at the Paris Peace Conference in January 1920. A victory of the Soviet Power in Transcaucasia gave nice possibilities for Armenians to misappropriate territories of Azerbaijan.

In Soviet times Armenians had always been pursuing two purposes. The first one was to force Azeris to migrate from present Armenian territories. The second one was to increase their own land on the account of the territories of Azerbaijan. Both of their ideas were successful.

All our new troubles are caused by our short memory. Azeris forget very quickly their past tragedies. We completely forgot tragedy of March 1918 and other incidents. We should not delete from our memory occurred tragedies in order to prevent the future ones.

Corresponding Decrees of Mr. Heydar Aliyev, our President (from December 18, 1997 and from March 26, 1998) arc of great importance. Those Decrees are our instructions. They embrace all spheres of necessary work to be done. I think that one of our main commitments is to inform the world community about tragedies of Azeris and to expose a real nature of Armenians.

The Real Genocide of the Armenian people

There was indeed a genocide of the Armenian people. As Sam Weems explains, from his "Armenia: Secrets of a 'Christian' Terrorist State"; using the history of Richard Hovannissian as a basis: The real Armenian genocide was caused by the Armenian peoples' "own dictator leaders."

Is this a fair assessment? Consider: The Armenian Republic was established in 1918, and there were problems of tremendous magnitude. Instead of attending to the much needed task of nation building and care of the many who who were suffering beyond belief, the fanatical leaders pursued their own direction of greed, immediately and opportunistically seeking others' lands. They attacked Georgia. They attacked Azerbaijan. They provoked Turkey and prepared for an attack (as Armenia's first prime minister, Hovhannes Katchaznoni outlined in his 1923 manifesto), at a time when warring should have been the last thing on their minds. Whatever resources that were to go to the people, the corrupt leaders evidently did what they could to line their own pockets. These are the factors that directly contributed to Hovannisian's conclusion: "In 1919, for each 1000 persons in Armenia there were 8.7 births and 204.2 deaths, a net loss of 195.5. It was verily a land of death."

From Chapter Five (with material immediately preceding to be found here), Armenians Seek Free Handouts From the Christian World; the book referred to is Richard G. Hovannisian's The Republic of Armenia, Volume I, University of California.

The first winter was especially hard. The Armenian people suffered greatly. Hovannissian notes: "The chaotic situation in Armenia was intensified by the presence of approximately 500,000 refugees."(P126) This number is confirmed by reports of American and British officials as well as by relief workers.

Hovannissian continues: "These figures do not include the additional thousands who had found temporary sanctuary in Zangezura and Karabagh, Georgia, the North Caucasus and the steppe lands of Russia.”(P127) In addition, this number did not include the many thousands of Armenian refugees in the Arab world.

Again, the Armenian numbers do not add up. If 1 million Armenians were removed from the Ottoman combat zones -- if 500,000 went to Armenia, if there were additional many thousands of Armenian refugees in other places, if thousands of Armenian women were taken into Muslim households — just how can Armenians claim genocide of 1.5 million of their people? Based on Armenian history Professor Richard G. Hovannissian’s numbers, the alleged 1.5 million Armenian genocide just could not have happened.

The actual facts do prove the Armenian people suffered unimaginable horror; thanks to the selfish decisions made by their leaders in starting: a civil war in the Ottoman Empire; an attempt to start a civil war in Georgia; and an attempt to begin a civil war in Azerbaijan.

This was the true genocide of the Armenian people, that caused by their own dictator leaders.

Hovannissian reports the terror experienced by the Armenian people:

The winter of 1918-19 was one of the longest and most severe in the annals of Erevan. The homeless masses, lacking food, clothing, and medicine, passed hellish months in blizzard conditions. The starving people sometimes demonstrated or rioted for food, but these sporadic outbursts were to no avail. The state granaries were empty. Allied officials who came to Erevan brought hope that before too long provisions would begin to arrive from abroad. Until that time the nation must persevere. But soon even this hope faded. An American eyewitness, overwhelmed by the misery, wrote: ‘A terrible population. Unspeakably filthy and tatterdemalion throngs; shelterless, death-stricken throngs milling from place to place; children crying aloud; women sobbing in broken inarticulate lamentation; men utterly hopeless and reduced to staggering weakness, heedless of the tears rolling down their dirt-streaked faces. As a picture of the Armenians most in evidence in Armenia I can think of nothing better than this, unless I turn to other kinds of mobs: Large numbers here and there, wide-eyed, eager hands outstretched in wolfish supplication; teeth bared in a ghastly grin that had long since ceased to be a smile — an emaciated, skin-stretched grin, fixed and uncontrollable.

The pitiful multitude lay in the snow, in partially destrayed buildings, on doorsteps of churches, eventually too weak to protest or even to beg any longer They lived in the land of stalking death; waiting with sunken face and swollen belly for the touch of that angel. And death came, delivering from anguish thousands upon thousands of refugees and native inhabitants alike.

Many who withstood the exposure and famine succumbed to the ravaging diseases that infested the derelict masses. Typhus was the major killer striking in every district and at every age group, taking its largest toll among the children. The phenomenon of death came to be both expected and accepted. The insensible bodies were gathered from the streets by the hundreds each week and covered in mass graves, often without mourner or final rites... that year in the capital alone some 19,000 people contracted the disease and nearly 10,000 died from the three-headed monster-exposure, famine, pestilence. (P127-128)

This was the true genocide of the Armenian people, that caused by their own dictator leaders. It was the self-appointed Armenian leaders who began the rebellion from within the Ottoman Empire that led to these terrible and horrible conditions.

"The burden of several hundred thousand unsheltered and unemployed refugees was enough in itself to cause an economic maelstrom. Even during normal times the land under the actual jur

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