HISTORY THAT REPEATS ITSELF

They did not care who to kill - young or old, women or children. They were overwhelmed by only one thought: to kill a Muslim, a Turk!

The events of March 1918 in Azerbaijan were a bitter result of a detailed policy rooted in the distant past. Peter the Great, who carried out his first campaign in the Caucasus back in 1721 and occupied the Caspian territories of Azerbaijan, including Baku, 2 years later, met with resistance from local people. Resorting to a cunning trick, the tsar signed a decree to resettle Armenians to historical territories of Azerbaijan, including Baku. The Russian Empire intended to gain a foothold in the South Caucasus, and Armenians - to use it to create an Armenian state in the lands of Azerbaijan.

Under the treaties concluded after the Russian-Iranian wars of 1804-1813 (Treaty of Gulistan - 12 October 1813) and 1826-1828 (Treaty of Turkmanchay - 10 February 1828), Azerbaijan was divided into two parts - North Azerbaijan came under the jurisdiction of Russia, and South - under the jurisdiction of Persia. After that, the mass resettlement of Armenians to originally Azerbaijani lands began - Karabakh, Naxcivan, as well as Zangazur, Daralyayaz, Ordubad, Vedibasar and others areas on the territory of present-day Armenia. Since it did not help achieve numerical superiority over the Azerbaijanis, it was decided to resort to the extermination of the local population. For this purpose, they began to create Armenian armed detachments. In the early 20th century, especially in 1905-1907, Armenians massacred Azerbaijanis with unprecedented cruelty. Defeated and weakened by the First World War, the tsarist government failed to prevent political unrest and was overthrown by the February Revolution of 1917. October of that year saw another coup, and power in Russia was seized by the Bolsheviks.

After the October coup, power in the province of Baku was seized by the Baku Council led by Stepan Shaumyan, whom Lenin later appointed commissioner extraordinary for the Caucasus.

Back in January 1918, Shaumyan tried to organize a massacre of Azerbaijanis, but realized that he did not have enough strength and postponed the implementation of the plan.

After the Peace of Brest-Litovsk signed on 3 March 1918, some Russian and Armenian military units were deployed in Baku, and Shaumyan planned to use them to realize his goals. He mobilized all forces and was waiting for a good time. And it came...

Muhammad Tagiyev, the son of prominent philanthropist Haci Zeynalabdin Tagiyev, who served in the national army, was killed by Bolshevik-Dashnak detachments in March 1918 during the troubles in Lankaran. The funeral was scheduled for 27 March. On orders from Shaumyan, the 48 soldiers and officers who delivered Muhammad bay's body to Baku were disarmed and arrested. In protest against such actions, Azerbaijanis took to the streets. On the one hand, there were unarmed civilians, and on the other, a 15,000-strong army armed to its teeth... By the evening of 30 March, the first shots were fired in Baku.

The operation was conducted under a special plan. Under the slogan of the fight "against counter-revolutionary elements" and "anti-Soviet rebellion", the Bolshevik-Dashnak detachments began to carry out real genocide against the Turks. On the eve of these events, 7,000 Armenian soldiers were brought into the city. 70 per cent of the personnel of the 10,000-12,000-strong Red Guard under the command of Anastas Mikoyan were Armenians, who were particularly notable for their brutality in exterminating Azerbaijanis.

During the March massacre, the bodies of 57 Azerbaijani women with their noses and ears cut off and their bellies ripped open were found in one quarter of Baku alone. Young women and girls were nailed to the wall alive, and pregnant women were subjected to unspeakable torture, humiliation and abuse. The city hospital, where 2,000 civilians had taken refuge from the atrocities of the Armenians, was set on fire. A German named Kulner, who witnessed those terrible events in Baku, wrote in 1925 that during the March massacre, Armenians broke into Muslim (Azerbaijani) quarters, and shot people, hacked them with swords and stabbed them with bayonets. "The bodies of 87 Azerbaijanis who were found in a pit a few days after the massacre had their noses and ears cut off and bellies ripped open. Armenians spared neither children nor old people," Kulner recorded.

Nariman Narimanov also wrote about the atrocities of the Armenians: "Not only men but also pregnant women could not escape from the Dashnaks."

Early in the morning on 31 March, the Bolshevik-Dashnak forces began to attack the Muslim neighbourhoods of Karpicxana, Mammadli, etc. These neighbourhoods were bombed by planes from the air and shelled by warships from the sea. The Armenians tricked the Russians into believing that the Turks were killing their countrymen in Icari Sahar [Baku's oil town]. Learning that it was a lie, the sailors ceased fire. But it was too late. The death toll in the neighbourhoods that were aflame was uncountable...

The massacre continued on 1 April. Muslim shrines, schools, libraries and cultural institutions were destroyed. The most beautiful architectural monuments of Baku, the Ismailiyya building and the office of Kaspi newspaper, and 5,000 copies of the Holy Koran were set ablaze.

Unable to bear these atrocities, Azerbaijanis began to create voluntary self-defence militia units and resist the Baku Council. The forces were unequal. It was not possible to stop the atrocities perpetrated by the Bolshevik-Dashnak forces.

According to official sources, during the March genocide more than 12,000 (according to some sources - 15,000) Azerbaijanis were brutally killed in Baku alone, while tens of thousands went missing. The bodies of many killed Azerbaijanis were not found. According to eyewitnesses, the Armenians threw the bodies of those killed in burning houses and dumped them into the sea and pits to hide the traces of their crimes. The Bolshevik-Armenian detachments carried out massacres not only in Baku and its environs, but also in Samaxi, Quba, Xacmaz, Mugan, Lankaran, Haciqabul, Salyan, Zangazur, Karabakh, Naxcivan and other regions of Azerbaijan. During the genocide in these regions, over 50,000 Azerbaijanis were killed, and tens of thousands of people were driven from their homes.

The Armenians were preparing for an attack on Ganca. But the arrival of the Turkish army in Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijanis' fight to the death for their country's territorial integrity upset their plans.

The documents of the Commission of Inquiry, established on 15 July 1918, show that although a peace treaty was signed after the March massacre, Armenians continued to kill Azerbaijanis in the streets of Baku and on roads to surrounding villages until 15 September, dumping their bodies in oil wells and the sea. In 1919, the ADR parliament adopted a decision to declare 31 March a national day of mourning for Azerbaijanis.

The mass persecution of Azerbaijanis continued under the Soviets as well. In 1948-53, under the patronage of the Soviet authorities, Armenians secured the deportation of most Azerbaijanis living in the territory of modern Armenia.

In 1988, Armenia once again made territorial claims against Azerbaijan, and after several years, it occupied 20 per cent of its territory. Today the world community is well-aware of the genocide of Azerbaijanis in Xocali and the tragic events in Susa, Agdam, Agdara, Kalbacar, Lacin, Qubadli, Zangilan, and hundreds of other settlements captured by the Armenians.