Guba mass grave
Encyclopedia
Guba mass grave is an alleged mass grave
of victims of mass killings of Azerbaijani
, Jewish, Lezgi civilians by Armenian Dashnaks
and Bolsheviks during the March days
of 1918 in Guba
, Azerbaijan
.
leader, ethnic Armenian Stepan Shahumian. The mass slaughter in Guba city and Guba uyezd
(district) of Baku Governorate
was a continuation of the March Days
, a series of massacres of Azerbaijanis in Baku in the spring of 1918. These massacres were largely an abuse of the growing power of the Bolsheviks and Dashnaks in Baku http://books.google.com/books?id=-sMebBFl2twC&pg=PA173&dq=Guba#v=onepage&q=Guba&f=false, http://books.google.com/books?id=Lzi4N-74QmAC&pg=PA36&dq=Guba#v=onepage&q=Guba&f=false. According to the reports of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
(ADR) Special Investigations Commission from July 1918, which investigated war crimes against the rural civilian population, Armenian armed detachments under the command of Hamazasp Srvantstyan were sent to Guba in May 1918 by the chairman of the Baku Soviet of Commissars, Stepan Shahumian, and committed atrocities in the city of Guba and in Muslim villages of Guba uyezd. According to the research, the approximate numbers of people killed by the Armenian detachments in Guba city and in the 122 villages of Guba district in the spring of 1918 are 3,000 and 16,000, respectively. Out of all killed, about 3,000 were of Jewish ethnicity. This information was presented by the leader of the Azerbaijani Mountain Jews
, Semyon Ikhilov, in the 1980s.
was formed and sent to the location. On April 13, 2007, the first forensics report was released. According to the report, the preponderance of commingled skeletal remains suggests that the massacred civilians were first executed and then thrown into the wells, 2.5 to 5 meters deep. The deepest wells had hundreds of human remains. The first finds reported 137 skeletons.
The archeological excavation works covered more than 500 sq miles and were completed on September 5, 2008. Gahraman Agayev, the leader of the forensic expedition, reported that two main wells and two canals with human bones were uncovered. The finds indicate that 24 skulls were of children, 28 were of women of various ages. Besides ethnic Azerbaijanis, there were also Jews and Lezgis. The names of 81 massacred Jewish civilians were found and confirmed.
In 2008 Lluís Maria De Puig, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
, visited this mass cemetery commemorating the massacre and said that he was horrified. Members of the Diplomatic Academy of Germany, a Kuwaiti government delegation as well as students from Oman
, Yemen
, Pakistan
, Belarus
, India
, Israel
, Korea
and Turkey
Construction of a museum at the site of the mass grave is being planned. An initial amount of 1 million Azerbaijani manat
(AZN) will be allocated for the construction.
wrote a letter telling about the massacre but no letter has been publicized.
Contrary to the Azerbaijani claims, there is a telegram in the Armenian archives written in late April 1918 by commissioner of the city and region of Guba Gelovani to the Chairman of the Military Revolutionary Committee Korganova which reads: "Today, 24 April, I delivered 115 of the Armenians who were imprisoned in Guba prison. They all lost their property. I made arrangements to return their property. They requested financial assistance from the Armenian National Council. As soon as possible send to my address. ... the critical financial state than the City Lip other places, too, is captured by Armenians. take steps to secure their release." This telegram was published in Arev on April 27, 1918. Other archival material shows the brutal murder of wealthy Armenian families in Guba city, and among those killed were children (during the excavation the skeletons of four children were found).
Mass grave
A mass grave is a grave containing multiple number of human corpses, which may or may not be identified prior to burial. There is no strict definition of the minimum number of bodies required to constitute a mass grave, although the United Nations defines a mass grave as a burial site which...
of victims of mass killings of Azerbaijani
Azerbaijani people
The Azerbaijanis are a Turkic-speaking people living mainly in northwestern Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan, as well as in the neighbourhood states, Georgia, Russia and formerly Armenia. Commonly referred to as Azeris or Azerbaijani Turks , they also live in a wider area from the Caucasus to...
, Jewish, Lezgi civilians by Armenian Dashnaks
Armenian Revolutionary Federation
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation is an Armenian political party founded in Tiflis in 1890 by Christapor Mikaelian, Stepan Zorian, and Simon Zavarian...
and Bolsheviks during the March days
March Days
The March Days, or March Events, refer to an inter-ethnic strife and massacres of up to 12,000 Azerbaijanis and other Muslims that took place between March 30 and April 2, 1918 in the city of Baku and adjacent areas of the Baku Governorate of Russian Empire.Facilitated by a political power struggle...
of 1918 in Guba
Quba
Quba is a rayon in northeastern Azerbaijan. The capital is located on the Kudyal River at 41.37°N, 48.50°E....
, Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
.
Discovery
A mass grave was discovered during the construction of a stadium in Guba on April 6, 2007. Upon the discovery, an expedition group was formed and an archeological excavation conducted. Bones of approximately 400-600 people, including those of over 50 children and 100 women, were uncovered. These civilians were killed on the orders of BolshevikBolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
leader, ethnic Armenian Stepan Shahumian. The mass slaughter in Guba city and Guba uyezd
Uyezd
Uyezd or uezd was an administrative subdivision of Rus', Muscovy, Russian Empire, and the early Russian SFSR which was in use from the 13th century. Uyezds for most of the history in Russia were a secondary-level of administrative division...
(district) of Baku Governorate
Baku Governorate
Baku Governorate was one of the guberniyas of the Russian Empire, with its centre in Baku. Area : 34,4000 sq. verstas, population : 789,659. The only foreign border of the governorate was Persia, in the south...
was a continuation of the March Days
March Days
The March Days, or March Events, refer to an inter-ethnic strife and massacres of up to 12,000 Azerbaijanis and other Muslims that took place between March 30 and April 2, 1918 in the city of Baku and adjacent areas of the Baku Governorate of Russian Empire.Facilitated by a political power struggle...
, a series of massacres of Azerbaijanis in Baku in the spring of 1918. These massacres were largely an abuse of the growing power of the Bolsheviks and Dashnaks in Baku http://books.google.com/books?id=-sMebBFl2twC&pg=PA173&dq=Guba#v=onepage&q=Guba&f=false, http://books.google.com/books?id=Lzi4N-74QmAC&pg=PA36&dq=Guba#v=onepage&q=Guba&f=false. According to the reports of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was the first successful attempt to establish a democratic and secular republic in the Muslim world . The ADR was founded on May 28, 1918 after the collapse of the Russian Empire that began with the Russian Revolution of 1917 by Azerbaijani National Council in...
(ADR) Special Investigations Commission from July 1918, which investigated war crimes against the rural civilian population, Armenian armed detachments under the command of Hamazasp Srvantstyan were sent to Guba in May 1918 by the chairman of the Baku Soviet of Commissars, Stepan Shahumian, and committed atrocities in the city of Guba and in Muslim villages of Guba uyezd. According to the research, the approximate numbers of people killed by the Armenian detachments in Guba city and in the 122 villages of Guba district in the spring of 1918 are 3,000 and 16,000, respectively. Out of all killed, about 3,000 were of Jewish ethnicity. This information was presented by the leader of the Azerbaijani Mountain Jews
Mountain Jews
Highland Jews, Mountain Jews or Kavkazi Jews also known as Juvuro or Juhuro, are Jews of the eastern Caucasus, mainly of Azerbaijan and Dagestan. They are also known as Caucasus Jews, Caucasian Jews, or less commonly East Caucasian Jews, because the majority of these Jews settled the eastern part...
, Semyon Ikhilov, in the 1980s.
Mass burial
Once the burial site was uncovered, a forensic expedition of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of Azerbaijan National Academy of SciencesAzerbaijan National Academy of Sciences
Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences , located in Baku, is the main state research organization in Azerbaijan...
was formed and sent to the location. On April 13, 2007, the first forensics report was released. According to the report, the preponderance of commingled skeletal remains suggests that the massacred civilians were first executed and then thrown into the wells, 2.5 to 5 meters deep. The deepest wells had hundreds of human remains. The first finds reported 137 skeletons.
The archeological excavation works covered more than 500 sq miles and were completed on September 5, 2008. Gahraman Agayev, the leader of the forensic expedition, reported that two main wells and two canals with human bones were uncovered. The finds indicate that 24 skulls were of children, 28 were of women of various ages. Besides ethnic Azerbaijanis, there were also Jews and Lezgis. The names of 81 massacred Jewish civilians were found and confirmed.
In 2008 Lluís Maria De Puig, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe , which held its first session in Strasbourg on 10 August 1949, can be considered the oldest international parliamentary assembly with a pluralistic composition of democratically elected members of parliament established on the basis of an...
, visited this mass cemetery commemorating the massacre and said that he was horrified. Members of the Diplomatic Academy of Germany, a Kuwaiti government delegation as well as students from Oman
Oman
Oman , officially called the Sultanate of Oman , is an Arab state in southwest Asia on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by the United Arab Emirates to the northwest, Saudi Arabia to the west, and Yemen to the southwest. The coast is formed by the Arabian Sea on the...
, Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
and Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
Construction of a museum at the site of the mass grave is being planned. An initial amount of 1 million Azerbaijani manat
Azerbaijani manat
The Manat is the currency of Azerbaijan. It is subdivided into 100 qəpik. The word manat is borrowed from "moneta" which is pronounced as "maneta"...
(AZN) will be allocated for the construction.
Controversy
After discovery of the mass grave no tests were run on the skeletons to determine what group of people they belonged to. Azerbaijani Parliament Speaker Oktay Asadov ordered the director of the Institute of History, MP Yagub Mahmudov to attract foreign anthropologists to draw up an official document "about the massacre of Azerbaijanis at the beginning of last century, by the Armenians". However, foreign experts have not appeared, and the remains have not been subjected to peer evaluation to determine what ethnic group they belonged to. Without running any tests the leader of the expedition of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences Qahraman Aghayev came to the conclusion that the Armenians were responsible and claims studies have shown that "the massacre took place from 3 to 10 May". Aghayev also claims Stepan ShahumyanStepan Shahumyan
Stepan Gevorgi Shahumyan was a Bolshevist Russian communist politician and revolutionary active throughout the Caucasus. Shahumyan was an ethnic Armenian and his role as a leader of the Russian revolution in the Caucasus earned him the nickname of the "Caucasian Lenin", a reference to the leader...
wrote a letter telling about the massacre but no letter has been publicized.
Contrary to the Azerbaijani claims, there is a telegram in the Armenian archives written in late April 1918 by commissioner of the city and region of Guba Gelovani to the Chairman of the Military Revolutionary Committee Korganova which reads: "Today, 24 April, I delivered 115 of the Armenians who were imprisoned in Guba prison. They all lost their property. I made arrangements to return their property. They requested financial assistance from the Armenian National Council. As soon as possible send to my address. ... the critical financial state than the City Lip other places, too, is captured by Armenians. take steps to secure their release." This telegram was published in Arev on April 27, 1918. Other archival material shows the brutal murder of wealthy Armenian families in Guba city, and among those killed were children (during the excavation the skeletons of four children were found).