Mass grave of Quba
The mass grave of Quba ( Azerbaijani Quba kütləvi məzarlığı) with the remains of over 200 Azerbaijanis is located in Quba , the north-eastern city of Azerbaijan , not far from the Qudyalçay River (German : Gudjaltschaj) . This was discovered during the construction of a new stadium in 2007. According to Azerbaijani sources, these were the victims during the March events of 1918 , when the armed Armenian forces under the command of Hamazasp Srwandzjan carried out a massacre of the residents of Quba. The total area of the mass grave is 514 square meters.
Historical background
The events of March 1918 are considered to be one of the most turbulent and sacrificed chapters in the history of Azerbaijan in the 20th century. From March 30 to April 3, 1918, around 12,000 Azerbaijanis were murdered by Bolshevik- Armenian troops because of their religion and ethnicity .
In July 1918, the then government of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan commissioned a special committee to investigate the exact background of the mass murder of the local population. The commission came to the conclusion that Stepan Shahumjan , the Armenian Bolshevik leader of the Baku commune , was the real mastermind behind the bloody action in Quba. Srwandzjan is said to have acted directly on the orders of Shahumjan. This version is also confirmed by the German historian and Caucasus researcher Jörg Baberwoski . According to him, on his arrival in Quba, Srwandzjan informed the townspeople that he had been sent to "destroy all Muslims from the coast of the sea to the Şahdağ Mountain". His unit was murdered and plundered across entire towns from Baku to Quba. According to Baberowski, up to 150 homes were destroyed in Quba alone and 122 Azerbaijani villages across the province.
Investigations and Responses
On April 13, 2007, the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan presented its first forensic report. It indicates the predominance of mixed bone fragments, which in turn shows that the people were first executed and then thrown into a pit with a depth of 2.5 to 5 meters. Of the 137 skeletons originally examined, 24 were from children and 28 from women. In addition to ethnic Azerbaijanis, Jews and Lesgians are also said to have been massacred. The Azerbaijani side claims to have identified the names of 81 murdered Jews.
In Armenia , the thesis of the Azerbaijani side was rejected. On the contrary, the Armenian historian Ajk Demojan took the view that the buried bones of those killed actually came from Armenian families who allegedly lived in the region at the time.
On December 30, 2009, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev issued a decree establishing the Genocide Memorial Complex at the site of the mass grave. This was inaugurated on September 18, 2013.
Literature and individual references
- ↑ Rüdiger Kipke: The Armenian-Azerbaijani Relationship and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict . Springer Verlag, Wiesbaden 2012, ISBN 978-3-531-18484-5 , pp. 23-24 .
- ↑ Jörg Baberowski: The enemy is everywhere. Stalinism in the Caucasus . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-421-05622-6 , pp. 141 .
- ↑ Комиссия, исследовавшая массовое захоронение в Губе, подтвердила принадлежноста останков остамцга останков останков остамцганасть останков востанков остамцганаг останков остамцганаганаг восмц. April 13, 2007, accessed January 13, 2020 (Russian).
- ↑ Rovshan Didavari: Mass grave found in northern Azerbaijan. 2007, accessed on January 13, 2020 .
- ↑ На месте "азербайджанского кладбища" в Губе могут быть захоронены армяне - историк. In: Tert.am. March 25, 2010, accessed January 13, 2020 (Russian).
- ^ Genocide Memorial Complex opened in Guba. September 18, 2013, accessed January 13, 2020 .