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The Guba mass grave is a mass grave site located in the town of Guba in northeastern Azerbaijan. It was discovered during the building of a stadium in April 2007.

Documentation

Andrei F. Novatsky, a member of the Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry established during the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, issued a Report on mass killings in Guba by Armenians, which describes the massacre in details: "Early in the morning of May 1, 1918, the group, consisting mainly of Armenians, led by famous Dashnaksakan Hamazasp and his assistant Nikolai, besieged the city (Guba) and fired at it with rifles, machine guns and artillery. A terrible panic and confusion began. The militants entered the city almost without any resistance. The capture of the city was accompanied by the brutal beating of the Muslim population and unimaginable atrocities. Armenians brutally kill children, women and men on the streets; they broke into houses and killed all their families with unprecedented brutality. They even shot infants in their mothers' arms and cut them with daggers. For example, the family of Karbalai Mammad Tagi, a family of 14, was killed; Mammad Rasulu, a father of three whose belly was cut with a dagger and whose children were beheaded; the family of Haji Dadashbala Gasim, whose wife Mashadi Bibikhanim and son Abdul Gasim were set on fire in their homes; The family of Abuzar Mastan oglu of Karbala, whose two daughters, Hakim and Pusta, were cut in their mother's breast; The family of Mashadi Gambar Molla-Muhammad Saleh oglu, who was killed along with several children, can be mentioned... There were many cases of humiliation and torture by Armenian gangs attacking the city; for example, the soldiers ordered the esteemed elders to bring Muslim women for themselves. Because they refused to obey such orders, Alipasha Karbalai Maharram oglu was killed along with his son, and the most horrible thing was that first they cut out his son's eyes, cut his face and tore his stomach in front of his father. The total number of women, men and children killed was around 2 000. Armenians raped about a hundred Muslim women and girls, whose names were withheld by their relatives. Muslim property was looted. According to public figures, 4 million cash, 4 million 5 hundred thousand worth gold and gold items, precious stones, food stocks worth 25 million rubles and various goods were looted and transported by Armenians in Guba by Hamazasp's gangs... Hamazasp's gang burned and looted 122 Muslim villages in Guba district."

At the end of the report, Novatsky suggests that a criminal case must be open against Hamazasp, his assistant Nikolai, Commissioner Venuns Harutyun, Ayrapetov, Javad, Avakov, Amirjanov, and others, who destroyed the city of Guba, and they should be charged under Articles 13, 129, 927, 1633, 1453, 1607 of the Code of Laws. Shaumyan and Karganov, former commissioners who ordered the massacre in Guba, should not be prosecuted in connection with their deaths.

Investigation

Once the burial site was uncovered, the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences dispatched a forensic expedition to the location. The expedition released its first forensics report on April 13, 2007, stating that the preponderance of commingled skeletal remains suggests that the people were first executed and then thrown into wells, 2.5 to 5 meters deep. Gahraman Agayev, the leader of the forensic expedition, followed up on this by reporting the discovery of two main wells and two canals with human bones. The research has discovered the remains of more than 400 people belonging to different age groups in the grave. Of these, 50 belong to children, more than 100 to women and others mainly to elderly men. It has been established that along with Azerbaijanis the mass grave contains the remains of brutally murdered Lezgis, Jews, Tats and other ethnic groups living in Guba. The names of 81 massacred Jewish civilians were found and confirmed.

Reactions

In response to the mass grave discovery, Levon Yepiskoposyan, supervisor of Human Genetics at the Institute of Molecular Biology in the Armenian National Academy of Sciences and president of the Armenian Anthropological Society, and Hayk Kotanjian, President of the Association of Political Science at the Ministry Doctor of Political Sciences, sent letters urging the President of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan, Mahmud Kerimov, to form a joint committee to examine the remains found. As of 2013, those letters have not received a response from Azerbaijani officials.

Legacy

On September 18, 2013, President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan inaugurated the Guba Genocide Memorial Complex.

In October 2013, a French Senate delegation headed by senator Nathalie Goulet visited the site and a Kuwaiti government delegation has also visited the site.

See also

• March Days

References

1. http://files.preslib.az/site/soyqirim/31mart_az.pdf p.116
2. Guba, April-May 1918 Documented Pogroms of the Muslims. Baku: 2013, 292 p. https://www.academia.edu/36012151/Guba_April_May_1918_Documented_Pogroms_of_the_Muslims_Roustamova_Tohidi_Solmaz_Guba_April_May_1918_Documented_Pogroms_of_the_Muslims_Baku_2013_292_pages
3. "Б. Сафаров. Установить всех жертв поименно не удастся". Эхо. Archived from the original on August 15, 2011. Retrieved June 9, 2011.
4. https://web.archive.org/web/20130923063640/http://en.president.az/articles/9346
5. "Mass Grave Found in Northern Azerbaijan". Visions. Spring 2007. Archived from the original on March 10, 2016. Retrieved July 9, 2016.
6. Армянские политологи против политики ксенофобии Ильхама Алиева: кто же захоронен в Губе? (in Russian). Regnum. 2 November 2012. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
7. "Genocide Memorial Complex opened in Guba". www.news.az. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
8. "French senators visit Guba Genocide Memorial Complex".
9. "KUWAITI DELEGATION VISITS GUBA MASS GRAVE". azertag. April 15, 2010. Retrieved February 29, 2016.

External links

• Museum to be established in mass grave of Guba
• Genocide Museum to be built in Guba
• Museum to be constructed in place of Guba mass grave
• Photo

41°21′40″N 48°29′30″E / 41.36111°N 48.49167°E / 41.36111; 48.49167

• Mass graves
• Massacres in Azerbaijan