BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 31. Azerbaijan’s
Foreign Ministry has issued a statement on March 31 - Day of
Genocide of Azerbaijanis, Trend reports.


"Today, 31 March – Day of Genocide of Azerbaijanis – marks the
108th anniversary of the atrocities committed by radical Armenian
groups against Azerbaijani people.


The massacres perpetrated in March 1918 by armed units of the
Baku Soviet, numbering approximately 6,000, together with around
4,000 members of the “Dashnaksutyun” party, constitute one of the
gravest manifestations of ethnic cleansing. Historical records,
including the disclosures by Stepan Shaumyan, then Extraordinary
Commissar of the Caucasus, attest that these acts, carried out
under the pretext of “combating counter-revolutionary forces,” were
in fact driven by ethnic hatred.


Tens of thousands of Azerbaijanis were killed as a result of
these crimes, which were carried out systematically in regions such
as Baku, Shamakhi, Guba, Garabagh, Zangezur, Nakhchivan, Shirvan,
and Iravan. In Quba alone, over 16,000 civilians were killed, and
167 settlements were destroyed. In addition to the mass killings of
civilians, religious and cultural sites belonging to the
Azerbaijani people, including mosques and historical monuments,
were deliberately targeted and annihilated.


Although, following the establishment of the Azerbaijan
Democratic Republic special institutions were set up to investigate
these events and raise awareness in the international community,
and 31 March was observed as a day of national mourning, the fall
of the Republic hindered the delivery of a political and legal
assessment of thesecrimes.


It was only after the restoration of Azerbaijan’s independence
that a proper political and legal assessment was rendered at the
state level, through the Decree on the “Genocide of Azerbaijanis”
dated 26 March 1998, signed by National Leader Heydar Aliyev.


This bloody policy of genocide at the beginning of the 20th
century was continued in subsequent periods, and towards the end of
the century it took on a systematic character with the mass
deportation of Azerbaijanis from the territory of present-day
Armenia, the massacres committed during the occupation of
Azerbaijan’s territories, especially the Khojaly genocide, and
other war crimes.


The people of Azerbaijan will never forget these tragic chapters
of its history.


On 31 March – Day of Genocide of Azerbaijanis, we commemorate
with deep sadness the dear memory of all our compatriots who became
victims of ethnic hatred and genocide. May Allah rest their souls
in peace!" the statement reads.