Interview with Rızvan Huseynov, historian and director of the Center for Caucasian History
Mr. Rizvan Huseynov. March 31 is celebrated with ceremonies throughout Azerbaijan to commemorate the “Genocide of the Azerbaijanis”. Could you briefly explain the background to what makes this date so important in the national consciousness of the Azerbaijani people?
During the First World War, there was heavy fighting between Ottoman and Russian troops on the Caucasus front of the Ottoman Empire. The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917, which brought Lenin to power, and the regime change in Russia marked the beginning of a very turbulent political period for the Caucasus. One of the consequences of the Bolshevik Revolution was that the Russian army was unable to hold the Caucasus Front and disbanded. With the collapse, a group of around 20,000 armed men, mainly consisting of Dashnak Armenians and Bolsheviks from the tsarist army, came to Azerbaijan under the command of Stepan Shumyan, who was of Armenian origin, with the aim of establishing a Bolshevik regime there. To this end, Shaumjan wanted to seize power in Baku, the capital of today’s Republic of Azerbaijan. This regime consisted mainly of Armenians, but also of a small number of Russians and Azerbaijani Turks.
One of the main goals of this regime was to annex the oil-rich territories of Azerbaijan to Bolshevik Russia. Under the command of Schaumjan, 20,000 men invaded Azerbaijan from the Caucasus front via Georgia and Armenia, committing numerous genocides along the way. At that time, Azerbaijan had not yet declared its independence and was part of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federal Republic together with Georgia and Armenia. Militarily, Azerbaijan was helplessly at the mercy of the advancing army, and the roving Armenian Dashnak militias and the irregularly advancing armed Bolshevik groups used the opportunity to commit massacres against the Azerbaijani civilian population. The attacks on the civilian population were not limited to the territory of today’s Republic of Azerbaijan. A group of militiamen under Shaumjan crossed the Aras River through Armenia and committed mass crimes of genocidal proportions in the region known as South Azerbaijan on the Astara-Lenkaran line, near the Caspian Sea. As a result, hundreds of villages across Azerbaijan were razed to the ground and, according to official estimates, almost half a million civilians were massacred in both North and South Azerbaijan.
The main goal of Bolshevik Russia was to bring the strategically important city of Baku under its influence. To this end, it deployed the Armenian Dashnak militias under the command of Shaumyan to expel the Muslim Azerbaijani population from Baku, which was cool to Bolshevik rule. Azerbaijan was to be subjugated to Bolshevik Russia both as a state and as a province. In order to gain control over the entire country, gruesome massacres were carried out in Baku, Lenkoran, Shamahi, Gubatli and above all in the Azerbaijani towns and villages along the Caspian Sea. Tens of thousands of civilians were massacred and hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis were driven from their homes. The aim of this ethnic cleansing was to settle Armenians in the depopulated areas in the future.
When Azerbaijan declared its independence on May 28, the country’s young leadership immediately established contact with the Ottoman government and agreed on a joint security policy. The Islamic Caucasian Army was founded specifically for the liberation of Azerbaijani territories from the Bolshevik-Dashnak yoke, a special intervention force in today’s parlance. This hastily assembled army from Anatolia marched into Azerbaijan at breakneck speed and, after a few clashes, inflicted heavy defeats on the Bolshevik and Dashnak militias. The victorious Islamic Caucasian army quickly advanced on Baku and liberated the city from the oppressive regime of Stepan Shaumyan on September 15, 1918, putting an end to the puppet government of the Bolshevik-Dashnak alliance. Stepan Shaumyan escaped across the Caspian Sea, was captured by the British in the deserts of Turkestan and executed for war crimes.
How have the massacres affected Azerbaijani society? Were other perpetrators ever brought to justice?
These events left deep scars in the soul of the Azerbaijani people. The shedding of so much blood and the cruel genocides sharpened the consciousness of the Azerbaijani people and led them to the conclusion that neither Britain nor France or Bolshevik Russia would protect them. These terrible experiences allowed the ideal of developing Azerbaijan into a free and strong state to mature into a concrete political goal, as a result of which the independent Republic of Azerbaijan was proclaimed on May 28 and Baku, the most devastated city, was declared the capital. During the eleven-month existence of the Azerbaijan People’s Republic, a commission of the country’s leading lawyers was formed to collect documents and information about the events of March 31. The work was intensified in the regions where the genocide took place, interviews were conducted with survivors of the massacres, photographs were taken and evidence was collected in a 35-volume archive.
On April 28, 1920, the commission’s work was interrupted or ended by the occupation of Azerbaijan by the Bolshevik forces. During the Bolshevik regime, the question of genocide was never raised and attempts were made to destroy the evidence as much as possible. After 1991, when Azerbaijan regained its independence, the work of the Enlightenment Commission was resumed, the documents smuggled to France were brought back to Azerbaijan and important studies were carried out.
For this reason, none of the perpetrators of March 31 were brought to justice except Schaumjan. Not only did their deeds go unpunished, but during the Soviet era the planners and executors of the genocide were even given high positions in the administration – a rather derisive act in retrospect.
How are the commemorations organized throughout the country?
After Azerbaijan regained its independence in 1991, the reappraisal of the events of March 31, 1918 under the rule of Heydar Aliyev was accelerated. In 1998, March 31, 1918 was declared an official day of remembrance for the genocide by parliamentary resolution. On this day, official ceremonies are held in every city, heads of state give public speeches, and every year people gather around the March 31 Genocide Memorial to remember those who died in the events. There is also a genocide museum in the town of Guba. Special events are also held here. There are no lessons in schools on this day and March 31 is celebrated as Genocide Day.
To what extent is the genocide of the Azerbaijani Turks known abroad? What efforts is the Azerbaijani state making to publicize this story internationally?
Azerbaijan celebrates this important day with ceremonies not only in its own country, but also in its diplomatic missions abroad and invites important local personalities to these events. In addition, numerous articles are published about the genocidal events of March 31, 1918.
In your opinion, have international historians dealt with the topic sufficiently? What are your expectations of the academic community?
Unfortunately, Western researchers have not paid enough attention to the genocide of March 31, 1918. Although works on this topic have been published in the USA, throughout Europe and in Russia, they are few and far between. Unfortunately, genocides against Muslims do not find much resonance in the Christian-oriented Western public.
The persecution of the Azerbaijani people seems to continue unabated. The occupation of Karabakh 30 years ago and the massacre carried out by the Armenian armed forces in Khojaly are also commemorated in connection with March 31?
In 1988, the first ethnic tensions arose between Armenians and Azerbaijani Turks in the Karabakh region, although the government in Moscow never withheld its support from the Armenian separatists. The Armenians were supported both logistically and in the form of weapons and ammunition, and the Armenian forces were even supported on a tactical level. It is known that Russians were also involved in the attacks on Azerbaijani villages. After some time, genocides took place in Karabakh. The best known is the Khojaly massacre on February 26, 1992. Before Khojaly, there were massacres in Karadagli, a larger village in this region. The violent and unresolved history of Armenia, which was never dealt with during the Soviet era, resurfaced in the collective memory of Azerbaijanis. The fact that Armenia was again the party that carried out the massacres revived the terrible days of the First World War. Azerbaijan, which was at the mercy of the Armenian armed forces at the time, was in a period of internal political turmoil in the early 1990s and had a poorly organized, inadequately equipped and largely inexperienced army. Once again, she seemed defenseless against militant Armenian irredentism. The Azerbaijani people once again realized that they always had to be on their guard against the desires of their Armenian neighbor.
The political perpetrators who committed mass crimes during the occupation of Karabakh, which lasted more than 30 years, are now being brought to justice in Azerbaijan. Who is currently being sued? What are Azerbaijan’s international legal initiatives?
The rapid defeat of Azerbaijan and the crushing defeat of the Armenian occupation forces within 44 days led to a rapid disintegration and chaos on the part of the separatist Armenian forces. The rapid advance of the Azerbaijani armed forces led to the arrest of bureaucrats involved in the illegal separatist leadership and the arrest of numerous people involved in the Khojaly genocide. At the same time, the Azerbaijani judiciary initiated the investigation process and was able to gather information and evidence from the arrested Armenian perpetrators about the mass graves dug during the occupation of Karabakh and the fate of Azerbaijani citizens whose whereabouts are unknown.
Investigations are underway and all those involved in the massacres will have to answer for their actions in court.
Mr. Huseynov, thank you for the interview.