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Revision as of 13:40, 17 January 2007 by Tabib (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The March Days or March Massacres refers to a period during the Russian Civil War from March to early April 1918 when ethnic Azerbaijanis were massacred by Armenian Dashnak and Bolshevik forces in Azerbaijan. The massacres took place first in Baku, then quickly spread to Shemakha, Guba, Lenkoran, Karabakh and Zangezur . Equating the Azeris with the Ottoman Turks, the Dashnaks began the massacre in revenge for the Armenian Genocide. Although not an isolated incident, given the participation of the Azerbaijanis during the Ottoman offensive on Armenia in early 1918, the March Days played a significant role in bringing pre-existing inter-ethnic tensions to the forefront of Armenian-Azeri relations. According to various sources a total of between 3,000 to 12,000 Muslims were killed during the violence in Baku alone. The greatest number of persons murdered by Armenians belongs to Shemakha. According to the Azerbaijani archival sources, the town was completely destroyed and the number of civilians murdered in 53 villages of Shemakha reached at least 10.000
After the proclamation of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR), the Azerbaijani Council of Ministers established a special commission on July 15, 1918 to investigate the atrocities. In 1919 and 1920, during its short-lived independence, the ADR Government marked March 31 as the national mourning day. On March 26, 1998 then Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev issued a decree "On the Genocide of the Azerbaijanis", which established March 31 as "The Day of the Genocide of the Azerbaijanis".
Less than six months later, in September 1918, in a period called September Days , Enver Pasha's Army of Islam supported by local Azeri forces recaptured Baku and subsequently killed an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 ethnic Armenians in retaliation.
See also
References
- ^ Template:Ru icon Michael Smith. Azerbaijan and Russia: Society and State: Traumatic Loss and Azerbaijani National Memory
- Written Declaration No. 324 "Recognition of the genocide perpetrated against the Azeri population by the Armenians", PACE
- ^ Michael P. Croissant. The Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict: Causes and Implications, p. 14. ISBN 0-275-96241-5
- Pashayev. Genocide of Azerbaijanis.
- Human Rights Watch. "Playing the 'Communal Card': Communal Violence and Human Rights"
- Croissant. Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict, p. 15.
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