Quba mass grave - Misplaced Pages

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Guba mass grave is an alleged mass grave of victims of mass killings of Azerbaijani, Jewish, Lezgi civilians by Armenian Dashnaks and Bolsheviks during the March days of 1918 in Guba, Azerbaijan.

Discovery

A mass grave was discovered during the construction of a stadium in Guba on April 6, 2007. Upon the discovery, an expedition group was formed and an archeological excavation conducted. Bones of approximately 400-600 people, including those of over 50 children and 100 women, were uncovered. These civilians were killed on the orders of Bolshevik leader, ethnic Armenian Stepan Shahumian. The mass slaughter in Guba city and Guba uyezd of Baku Governorate was continuation of massacre of Azerbaijanis in Baku in the spring of 1918, as a result of strengthening of power of Bolsheviks and Dashnaks in Baku , . According to the reports of ADR Special Investigations Commission from July 1918, investigating war crimes against civilian population in the country, Armenian armed detachments under the command of Hamazasp Srvantstyan, sent to Guba in May 1918 by the chairman of Baku Soviet of Commissars, Stepan Shahumian, committed attrocities in the city of Guba and Muslim villages of Guba uyezd. According to the research, the general numbers of people killed by Armenian detachments in Guba city and 122 villages of Guba district the spring of 1918 are 3,000 and 16,000, respectively. Out of all killed, about 3,000 were of Jewish nationality. The facts had been presented by the leader of Azerbaijani Mountain Jews Semyon Ikhilov in 1980s.

Mass burial

Once the burial site was uncovered, a forensic expedition of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences was formed and sent to the location. On April 13, 2007, the first forensics report was released. According to the report, the fact that there are no intact sceletons testify that massacred civilians were first executed, dismembered and then thrown into the wells, 2.5 to 5 meters deep. The deepest wells had hundreds of human remains. The first finds reported 137 sceletons.

The archeological excavation works covering more than 500 sq miles were completed on September 5, 2008. Gahraman Agayev, the leader of the forensic expedition, reported that 2 main wells and 2 canals with human bones were uncovered. The finds indicate that 24 skulls were of children, 28 - of women of various ages. Besides ethnic Azerbaijanis killed were Jews and Lezgis. The names of 81 massacred Jewish civilians were found and confirmed.

In 2008 Lluís Maria De Puig, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, visited this mass cemetery commemorating the massacre of the peaceful population and said that he was horrified. Members of Diplomatic Academy of Germany, Kuwaiti government delegation as well as students from Oman, Yemen, Pakistan, Belarus, India, Israel, Korea and Turkey

Construction of a museum at the site of the mass grave is being planned. An initial amount of AZN 1 million will be allocated for the construction.