Habil Bayramlı

Guba Genocide Mass Grave

The mas grave was opened while doing ground works on 1 April.2007. As a result of the primary research carried out by the Institute of Archaelogy and Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan from 8 to 11 April,2007 it has been revealed that the site is a burial place of the local innocent civilians massacred by the Armenians in 1918. To provide a more complete axplanation to the problem the Science Board of the Insituteof Archaelogy and Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan recommended thorough archaeological investigations the mass grave. A staff of 7 researchers of the Insitute of Archaelogy and Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan began investigating the place in June.2007 and completed it in September,2008. The total area of the site is 514 square meters.494 square meters of the site have been researched,20 square meters of the place have been kept for the international research,to be on the safe side. As a result of the archaeological excavations two wells and two ditches(channels) filled with corpses were found. Exhumationsclaimed that all the victims were murdered cruelly and inhumanely withcold and dull instruments.So the number of the murdered was discovered by counting the skulls. It has been found out that all the remains of the mass grave belong to the Azerbaijanis and members of other ethnic minorities such as lezgins,jews,tats,avars and others living compactly in Guba. Researches have revealed more than 400 skeletal human remains.(The number of the corpses in well has been approximately estimated.)It is a great pity that ore of the wells has been destroyed by a landslip.More than 50 of skeletal human remains are of children of different ages.Over 100 beleng to women and the rest mostly belong to old men. On the basis of historical researches and archive materials it has been identified that in 1918? At the end of April a special “torture regiment”of 2000soldiers instructed by Stephan Shaumyan, the commissar of the then Soviet of People Commssars and given special order by Korganov,a military commissar was sent to Guba Region.The “torture regiment” a commanded by the Armenian generaj Hamazasp.On the basis of archive materials it has been discovered than through April and May only in Guba Region 16782 civilians were murdered.122 villages were completelydestroyed.The houses of 380 families were burnt down to ashes while they were asleep. In the town of Guba 259 houses were burnt down,1800 children over 2000 old men women were murdered by the Armenian butchers. Part of them buried in the mass grawe which was found accidentally.