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he was killed. Upon entering the town, the Armenians started merci-
lessly slaughtering the residents, anyone they came across, let it be
men, women or children.
According to the mullahs involved in burial procedure, 2800
dead bodies were buried during these days. Besides this, the Arme-
nians were actively involved in looting the residents’ personal assets.
Then they started setting fire on residential premises leaving 120
town’s best houses in ashes together with about 40 estates in or-
chards. Violence and atrocities by the Armenians lasted for ten days,
and then the Armenians urgently called back to Baku to be replaced
by the Georgians. The Georgians leaved with us peacefully, they never
hurt or affected us. Neither did the Russians offend us. The Georgians
stayed in Guba unless the Turks arrived. During the Georgians’ stay
in the area, someone Churayev was the Uyezd Commissar, so they
established a Council (Soviet) where I was a member too.
While retreating from Guba to Baku, the Armenians were ret-
reating from Guba to Baku, they plundered all Muslim residential
areas en route. By the way, when the Bolsheviks arrived, we requested
delegate Ghelovani to have no Armenians in a unit that was supposed
to overtake the town. Ghelovani promised to fulfill this, however, there
were Armenians there.
Speaking of separate cases of violence I could note the follo-
wing: an Armenian named Grigory, the family name unknown to me,
sold his hose in Guba to a local Muslim Mullah Shahballu. The son
of Grigory, name unknown to me either, was opposed to the sale. So
when the Armenians took over the town, Grigory’s son killed Mullah
Shaballu. Even upon my return to the town after the Armenians had
left, in the local cemetery I saw a dead body of a Guba resident Mu-
mammad Rasul Mahmud oghlu, his stomach ripped open, together
with dead bodies of his wife stabbed to death by a dagger and their
three beheaded children.
The Armenians were mainly outsiders, some of them Persian na-
tionals, however there were some local Armenians as well, such as
Arutyun, the mill owner, Mirza Amirjanov, owner of a crockery shop,
barber Jevad, They were also involved in murder, arson and loot. No
more Armenians that I am aware of.
The Armenians threatened to eradicate all Muslims for their Ar-
menian brothers killed by the Kurds in Turkey and the Caucasus. The
Documents on the Devastation of Guba
Witness Testimonies of Residents of the Town of Guba