Guba, April-May 1918. Documented Pogroms of the Muslims
132
File No.55
Record of Examination
On this 13th day of December, 1918, in Guba
Novatski, the member of the Ad Hoc Investigation Commission
established by the Government of Azerbaijan, examined the following
person as a witness, pursuant to the Criminal Court Regulations:
Witness: Meshadi Husseyngulu Baghirov, aged 44, a Guba
resident, literate.
Rumors were spread in Guba that the Armenians were advan-
cing. In the meantime they said they were not large in number and
that our Muslims will encircle and capture them all. No one in town
thought of resisting the Armenians.
Once in the afternoon when I was at home with my family and
my brother, I heart gunfire and cries. It appeared that the Armenians
had encircled the town and started bombarding it. Soon they ap-
peared in the streets killing Muslim men, women and children, set-
ting fire on houses and other structures. Several persons came to my
household, grabbed five horses, wheat, other movables and forced
my family, as many others, to bake bread for their soldiers. Several
days after, together with my brother I was convoyed to the mosque
where they were already keeping a lot of Muslims. There they posted
sentries to control us. We stayed in the mosque unless the Arme-
nians withdrew. I saw lots of dead bodies in the streets, particularly
in downtown. The dead bodies had multiple gun-shot and dagger
wounds. I can’t speak of the torture signs on the dead bodies as I did
not look at them too closely.
What I am aware of is the case when the Armenians claimed
money from Kerbelai Zeynalabdin, a local carpet dealer, and killed him
when he refused saying that he had no money. The Armenians were
mainly outsiders, unknown to me, however I spotted some armed Ar-
menians from Guba among them in the streets, such as Arutyun, the
butcher’s son, armed with a bomb, barber Jevad, Georgy’s son, son of
Yagub from Khachmaz. Meanwhile I did not see them killing people,
looting and plundering households.
Damage the Armenians inflicted to me personally is equal to
one hundred and five thousand rubles.