Guba, April-May 1918. Documented Pogroms of the Muslims
136
for women worth about 6 million rubles. 200 Muslims were killed to
avenge each murdered Armenian and 75 Muslim women and girls
were raped for each raped Armenian. All assets stolen from the Ar-
menians were recovered and 90 households set ablaze. Ayrapetov
concluded his report saying: “The mission accomplished. Enough, it’s
time to go”. It was exactly the moment when houses were in flame
everywhere in town. 16 households and shops were in fire in Bazarna-
ya street alone. The food depot stored with sugar, tea and drapery
worth half a million rubles was set afire in me presence by the said
A.Ayrapetov and a crew of 12 artillery gunmen. On the 9th day, all as-
sets looted from the Muslims was loaded on carts and driven away
from Baghirov’s house under Ayrapetov’s control.
On the same 9th day when I applied to Amazasp again to get
permission to bury dead bodies, in front of me he applied to the lo-
cal Jews saying: “Woe unto you in an hour from now or at night as the
Muslims and Lezghins will attack and massacre you all”. This caused
a panic among the Jewish population, so about 6 thousand left the
town with the Armenians.
After the Armenian withdrawal, I started assessing the extent of
damage they inflicted to the whole population of the town of Guba.
What I figured out was 2 thousand Muslim residents, men, women
and children, were murdered, 105 households burned down four mil-
lion rubles stolen in cash, whereas the value of plundered gold, je-
wellery and diamonds was worth another 4,5 million rubles, arsons of
houses and other structures resulted in the loss equal to 100 million
rubles, whereas burglary and theft from warehouses and food depots
caused the detriment equal to 27 million rubles.
Some Guba residents of Armenian origin were in Amazasp’s
unit actively involved in the violent actions described above. These
were barber Jevad Arutyunov, the son of fish farmer Avakov (name is
not known to me), the nephew of the same Avakov (name unknown),
nephews of merchant Mirza Amirjanov, the Amirjanov students
(names unknown), Melikov, the tavern (dukhan) owner. Along with the
Armenians, some Russians and Jewish squad members were involved
in the atrocities mentioned above.
A noteworthy detail is that as of March 1 this year, a number of
Armenian residents of Guba started selling out their real and mov-
able estate in Guba and leaving the town. Among those who sold