145
and girls. When he refused, his son was stabbed by bayonets to his
eyes, face and stomach. The father ended up being just beaten. The
whole household of Kerbelai Meshadi Taghy was slaughtered. The
only survivor out of the family of 14 was a kid who managed to hide
among dead bodies.
On the ninth day we sent our envoys to Amazasp again to
complain about his people who kept murders and looting going on.
Our group was headed by Mullah Hajjibaba Akhundzadeh. Amazasp
stretched his hand to greet him whereas the cleric kept his inside his
robe saying: “You are not and authority, you are not Bolsheviks, you are
thugs, rapists and robbers. We never resisted you. Why did you kill that
many people, and keep killing ever more?”
Amazasp replied: “We were ordered to massacre all Muslims from
the seashore to Mount Shahdagh, like we did it in Shirvan (Shemakha)
and to level your homes to the ground. However I spared you. Sorry,
mullah, during the war cases like this are unavoidable.”
The same day the Armenians left the town. It should be also no-
ted that while Amazasp was speaking to us, several Armenians broke
into the house of Demirchi Mammadali whose widow and daughter
were bemoaning their murdered husband and father, and raped the
girl. A screaming cry followed, so the rapists absconded. Amazasp
ordered to find them.
I saw some armed Armenians from Guba in Amazasp’s squad,
such as Arutyun, son of Karomez, with his own son, and the son
of Grigory, the one who had sold out his property in Guba several
months prior to the events. It was this Grigory who was telling us: “We
sell our houses to you but whom are you going to sell them to?”
All my personal assets worth of 15 thousand rubles were plun-
dered. There is nothing else I can say.
The only detail to add is that the raped daughter of Demirchi
Mammadali passed away.
Read aloud and signed by the witness in Arabic characters
Translated by E.Khanbudaghov (certified by a signature)
Signed by A.Novatski, the member of the Commission
Reference: SARA, f.1061, op.1, d.96, ll.47-49
Documents on the Devastation of Guba
Witness Testimonies of Residents of the Town of Guba