151
File No.66
Record of Examination
On this 19th 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: Zahra Youssuf gyzy (daughter of Youssuf), aged
20, a Guba resident, illiterate.
I am the mother of the boy just questioned by you, Ismayil Ker-
belai Mammadthaghy oghlu. Even before Guba’s takeover by the Ar-
menians we, the four families moved to my father’s orchard where we
all were staying with our personal assets. When the Armenians got
control over the town, about 15 persons armed with rifles and dag-
gers rushed to the place we stayed and with no reason or warning
murdered my father, my husband my two brothers and uncle Heybat.
They also stabbed my son Ismayil, so that he fell as a dead one.
Then the Armenians gathered us, the women, and pushed us to
the orchard where they started asking us where the Armenian women
were hidden. When we said we had no idea, they started screaming
obscenities about our faith and murdering us. He used his gun to
shoot me. The bullet hit an infant I had on my breast. So I fell down
with the dead baby. Then they stabbed me into breast by dagger.
They thought I’m dead, so they threw me into a ditch and covered me
with brushwood. I only left the place on the fourth day. The death toll
included my mother, my aunt, my younger brother Hajjiagha, his son
Heybat and 5-year-old Hassanagha. My son Ismayil survived showing
up wounded at the neighbor’s home on the fifth day.
The overall loss inflicted by the Armenians to me is 5 thousand
rubles. I have nothing to add to this.
Read aloud to the witness
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, l.59-59(reverse)
Documents on the Devastation of Guba
Witness Testimonies of Residents of the Town of Guba