Guba, April-May 1918. Documented Pogroms of the Muslims
158
his command. The Lezghin residents of neighboring villages made
a revolt and kicked Ghelovani and his squad out of Guba. Several
days after, on May 1, a large Armenian unit led by Amazasp arrived in
town. They called themselves ‘Amazsp’s punitive unit’. We heard of the
unit’s approaching the town, so many people fled the town, others
had their families evacuated, me among them. However the majority
remained confident that these are the government troops not to be
involved in violence towards civilians. This was a blunder which many
of us paid a serious price for indeed. A lot of men, women and chil-
dren were slaughtered. Gunfire never ceased in the streets whereby
anyone found outdoors was slain.
I stayed at home alone. Shots, cries and whale were heard from
everywhere. The Armenians were breaking into houses and mas-
sacring the residents. I found refuge at my neighbor’s home where
many people were already hiding. I am aware of the case when 17
men were found by the Armenians in one households, all of them
executed to the last person. Among those victims, there were a father
and a son, the later one a one week’s newlywed. When the Armenians
wanted to kill him, the father offered to be killed instead of his son.
The Armenians grabbed the money he offered and then killed the son
in front of the father who was the last to be murdered.
In general, atrocities of the Armenians were totally unbridled.
Up to 300 men were murdered in that particular neighborhood (ma-
halle) alone. I was burying a number of victims. A lot of dead bodies
were mutilated, chopped by daggers with hands, noses and faced
slashed. Meanwhile the Armenians kept looting and plundering. For
good four days, the dead bodies remained uncollected in the streets,
households and courtyards. Decomposing bodies emitted a dreadful
stench.
The forth day seemed to be a bit quieter, so they even started
burying dead bodies. It also became known to me that Mullah Haj-
jibaba Akhundzadeh had already got the list of the 78 Muslim gilrs
raped by the Armenians. The parents and close kin are hiding these
miserable ones, reluctant to communicate anyone the disgrace that
had befallen them. This is our custom, the prevailing rules demand
this. Mullah Hajjibaba is in Baku at the moment, his whereabouts
there unknown to me.
At Mullah Hajjibaba’s home with quite a number of Muslims