Guba, April-May 1918. Documented Pogroms of the Muslims
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me crying and imploring the soldiers to spare me. I told the soldiers
that they can kill me, as I am almost a dead person, still a breadwin-
ner for the family of all the 8 persons they see around. The Armenian
soldiers did not murder me but they grabbed my overcoat, hat, suit
and boots. They also got my son’s jacket and suit. Also they looted
the basket full of brocade, silk cloth, gold and jewellery. I will provide
the list of valuables robbed with the request to attach it to the files of
the case. Cash worth 28 thousand rubles sewn into my wife’s arhaluk
(outer garment) was misappropriated by the Armenians too.
After being robbed, we headed towards Khyrdalan where peo-
ple told me to proceed to Sumgayit. I hired a cab for 50 rubles to
give us a ride to Sumgayit, In Sumgayit station, I came across my
fellow-traveler Karim Turab oghlu who loaned me 50 rubles to pay
the cabman. From Sumgayit to Khachmaz we travelled in wagons.
This was the next day, March 24, closer to the evening. The way from
Khachmaz to Guba was covered by horses. Having placed my family
in Guba, I returned to Baku, so the subsequent bloody events there
occurred in my absence.
On May 15 this year, in Bolshaya Morskaya Street in Baku a ran
into a Guba-besed Armenian Artyom Avanesov who told me of his in-
volvement in the punitive squad’s raids in Guba where he was tipping
off about local residents reportedly hostile towards Armenians. Hi-
dayat Shukur oghlu was one of them. He regretfully admitted that Hi-
dayat was not apprehended, however they got hold of his son, Mussa,
who was killed by the Armenians, whereas Hidayat’s wife was raped. “I
also wanted to burn down the house of your neighbor, Mammadgulu,
- Avanesov said, - but this could affect your home, so I abstained from
setting it ablaze”. After this conversation I rushed to Guba with my
Guba-based acquaintances I met at the Bolsheviks’ headquarters.
While in Guba, I learned all details of the Muslim’s carnage, I at-
tended the cemetery with 300 newly-dug graves. People said some
of the graves had 2, whereas some other ones 4-5 persons buried
together. An Armenian named Amazasp was in charge of the punitive
squad, whereas Artyom Avanesov was managing arsons in town. A lot
of people in Guba mentioned his name, like Kerbelai Alihusseyn (can’t
recall his father’s name), relative of Meshedi Nasir Ali oghlu, who told
me that he personally paid Artyom Avanesov 600 rubles at the porch
of a Guba-based Bolshevik Baghirov’s home to spare his household in