Guba, April-May 1918. Documented Pogroms of the Muslims
32
“The town’s takeover was accompanied by the carnage of the
Muslim population and all sorts of atrocities towards it… 715 Muslims
were massacred in the downtown on the very first day, most of them
women and children. 1012 more people were slain in the town’s 1st
and 2nd precincts the next day, majority of them low-income population
and Persian nationals… Property of the Muslim residents was plun-
dered. According to the calculations made by public figures, the loot
of Amazasp’s unit included 4 million rubles cash and 4,5 million rubles
worth of gold, golden works, jewelry and gems, as well as other goods
and foodstuffs worth 25 million rubles. Besides this, 105 buildings and
residential premises were set ablaze by Amazasp’s unit in the town of
Guba, including premises of Muslim religious institutions. The overall
damage caused by arson was estimated at 100 million rubles”. (63)
The fact that the whole mission was of a purely punitive nature
and had nothing to do with any political goals, was beyond any doubt.
“Immediately after entering the town, the Armenian militants started
ruthlessly massacring local Muslims, women and children among them.
Having slain everyone they could find in the streets and squares they
were breaking into residential premises slaughtering whole families
where even infants were not spared. Dead bodies were left everywhere
to decompose. The massacre unleashed by the Armenians went un-
bridled for several days”. (64)
Several appeals by Aliabbasbey Alibeyov, the head of the town
administration, to Amazasp to allow collecting dead bodies were left
with no response. Only on the fourth day Armenian messengers called
the Muslim men to appear with white ribbons on their sleeves to bury
those murdered. A number of residents responded, however none of
them returned as they were all shot down, so the people started hiding
again. Dead bodies were left decomposing in the streets throughout
the whole period the Armenian militants’ stay in town, i.e. 9 days. (65)
Amazasp himself never denied the punitive nature of his troops’
actions. On the fourth day of his assault he ordered the residents of
Guba to gather in front of the mosque and addressed them saying
roughly the following: “I am originally from Erzerum. I’ve been figh-
ting the Turks for a long time. I am the hero of the Armenian nation and
the advocate of its interests. I was sent here with this punitive force to
avenge for the death of those Armenians who were killed here a couple
of weeks ago. Woe to you all when tomorrow I climb this mountain