Guba, April-May 1918. Documented Pogroms of the Muslims
50
nian residents who were either personally active in pogroms or tip-
ping the Armenian militants from Amazasp’s squad.
Another evidence of the involvement or at least the awareness of
local Armenians regarding the forthcoming events may be concluded
from certain facts revealed by local Muslim residents in the course of
investigation. E.g. one of them testified: “I found out that as of March
1 of the present year, a lot of Armenian residents of Guba started
selling out their personal assets and real estate and leaving the area.
This happened to Alexander Melikov, Jevad Parsegov, Mirza Parsegov,
Magax Pogosov, Artashes Melikov, Nerses Sarumov, etc. When I asked
Alexander Melikov and Bagdasarov why they sell everything out and
leave they said: “Something is to happen between you and us, so the
Committee is calling us back”. (126)
Another witness stated: “I saw armed Armenians from Guba in
Amazasp’s gang, such as Arutyun, son of Karomez, with his own son, and
son of Gregory who had sold out all his property in Guba several months
prior to the events. The said Gregory used to tell the Muslims: “We have
sold our houses to you. So whom are you planning to sell them to?” (127)
Majority of Guba residents had hard times answering the inves-
tigators’ questions regarding “the reason of such an atrocious and
mass massacre of the Muslims by the Armenians”. However, when
local residents asked the Armenian soldiers the same question the
reported answer was either “a revenge for the Armenians killed by the
Turks and Kurds in Turkey and the Caucasus” or “retribution for the lo-
cal Armenians murdered during retreat of Ghelovani’s unit”, or, finally
“for what the Muslims did back in 1905”. (128) The latter ‘argument’
was particularly shocking for local residents unanimously stating that
“not a single Armenian suffered in Guba in 1905, not a single!” (129)
No matter how unfounded the reasoning of such a brutal atti-
tude towards the Muslim population by alien Armenian militants from
Amazasp’s gang was, what caused a true burst of indignation among
Guba residents was the stance of “their own Armenians” in this case.
E.g. one of the persons interviewed recalled: “Arutyun Mirzajanov, a
local Armenian from Guba I met at the mosque told me that should
the Armenians have murdered hundred times more Muslims, they still
would be short of what the Muslims had done to the Armenians”. (130)
This kind of reports were accompanied by testimonies like: “I shel-
tered four Armenians and three Russians fearful of Lezghins” (131) or