“The Armenian village of Kelva is located at my landed estate. This vil-

lage has been never attacked by Muslims neither before, not after

these events, not a single resident was exposed to violence and not

a straw was stolen from Armenians by Muslims”. (132) A more de-

tailed testimony reads: “When some thugs started threatening the

Armenians, we made a stand for them, and while they were isolated

in properly guarded prison premises we were bringing them food. I

personally was feeding an Armenian merchant Mirza Amirjanov. In

response to this, the Armenians from Guba repaid us with treachery.

The matter is that long prior to the events described they sold out

all their movables and real estate and left Guba. When asked why

they were leaving they said they wanted to reside in Baku. Now we

understand the reason of their flight as they were aware of what their

Armenian brethren was planning to do to our town, and they never

warned us about this”. (133)

Brutalities of the Armenian gangs towards the innocent civilian

Muslim population of Guba do not fit into any human norms. Accor-

ding to some witness testimonies, “17 men captured in one household

were all executed to the very last person. Among these victims there

were a father and a son, the latter one married a week before. When

the Armenians wanted to murder him, the father offered them one

thousand rubles to spare his son. He was ready to be killed instead of

his son. The Armenian attackers got money and then murdered the

son in front of his father who was the last to be slain.” Another resi-

dent of Guba, Alipasha Kerbelai Maharram oghlu was ordered by the

Armenians to deliver money and girls. He refused. In response to that

his son was stabbed to death, with multiple bayonet hits to the eyes,

face and stomach, and the victim himself severely beaten. (134)

Murdering children in front of their parents was among the most

‘intricate’ methods employed by the Armenian gangsters, as one may

conclude from the following testimony: “Myself, my wife Hekuma Ker-

belai Jafar gyzy and two daughters, Hekuma, 14, and Busra, 6, were

enjoying tea at our home when the Armenians broke in and started

volleying fire at us. My daughter Hekuma was killed on the spot, I got

injured in my left shin, whereas my wife was wounded in her left wrist

and Busra in her left shoulder and leg. My wife grabbed and embo-

somed her. One of the Armenians got a dagger and slashed Busra’s

face all the way to the throat, so she fell down dead. My wife and

Events of 1918 in Guba in the Context of Plans for Mass Extermination

of Azerbaijan’s Muslim Population