Guba, April-May 1918. Documented Pogroms of the Muslims
52
myself fainted from the shock, however once my wife recovered she
started imploring the Armenians to kill her too, so that she won’t see
her daughters dead. The Armenians responded that they won’t kill her
just for one reason, as they wanted her to die thrice a day watching her
daughters’ dead bodies. They slightly stabbed her neck with a bayonet
causing some insignificant injuries and bashed me up”. (135)
Testimonies of kids who luckily survived these events are no
less bloodcurdling. Memories of 7-year-old Ismayil son of Kerbelai
Mammadtaghy speak for themselves: “When the Armenians came
into town, all our family hid out in the garden of our grandma Sitara.
About 15 Armenians armed with daggers and rifles bursted into the
place and started shooting, stabbing and slashing us all. They killed
my grandma Sitara, my grandpa Hajiagha, my father, my sister under
aged Soltannisse, my four-year-old brother Mammadpasha who was
an infant, my uncle Heybat and his 5-year-old son Gasym, uncle Ali-
mardan, uncle Aghababa, and aunt Jamilya. My mother was wounded
in her chest but survived. I was stabbed by dagger to my left shoulder
and fell among dead bodies pretending to be dead. There I stayed for
five days, however when the bodies started decaying I could no lon-
ger be there, so I went to the street and went to Hajji Mammadtaghy,
our neighbor. My mother stayed among dead bodies four days. She
did not know that I was alive, so she left four days after”. (136)
Investigation of pogroms in Guba and adjacent villages con-
ducted by A.F.Novatski, a member of the AHIC, with enormous sum-
mary of facts and evidence collected provided explanation of “such
an atrocious mass murder of Muslims by Armenians” through figuring
out the latter ones’ ultimate goal, i.e. “extermination of the Muslim
population, as well as plunder and destruction of their property”. (137)
The rationale “encouraging” Armenians to form “a criminal gang
several thousands strong, armed with cold weapons and firearms”
with a view to accomplishing the goal mentioned above was equal-
ly clear and exhaustive, i.e. “religious and tribal hostility towards the
Muslim population”. (138) The conclusion speaks for itself!
Needless to say, political assessment of the case examined was
far from being the goal of neither A.F.Novatski as investigator, nor the
Ad Hoc Investigation Committee in general. Their mission was purely
juridical, i.e. legal review of the events the causes of which went far be-
yond ethnic or confessional animosity, and the goals way beyond mere