the following: “…back in 1918, together with Uzun Hajji (i.e. Najmuddin

Gotsinski – S.R-T.) he was in charge of an advance of counterrevolu-

tionary forces towards the city of Baku via Khyrdalan station. Upon the

failure of the advance in question and due to the Soviet regime being

established in Guba Uyezd, A.Zizikski stirred up a rebellion resulting in

takeover of the town of Guba, annihilation of a Red Army unit, mas-

sacre of the Armenian population and death of a large number of in-

nocent Guba residents, exclusively the most impoverished one”. (194)

The GIU performed the task by interrogating 7 witnesses on July

16-19, 1928 and dispatched the records to Baku. On July 28, 1928,

another letter was received from Baku indicating that the files dis-

patched were valuable but insufficient. The letter provided the name

of a specific person with the request to interview “him and the per-

sons he finds necessary who may provide this evidence or another”,

all together numbering 10. The importance of timely execution of

this task was stressed in the letter’s conclusion as “the case was to be

reported by August 1”. (195)

The instruction was performed in time even though received on

July 30 only. Seven more witnesses were interviewed on July 31, and

the records mailed to Baku urgently.

According to records of interrogation of all the 14 witnesses,

they upheld “word by word” the “aspects” of A.Zizikski’s activities em-

phasized in the letter by AzGPU. Meanwhile, there is one peculiarity

featuring the witnesses of the prosecution. All their testimonies were

based on either what they “heart” or what they “were told”, as they

“saw nothing” personally. Not a single fact exposing Alibey Zizikski’s

reported criminal offences against Guba residents, let it be Muslims.

Jews or “massacred Armenian population” was indicated, let alone his

personal involvement in these actions. By the way, there was not a

single ethnic Armenian among the witnesses interviewed by investi-

gator Babenko. The testimonies generally boiled down to the already

known events of April-May 1918 in Guba supporting already known

features of A.Zizikski’s life story. The most “incriminating” pieces of

testimonies could sound like these: “In 1918 Alibey got someone’s

telegram from Baku after which he called a meeting in Guba and

sent his envoys to the rural areas notifying that the Armenians were

massacring the Muslims in Baku”, or “While recruiting people into his

gang Alibey and his aides were agitating that the ethnic fight is cur-

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

of Azerbaijan’s Muslim Population