Guba, April-May 1918. Documented Pogroms of the Muslims

value and significance of the said documents in raising public aware-

ness in Azerbaijan and world over regarding the true scale and nature

of the horrifying terror resulting in extermination of more than 50

thousand innocent Azerbaijanis in 1918 with hundreds of the coun-

try’s Muslim-populated residential areas leveled, social and cultural

infrastructure destroyed and architectural landmarks demolished.

This born in mind, the Heydar Aliyev Foundation launched the

new edition of these collections of documents in various languages in

a more concise version targeting a broader audience.

As part of the AHIC dossier, files of the Devastation of the Town

of Guba and Villages of Guba Uyezd Case are of a tremendous sci-

entific, historic, political and diplomatic significance. Meanwhile, as

an excellent material for source studies, these files provide a clear

evidence that the Guba events were a part and parcel of far-reaching

plans and intents of the then authorities in Baku led by ethnic Ar-

menians and closely linked with Armenian ultranationalists aiming at

maximum possible decrease of the Muslim population in the Azer-

baijan’s countryside areas and regions which they viewed as potential

territories for their state-to-be.

The files of the Ad Hoc Investigation Commission become ever more

important today in the light of recent discovery of mass burials with hu-

man remnants found out during archaeological excavations in 2007.

The value and significance of these documents was the reason

of publishing them in a separate collection offered hereby. The con-

tents and nature of the files included in this book predetermined their

placement in three sections with their original reference numbers re-

levant to the complete version of the Collection published in 2010

encompassing 266 files in total.

Section 1

of the Collection comprises documents related to the

correspondence of A.F.Novatsli, the AHIC member in charge for the

investigation of the Guba events, with local authorities in the town of

Guba and adjacent villages of Guba Uyezd. As a professional lawyer

Novatski succeeded to collect quite a voluminous scope of evidence on

the events in Guba reflecting a broad spectrum of legally proven facts.

E.g. while working with the municipal authorities and town resi-

dents the Commission acting through precinct police officers and el-

ders tried to get the lists of looted and plundered Muslim households

in Guba Uyezd, together with the files providing specific data, such as