Baku, Azerbaijan, March 31. The people of
Azerbaijan are solemnly commemorating March 31—the Day of
Azerbaijani Genocide, Trend reports via the Western Azerbaijan Community’s
statement
According to the statement, the people of Western Azerbaijan who
suffered from the total ethnic cleansing and crimes against
humanity committed by Armenia remember this day with deep
sorrow.
The statement noted that the mass massacre of Azerbaijanis in
Baku on March 31, 1918, is a horrific event that embodies the
large-scale genocide carried out against our people in the
historical Azerbaijani lands in the preceding and subsequent
periods.
“As the decree signed by National Leader Heydar Aliyev on the
Genocide of Azerbaijanis on March 26, 1998, reads, the genocide
against Azerbaijanis was carried out for centuries, and its main
goal was to destroy Azerbaijanis as an ethnic group and seize
historical Azerbaijani territories.
Armenian political unions, armed groups, and later the state
authorities of Armenia implemented a systematic genocide policy
against Azerbaijanis based on ethnic hatred and racist ideology,
carrying out mass massacres in numerous locations, forcibly
expelling Azerbaijanis from their homeland, and systematically
destroying their cultural heritage.
Acts of genocide against the Azerbaijani people were committed
in almost all parts of historical Azerbaijani territories. In the
years 1918-1920, mass massacres were carried out and ethnic
cleansing was carried out against the Muslim population in Baku,
Shamakhi, Guba, Karabakh, Nakhchivan, Lankaran, Iravan, Zangezur,
Goycha, Daralayaz, Surmali, and other districts.
As a result of the acts of genocide, in which hundreds of
thousands of Azerbaijanis were killed, Azerbaijanis, who once made
up more than 80 percent of the population in the territory of
Armenia, began to constitute an ethnic minority in that area by
1921. Following ethnic cleansing campaigns in 1948-53 and 1987-91,
Azerbaijanis were completely expelled from there. Currently, there
is not a single Azerbaijani left in Armenia,” the statement
says.
The statement adds that Armenia’s occupation of 20 percent of
Azerbaijani territories between 1991 and 1994, the numerous
massacres committed there, the expulsion of 800,000 Azerbaijanis,
and the destruction of Azerbaijani cultural heritage were part of
the genocide policy.
“Unfortunately, instead of acknowledging its responsibility and
taking necessary steps for peace, justice, and reconciliation,
Armenia continues to pursue a policy that promotes ethnic hatred
and racism, taking actions contrary to peace. Individuals who
committed crimes against humanity and acts of terrorism, such as
Garegin Njde, Andranik Ozanyan, Drastamat Kanayan, and Monte
Melkonyan, are glorified, and the Nazi ideology of Njdeism is
propagated at the state level.
It’s particularly regrettable that the Armenian government,
instead of assisting the ongoing judicial process in Azerbaijan
regarding war crimes and crimes against humanity, is actively
obstructing it and encouraging a climate of impunity.
Moreover, Armenia continues its racist policy by obstructing the
right of return of the people of Western Azerbaijan and attempting
to preserve the mono-ethnicity created through genocide.
We call on the Armenian state to acknowledge its responsibility
for the genocide, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity, and
war crimes it has committed and take the necessary steps for
reconciliation. Armenia must create conditions for the safe and
dignified return of Azerbaijanis expelled from there and restore
the Azerbaijani cultural heritage it has destroyed.
Additionally, Armenia must halt its policy and practices that
promote hatred and discrimination against Azerbaijanis, hand over
those who have committed crimes against humanity to justice,
immediately cease glorifying them, demolish the monuments dedicated
to military and political figures and terrorists who participated
in crimes against Azerbaijanis, and reverse the name changes of
places it carried out,” the statement points out.
Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News
Agency’s WhatsApp channel