A commemorative event has been held about 31 March - the day of Genocide of Azerbaijanis at Baku Engineering University (BEU).

Professor Havar Mammadov, BEU rector made his speech after remembering the memory of victims of this tragedy and said that a brutal genocide act was committed against Azerbaijanis in March-April in 1918 and thousands of civil Azerbaijanis were killed with inconceivable cruelty just because of their national identity.

Speaking about the occurences of that period in detail, rector underlined that ten thousands of civil people were murdered just due to their ethnic and religious identity in Baku city, also in Shamakhi, Guba that were included in Baku Governorate, and in the other cities and uyezds, living places were destroyed, cultural monuments, mosques and graveyards were totally destroyed. Reminding that cruel Armenian chauvinists went on their inhuman acts and committed mass murders, plunders, ethnic cleansing in Karabakh, Zangezur, Nakhchivan, Shirvan, Yerevan and the other areas, Havar Mammadov underscored that after Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was founded March events were focused on and this date was remembered as a national mourning day twice. Rector noted that it was prevented to investigate the occurences after the fall of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in detail and to provide it with appropriate political and legal assessment, attempts to erase the blood memory of the people for almost 70 years in the Soviet era were carried out. Only in the decree “On the Genocide of Azerbaijanis” signed by our National Leader Heydar Aliyev, the President of Azerbaijan on March 26, 1998 after 80 years those terrible occurrences were politically assessed in an adequate way and March 31 was declared the Day of Genocide of Azerbaijanis.

Noting that thanks to the researches conducted in this field in the recent years a plenty of new facts and documents were collected, rector highlighted that it was found out that mass grave discovered in Guba city as a result of the researches was concerning to the genocide committed by Armenians against local civil people in 1918. Havar Mammadov also accentuated that the Guba Genocide Memorial Complex was established in the area in 2013 and Ilham Aliyev, the President of Azerbaijan attented the ceremony.

Reminding of a more terrible genocide act in Khojaly city in 1992 as a continuation of bloody massacres committed by Armenians now and then, Havar Mammadov stated that crimes committed by Armenians against our people through history were taken revenge on. Emphasizing that as a result of the Patriotic War that started in the September of last year and went on for 44 days the revenge of massacres committed by Armenians and innocent victims of them in the frame of the “Great Armenian” dream for over than 200 years was taken on, rector said that Azerbaijani Army ended 30-year occupation by Armenia in our lands in the battlefield under the leadership of victorious Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev.

Rector mentioned the importance of the youth’s profoundly learning about which devastations our people faced in the past and the reasons for those tragedies at the end of his speech.

Afterwards, Assoc.prof. Bilal Dedeyev, head of the Department of Social Sciences at BEU made a speech reflecting historical facts related to 31 March events.

Public Relations Department