March 31 marks 108 years since the Day of the Genocide of Azerbaijanis

Between March 30 and April 3, 1918, the Baku Soviet and Dashnak Armenian armed groups committed genocide against Azerbaijanis in Baku, as well as in Shamakhi, Guba, Khachmaz, Lankaran, Hajigabul, Salyan, Zangezur, Karabakh, Nakhchivan and other territories. According to official sources, about 12 thousand Azerbaijanis were killed as a consequence of the genocide, and tens of thousands of people went missing. 

During the March massacres, Armenians destroyed many ancient buildings, historical  monuments, including shrines, and the Ismailiyya building, which is considered one of the pearls of world architecture, by shelling. The minarets of the Juma and Tazapir mosques were severely damaged as a consequence of the fire opened by the military fleet stationed in the Caspian Sea. Dashnak armed groups burned the bodies of the people they brutally killed in the caravanserai right there. 

It should be noted that in connection with the March massacres of 1919 and 1920, March 31 was marked as a day of national mourning by the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. 

The decree "On the Genocide of Azerbaijanis" dated March 26, 1998, signed by the national leader Heydar Aliyev, gave a political assessment to these events and officially declared for the first time that Azerbaijanis were subjected to genocide by Armenians. 

March 31 - Genocide Day of Azerbaijanis is celebrated annually in our country at the state level. 

It should be noted that this genocide has not yet been given a legal assessment on an international scale.