Azerbaijanis spend two days in prayer to mark Day of Genocide

By JERRY WOLFFE
The Oakland Press

Members of the Azerbaijani culture held a two-day commemoration for what is known as the Day of Genocide of Azerbaijanis.

The commemoration refers to March 31 to April 1, 1918, when Armenians are accused of slaying "thousands of Muslims (Azeris), old people, women and children," according to "The Struggle for Transcaucasia, 1917-1921," by author Firuz Kazemzadeh.

Besides northwestern Iran, the Azerbaijanis also live in a wider area from the Caucasus to the Iranian plateau, said Dr. Shapor Ansari of Bloomfield Hills.

The Azeris are predominantly Shia Muslim and have a mixed heritage of Iranic, Caucasian and Turkic elements.

The Armenians, meanwhile, say the Azerbaijanis, or Turks, killed more than 1.5 million Armenians in a genocide that occurred between 1915 and 1923 and left another 1 million as refugees.

"The truth is that the Armenians, under the guise of Bolshevism, rushed on the Muslims and massacred during a few frightful days more than 12,000 people, many of whom were old men, women and children," wrote Kazemzadeh.

Ansari said there was plenty of historical evidence of the massacre in Baku of the Azerbaijanis.

The March Events, as this episode became known to history, touched off a series of slayings all over Azerbaijan, Ansari said.

After the proclamation of the Azerbaijani Democratic Republic on May 28, 1918, the "March Events" were investigated by the ADR government.

In 1919-1920, the ADR observed March 31 as a national day of mourning.

Ansari said Azerbaijanis spend the two days in prayer for those who died during the massacre.

When the Soviets ruled the region, the Azerbaijanis were unable to commemorate the tragedy, he said.

However, the observation of March 31 was re-established after the collapse of Czarist Russia.

The commemoration is not only for those who died in the Baku-area massacre, but the policy of genocide against Azeris carried out since the 19th century and throughout the 20th century, with the final act being the Khojaly Massacre of 1992, Kazemzadeh added.

The position of Azerbaijani-Americans is that close to a million Azeris have been massacred in the 20th century as the result of the Armenian genocidal campaign.

Armenians, who are generally Christian, in the Detroitmetro area deny the genocide occurred. Azeris are generally Muslim.

Some 2.5 million Azeris, Turks, Kurds, Jews, Georgians, Circassians, Tats, Talysh, Lezgins and other people fell victim to the Armenian policies of ethnic cleansing for the creation of their state, which was supposed to stretch from the Black sea to the Caspian to the Mediterranean, said Ansari, who added the Armenians wanted access to the "warm waters of the Persian Gulf."