31 March, The Day of Genocide of Azerbaijanis
Prague, 31 March 2008 - 31 March, The Day of Genocide of Azerbaijanis, is engraved in the history of Azerbaijan in black letters. Only after the restoration of independence the people of Azerbaijan gained an opportunity to lift the curtain on March killings perpetrated by Armenians that had been kept secret by the Soviet leadership.

As a matter of fact, 1918 March killings were continuation of 200 year-long policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide pursued by Armenians against Azerbaijani population with an aim of expelling Azerbaijanis from their historic lands and creating there the fictitious "Great Armenia". But March killings were one of the most appalling manifestations of this policy. In Baku Armenian Dashnaks within 3 days killed with brutality 12000 Azerbaijanis, including elderly, women and children and destroyed precious historical monuments. Such tragedies befell Guba, Khachmaz, Shamakhy, Lankaran and other regions of Azerbaijan, too.

More than 50 thousand of innocent Azerbaijanis had fallen victims of atrocities committed by Armenians during 1918-1920.

Last year, the international community has been made aware of evidences discovered in Guba that disclose mass killings perpetrated by Armenians in that region of Azerbaijan during March-April 1918. It is already proved that human bones found out there in two wells belong to locals brutally murdered during invasion of Armenian armed forces to Guba in 1918. These facts are all too well-known patterns of Armenian vandalism.

Doubtless, it is the failure to punish those responsible for the mentioned crimes that encouraged Armenia to occupy Azerbaijani lands and perpetrate once again mass killings of Azerbaijani population in the early 90s. The environment of impunity emboldens recurrence of similar genocides and massacres in the future. Being confident that just assessment to these events will help prevent future genocides, Azerbaijan urges international community to give political and legal evaluation to the 1918 March killings of Azerbaijanis by Armenian guerillas.