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ya street present day istiglaliyyat street gubernskaya street present day nizami street bazarnaya street present day azerbaijan avenue pochtovaya street present day taghizadeh street casualties edit removing the dead from the streets the may 1918 dispatch of the new york times stated that 2 000 were killed and 3 000 were wounded in the struggle between russians and mussulmans 46 a later 1919 publication by the new york times reported presumably citing azerbaijani officials that 12 000 people were killed during the events 47 the same publication wrote that according to azerbaijani representatives the bolsheviks crushed muslims with assistance from armenians who wanted to wipe out old enemies and seize their lands 47 the 1920 new york times current history edition used the same figure of 12 000 victims 5 the azerbaijani delegation to the 1919 paris peace conference provided the following interpretation of the march days in that bloodthirsty episode which had such fatal effects upon the muslims the principal part was played by the armenians who were then in baku clustering as elsewhere around their nationalist party arf 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 48 the leader of baku soviet stepan shahumyan claimed that more than 3 000 killed in two days from both sides 17 3 49 50 51 however in his october 1918 article for the armenian herald a publication of the boston based armenian national union of america prominent arf leader karekin pastermadjian asserted that over 10 000 azerbaijanis and nearly 2 500 armenians were killed notes 5 according to firuz kazemzadeh the brutalities continued for weeks no quarter was given by either side neither age nor sex was respected enormous crowds roamed the streets burning houses killing every pass by who was identified as an enemy many innocent persons suffering death at the hands of both the armenians and the azerbaijanis the struggle which had begun as a political contest between musavat and the soviet assumed the character of a gigantic race riot 52 contemporary azerbaijani sources refer to the march days as a genocide 53 54 although the majority of historic sources and accounts interpret the march events in the context of civil war unrest 55 56 57 58 59 aftermath edit further information armenian azerbaijani war 1918 1920 and battle of baku the aftermath in the tatar i e azerbaijani quarter in the immediate aftermath of the march days many of the muslim survivors fled to elisabethpol ganja in central azerbaijan while the temporary executive committee of the muslim national councils and the musavat ceased their activities in the territory of the baku governorate the left wing azerbaijani political groups such as the srs and the hümmet benefited from the developments and became effective leaders of the azerbaijani community in baku the muslim socialist bureau appealed to the committee of revolutionary defense to redress some of the grievances of some of the muslims 19 on 13 april 1918 within few days of the massacres the bolsheviks under the leadership of stepan shahumyan proclaimed the baku commune this new body endeavored to nationalize baku s oil fields drawing the ire of the british 33 and formed the red army of baku an undisciplined and poorly managed force composed largely of ethnic armenian recruits 60 the 26 baku commissars were not all commissars and were not all bolsheviks there were many ethnicities among them greek latvian jewish russian georgian armenian and two of them were ethnic azerbaijani revolutionaries meshadi azizbekov and mir hasan vazirov 61 nevertheless in the azerbaijani psyche the baku commune symbolized the bolshevik armenian collusion born out of the march days bloodbath 62 verification needed the march days of 1918 had a profound effect on the formulation of azerbaijani political objectives as well while previously azerbaijani leaders had sought only autonomy within the russian domain after the bolshevik perpetrated massacres in baku they no longer believed in the russian revolution and turned to the ottomans for support in achieving total independence 63 therefore when the azerbaijan democratic republic was proclaimed on 28 may 1918 its government immediately dispatched a delegation to istanbul to discuss the possibility of ottoman military support for the young republic the ottoman triumvir enver pasha agreed to the azerbaijani requests and charged his brother nuru pasha with forming an ottoman military unit known as the caucasus army of islam to retake baku when in july 1918 the ottoman azerbaijani force defeated the red army of baku in several key battles in central azerbaijan bolshevik power in baku started crumbling under pressure from the russian socialist revolutionaries dashnaks and british agents in the city on 1 august 1918 the baku commune was replaced by the centrocaspian dictatorship which desperately invited a 1000 strong british expeditionary force led by general lionel dunsterville to the city this proved a futile effort and in the face of an overwhelming ottoman azerbaijani offensive the dunsterforce fled and the caucasus army of islam entered the azerbaijani capital on 15 september 1918 citation needed the march days brought underlying tensions between armenians and azerbaijanis to the fore less than six months after the march massacres when the ottoman azerbaijani force entered baku the city fell into chaos and nearly 10 000 armenians were massacred 64 a special commission formed by the armenian national council anc reported a total of 8 988 ethnic armenians massacred among whom were 5 248 armenian inhabitants of baku 1 500 armenian refugees from other parts of the caucasus who were in baku and 2 240 armenians whose corpses were found in the streets but whose identities were never established 65 although these figures were gathered by the armenian national council and have been questioned by some 65 given the general run of events they were unlikely to be greatly exaggerated 66 while trying to escape baku amidst the ottoman azerbaijani offensive the bolshevik baku commissars were taken by ship across the caspian to krasnovodsk where they were imprisoned by the social revolutionary transcaspian government with the alleged support of the british a few days later on 20 september 1918 between the stations of pereval and akhcha kuyma on the trans caspian railway 26 of the commissars were executed by firing squad 64 analysis and interpretations edit according to michael smith muslims faced a crushing defeat at the hands of baku soviet followed by an unrestrained brutality of dashnak forces 6 while in the aftermath of the tragic events musavat used them to foster a national memory of pain its leader m e rasulzade provided an analysis which seems to reflect the essence of witness accounts in rasulzade s view bolsheviks and their supporters sought to diminish musavat s influence among azerbaijani masses for a long time and muslim elites felt frustrated and powerless in face of this pressure march days were a violent culmination in this assault of russian bolshevism against the unprepared azerbaijani people 6 azerbaijani position edit the leader of musavat mammed amin rasulzade stated with regard to the march days musavat was blamed for the march events it is absolutely baseless because to declare a war one must possess at least some physical strength which musavat lacked others accuse musavat that it provoked the march events by defending the idea of autonomy for azerbaijan this could resemble the truth to a certain extent if we obediently bowed to the enemies of our freedom these events might not have happened but we could not have done that we openly claimed the autonomy for azerbaijan and this increased the number of our enemies 67 in soviet azerbaijan historical accounts of march days were made to support the actions of baku soviet and to condemn musavat as the culprit of the tragedy soviet historiography also tried to suppress the memory of 1918 massacres and omitted the fact that bolsheviks used the armenian azerbaijani ethnic confrontation to gain power however in 1978 then leader of soviet azerbaijan heydar aliyev recalled the forgotten march days in his speech dedicated to the 100th anniversary of stepan shahumyan as follows in march 1918 the musavatist anti soviet rebellion was raised in baku intending to strangle the soviet government thanks to the firm and resolute action of the bolsheviks however the rebellion was extinguished 68 exactly twenty years later as the president of independent azerbaijan heydar aliyev issued a decree condemning march days as the beginning of azerbaijani genocide text of the 1998 presidential decree describes the march events as follows taking advantage of the situation following the end of the first world war and the february and october 1917 revolutions in russia the armenians began to pursue the implementation of their plans under the banner of bolshevism under the watchword of combating counter revolutionary elements in march 1918 the baku commune began to implement a criminal plan aimed at eliminating azerbaijanis from the whole of baku province 53 soviet position edit the baku soviet s committee of revolutionary defense issued a proclamation early in april explaining the events and their causes the statement claimed an anti soviet character of the rebellion and blamed musavat and its leadership for the events soviet s statement asserted that there was a carefully laid out conspiracy by musavat to overthrow the baku soviet and to establish its own regime the enemies of soviet power in the city of baku have raised their head the malice and hatred with which they viewed the revolutionary organ of the workers and soldiers began recently to overflow into open counterrevolutionary activities the appearance of the staff of the savage division headed by the unmasked talyshkhanov the events in lenkoran in mugan and at shemakha the capture of petrovsk by the daghestan regiment and the withholding of grain shipments from baku the threats of elisavetpol and in the last few days of tbilisi to march on baku against soviet power the aggressive movements of the armored train of the transcaucasian commissariat in adzhikabul and finally the outrageous behavior of the savage division on the steamship evelina in shooting comrades all this speaks of the criminal plans of the counterrevolutionaries grouped mainly around the bek party musavat and having as its goal the overthrow of soviet power 19 shahumian considered the march events to be a triumph of the soviet power in the caucasus transcaucasia has entered a period of active armed struggle for the soviet power for three days 30th 31 march and 1 april a furious battle raged in the city of baku on one side were fighting the soviet red guard the red international army recently organized by us the red fleet which we had succeeded in reorganizing in a short time and armenian national units on the other side the muslim savage division in which there were quite a few russian officers and bands of armed muslims led by the musavat party for us the results of the battle were brilliant the destruction of the enemy was complete we dictated to them the conditions which were signed without reservation more than three thousand were killed on both sides the soviet power in baku has always been hanging by a thread due to the resistance of muslim nationalistic parties these parties led by feudal intelligentsia beks and khans which settled in elisavetpol and tbilisi thanks to the degraded and cowardly politics of the mensheviks became very aggressive in baku too if they had taken the control of baku the city would have been declared the capital of azerbaijan and all non muslim elements would have been disarmed and killed 69 in the opinion of the american historian tadeusz swietochowski in his enthusiasm shahumyan might not have remembered that in 1905 he himself had accused the tsardom of reaping in benefits of the muslim armenian massacres it is doubtful that to him as opposed to the azerbaijanis any similarity suggested itself 70 joseph stalin who was bolshevik people s commissar at the time stated in the pravda newspaper that the march days happened in protest of transcaucasian commissariat in tbilisi all of armenia is protesting against the usurpation of the self proclaimed tiflis government demanding the resignation of the sejm deputies and the center of muslims baku the citadel of soviet power in transcaucasus unified around itself the entire eastern transcaucasus from lenkoran and kuba till elizavetpol with arms in hands is asserting the rights of people of transcaucasus who try by all forces to maintain a link with soviet russia 71 victor serge in year one first year of the russian revolution the soviet at baku led by shahumyan was meanwhile making itself the ruler of the area discreetly but unmistakably following the moslem rising of 18 30 march it had to introduce a dictatorship this rising instigated by the musavat set the tartar and turkic population led by their reactionary bourgeoisie against the soviet which consisted of russians with support from the armenians the races began to slaughter each other in the street most of the turkic port workers the ambal either remained neutral or supported the reds the contest was won by the soviets citation needed armenian position edit the armenian view of the march 1918 events was documented in a letter written by archbishop bagrat to the american mission in baku the letter began with the accusation that the azerbaijanis being the disciples of the turks and the germans could not be trusted having thus disposed of the azerbaijani version of the events bagrat stated that the battle was waged by the musavat and the soviet while the armenians remained neutral the archbishop claimed that some armenian soldiers took part in the fighting but that those were only isolated individuals for whom the armenian national council could not be held responsible 72 he also claimed that the armenians gave shelter to some 20 000 muslims during the struggle 73 72 armenians had been inflamed by the sight and pitiful stories of several hundred thousand refugees who had succeeded in reaching transcaucasia fleeing before the ottoman army 74 consequently when the russian army broke up the armenians preserved their discipline against all attempts of the bolsheviks and were the only force upon which the allies could count in southwestern asia during the last year of the war 74 the two million armenians of transcaucasia increased by several hundred thousand refugees from the ottoman empire persisted in their loyalty to russia until the treaty of brest litovsk delivered them to the ottoman empire 74 then they moved to form their own state which succeeded in maintaining itself during the period of anarc...
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