"This is a commemoration day of the genocide victims. All 60 million Azerbaijanis around the world must commemorate them," Mahmudov said.
In March 1918, Stepan Shaumyan's Dashnak-Bolshevik government seized power and launched genocide against the Azerbaijani people. In March to April, ethnic Azerbaijanis were slaughtered in Baku, Shamakhi and other regions. During the period, Turkey offered assistance to Azerbaijan and rescued the people from being killed by Armenians.
Museums should be build across the country to provide information about the genocide, Mahmudov said.
"Azerbaijanis were killed under the order of People's Commissars Council head Stepan Shaumyan. They aimed to expel the Azerbaijani population from their ancestral lands," he said.
Mahmudov noted the significant role of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic representatives, who drew lists of killed Azerbaijanis. Owing to the lists, historians can investigate the facts now.
The 31st of March is the commemoration day of the tragic events in the history of Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijani people which took place in the recent hundred years. The scandalous facts of massacre, repressions, eviction of Azerbaijanis from their native land may be considered one of the tragic pages in the history of the 20th century. This tragic history of the Azerbaijani people reflects the Armenian chauvinism about creation of the Great Armenia and not disdaining to use any means to achieve their goal.
Azerbaijan marks March 31 as genocide under the decree signed by national leader Heydar Aliyev in 1998.
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