On March 31, Azerbaijani people mark the Day of Azerbaijani Genocide.
Over 90 years ago, from March 30 to April 3, 1918, the forces of the Bolshevik Baku Soviet, aided by the armed militia of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation(Dashnaktsutiun), carried out attacks on the Muslim quarters of Baku city massacring, according to the New York Times, close to 12,000[1][3][4] Azerbaijani civilians. The four days of carnage, known in Western historical references as the March Days, unraveled a wave of mass killings committed by forces of Baku Soviet and Dashnak militia in other parts of Azerbaijan from April through August 1918. Historically remembered by Azerbaijanis as Soyqırım (an Azeri Turkic term for genocide), the March Days of 1918 set the stage for other massacres committed against Azerbaijani people throughout the 20th century. Thus, since 1998, by a presidential decree which provided a proper legal assessment of the historical events of 1918, March 31 was designated officially as a Day of Azerbaijani Genocide.
According to the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, any act committed with an intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group is considered to be an act of genocide. Such intent[2] was clear in the decision of Baku Soviet led by an ethnic Armenian Stepan Shaumian to seek support of Dashnak Armenian forces in targeting Azerbaijanis. Furthermore, the intent was spelled out by Shaumian, who proclaimed after the massacre: “For us the results of the battle were brilliant. The destruction of the enemy was complete”.
The policy of mass deportations and ethnic cleansing against Azerbaijanis continued throughout 20th century under the Soviet rule. In 1948 and again in 1964, hundreds of thousands of Azeri Turks were forced out of Armenia to settle in Azerbaijan. Within few months in 1988, the remaining 200,000 Azerbaijanis in Armenia were subjected to ethnic cleansing, forming the first wave of refugees in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and finally turning Armenia into a mono-ethnic state. The culmination of hateful crimes against ethnic Azerbaijanis were the 1992 Khojaly massacre which, according to one Armenian commander, was "an act of revenge" against an entire nation.
On this day of remembrance for the victims of Soyqırım, Azerbaijani-American Council (AAC) appeals for a proper assessment and recognition of the historical tragedies that transpired against Azerbaijani people during the 20th century. We ask all Azeri- and Turkic-Americans, friends of Azerbaijan, to sign our Change.org action addressed to the members of U.S. Congress and President, encouraging them to recognize the Azerbaijani Genocide: http://www.change.
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