Theatre of Young Spectators to commemorate Genocide victims

/By Azernews/

By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijan’s State Theatre of Young Spectators will hold an event dedicated to March 31 – the Day of Genocide of Azerbaijanis, committed by aggressive Armenian nationalists, Trend Life reports.

The event program stipulates performance of “Make a wish” play by young Azerbaijani writer Sevinc Elsever.

The play tells a story of a young girl taken hostage by Armenian militaries and other innocent victims of the Khojaly Genocide, the bloodiest massacre in the course of Nagorno-Karabakh war (1988–1994).

The performance will be staged by Gulnara Hajiyeva and Bahram Osmanov. The cast members include Gul Nabiyeva, Roza Ibadova, Sabina Mammadova, Gusmer Sharifova, Nuria Aliyeva, Anar Seyfullayev, Eshgin Guliyev, Vusal Mehraliyev, Kerem Hadizadeh, Elshad Shikhaliyev and Ilham Asadov.

During March-April 1918, hundreds of Azerbaijanis were executed by Armenians in Baku, Shamakhi, Guba, Mughan and tens of thousands of people were expelled from their lands.

Armenian Bolshevik troops led by Stepan Shaumyan massacred thousands of people, burnt Islamic shrines and confiscated the 400-million-manat estate of Baku residents. Tezepir Mosque was bombed, and one of the magnificent architectural buildings, Ismailiyyeh, was burnt down.

The genocide policy pursued against Azerbaijanis was not limited to Baku. Armenian dashnaks killed 8,027 Azerbaijanis, including 2,560 women and 1,277 children, in 53 villages of Shamakhy, 110 km west of Baku, on March 31. Also, 16,000 Azerbaijanis were murdered in 122 villages of Guba, northern Azerbaijan.

The evidence of the Armenian vandalism in Guba is the burial of remains of the genocide victims. The burial was discovered during the construction of a stadium in Guba in 2007.

The Special Investigation Commission set up by the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic on July 15, 1918 collected a great number of documents and submitted them to the government. In 1919, the Azerbaijani Parliament made a decision on marking March 31 as the day of Azerbaijanis' genocide.

Though this date was essentially forgotten during the Soviet times, relevant investigations on the tragedy were carried out and books were published after Azerbaijan gained independence from the USSR in 1991.

President Heydar Aliyev issued a decree on March 26, 1998 to commemorate March 31 as the Day of Azerbaijanis' Genocide.