Yusif Gaziyev is one of the witnesses of the Gugark massacre against Azerbaijanis committed by Armenians in November,1988. He is also an author of several books about Armenian genocides against Azerbaijanis.
He spoke about the hidden and unknown moments of the Gugark Massacre in his interview to AzVision.az:
-The Gugark Massacre planned by Armenians was not a coincidence. I went to Tbilisi regarding my scientific research in 1987. When I returned on Moscow-Yerevan train on 11 October, Armenians were celebrating Heydar Aliyev`s dismissal. After Aliyev`s dismissal, Armenians` attitudes to us changed completely. They were not sending food to villages. They were beating and expelling people going to the market. They were also taking what we had. There was no wheat.
After Azerbaijanis` telegrams from Baku and Tbilisi, the Commission headed by Mikhayilov came from Moscow. First, he went to the neighboring village of Hallovar. On February 16, 1988 we brought him to our village and talked about the situation. We said that they repelled people by beating. Some of them died after tortures. The situation was similar in other villages. Mikhayilov told us not to worry that the situation would be measured. Afterwards, Armenians spread propaganda during two days. They said that they would cope with hooligans and asked everybody to return to their jobs.We supposed that everything will be as before and people will live again peacefully. Suddenly, we heard about Sumgait events.
Armenians blamed us for killing the Armenians living in Sumgait.The Sumgait Pogroms was perpetrated by Grigoryan but not Azerbaijanis.
There were at least 260 villages. 80 of them were extra national and 172 were Azerbaijani populated villages.Later,the situation got worsened in the Armenian villages.
Our villages were surrounded by the Armenian ones. Under the pretext of Sumgait events, they wanted to revenge us.
In 1988 November 26, Armenians perpetrated mass killings in the Vartanli village of Gugark. The village was situated in the middle of the region. They plundered, destroyed and burned the houses. There was a man named Garib. He had lost his one leg during the World War I. Everybody respected him, he was a deputy. Armenians made him leave his house and tied him to an apple tree in his yard. Then, they poured petrol onto him and burned alive together with 13 more Azerbaijanis from the village. The residents, women and children had to run towards forests. At that time the weather was too cold and it was snowing. If those people remained in the forest, they would definitely die. Till morning the women and children managed to get to the ou village and we placed them in our houses.
In 1989 January 16, Armenians detained me. Armenians claimed that we entered the village to kill Armenian residents, but not to save Azerbaijanis from starving in the forests.
The USSR declared martial law regarding with the incidents on November 30, 1988.
Armenians killed 3 more Azerbaijanis in Saral village. We could not get the dead bodies of 17 Azerbaijanis and had to bury them near the road of the village.
Thereafter, the people complained about the lack of food and demanded the local authorities let them move to Azerbaijan. Varod Movsessian, the chair of the Council of Ministers of Armenian SSR came to our village. He offered us to give several cars.The people accepted to move in Armenian cars.
On November 30, Armenians loaded the people's luggage into lorries and asked to go to Gazakh,Azerbaijan by bus themselves promising to send their luggage.
A BTR wheeled vehicle accompanied each bus. However, buses were fired and many people got wounded. 3 Saral village residents were killed. It was done by the ASALA(The Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia): when Gorbachov became the leader of the USSR, the ASALA members explicitly announced that they would liberate Armenia and establish free Armenia. The Gugark massacre was committed by ASALA members who used to wear a `black beard`.
- Do you have any relatives among burned people?
- I knew Garib and Muhammed. Armenians burned Garib in his yard while Muhammed was burned together with 3 people in the school yard.
- Why were people burned alive?
- They wanted them to leave their homes.
Hafiz Ahmedov
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