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:
- I was working at the Archut village school in those days. The residents had not spent a night at their own houses when the village was seized. They made a fire in the hill in order to escape from Armenians. At that time, ASALA members who used to wear a `black beard` destroyed our school and took guns belonged in schools.
When I was arrested on January 16, 1988, Armenians told me that you had given the guns to the group of village defenders. I said that they could not use those guns to fire a shot. In response to this, Armenians told that the residents could use the guns after filling the holes with paper. As the prison was exploded, I was kept in the wagon. There was Varod, a policeman who came to our district from the Bayan village of the Shamkir district. At night, he was my guard in the wagon. I helped him in many things at one time.
Once, I heard Armenians talking about him. They wanted to make him say the names of the guns which were available in the Archut village. Then they would detain him and invite a journalist for shooting a program as if this armed group committed the Vartanli massacre. I could not lie about guns. We did not have a gun. We only had a pitchfork and shovel to protect ourselves from any possible attack. They informed the Security agency in Yerevan about their plan about the Vartanli massacre. The officials told them not to question us. They would come to the village tomorrow.
Varod took me to the military dormitory which was situated near the forest. When the police slept at 02.00 am, I fled to our village and then to Azerbaijan. They launched investigation into my escape. In this regard, they questioned the village residents to learn something about me. The residents were told that as if I organized the armed group and the Vartanli massacre occurred because I disseminated school guns to the village defenders. This massacre was very similar to the Khojaly genocide. On a cold winter night, all residents walked in snow to escape from the Armenians. Some could not keep walking. They were hospitalized in Gazakh. Some died at the hospital. Women were among died people.
Both Sumgayit Pogroms and the Gugark massacre were organized by Kremlin headed by Gorbachev. The reason was to divide Azerbaijani territories and give Karabakh to Armenia. Azerbaijan could not demand to arrest the perpetrators because of the existence of the Soviet regime. They did not arrest anyone. The properties of one village was depredated. Besides, a shepherd disappeared in our village. That shepherd, Ahmad was my cousin. All properties of 170 villages left to Armenians.
I wrote in a book about the Sumgayit Pogroms that Armenians were telling us “Something will happen…” After a day, the Sumgayit Events took place. From the very beginning, Armenians knew that they would commit the Sumgayit Events and put the blame on Azerbaijanis. When they said that everything would be good, we understood that they would retrieve situation in the villages.
There was an orphanage in Leninakan (Gyumri) at that time. Un-parented children from 16 regions were settled there. 70 Azerbaijani children were there. They took 25 children between the ages of 14 and 15. Armenians told it themselves. It is still unknown where they were taken to. They sent the rest of the people in a bus saying that they would hand them over Azerbaijan in Kazakh. Among them, one of the children was from our village. When a husband divorced his wife, her father did not accept 1-year-old child. They sent the child to orphanage in Gyumri. At that time, a gas pipeline had to be laid between the USSR and Turkey. They set out capacious pipes. Armenians put children into the pipes and burnt after welding.
After some time, an earthquake occurred. At that time, a group of Yugoslavian life-savers was coming to Gyumri on a plane in the Turkish area. They shot that plane and 7 life-savers died. They also shot lifesaving plane going from Azerbaijan. A group of life-savers also came from France. They have brought dogs with them. When they were trying to find the bodies under the remains, the dog began to bark at the pipe. They saw the child bodies when they opened the pipe. They saw Turkish nation as their enemy. Therefore, they killed those children with torture. It is the genocide policy of Armenia.
17 graves of Azerbaijanis near the road in Vartanli village witnessed all massacres. Armenians also tortured and killed Azerbaijani milkmaids and women working in the farm in Caryarli village of Stepnav.
Click here to read the first part of the interview
Hafiz Ahmedov
More about: #Azerbaijan#Armenia #Gugarkmassacre
