Incident

Home page

Incident

Yagub Mahmoudov: â€œRashid Behbudov had videotape of Stepan Shaumyanâ€™s grave in Indiaâ€

29 January 2010 12:57 (UTC +04:00)

He said there were some dark points related to Shaumyanâ€™s execution and his links with India. â€œWhen USSR popular artist Rashid Behbudov was in India, he visited northern part of the country to give concert there and one of the local journalists told him that â€œyour famous compatriot was buried hereâ€. Behbudov asked who was that, he said â€œShaumyanâ€. Of course, there were Soviet intelligence officers around Behbudov in that time, but singer Bilal Aliyev is a witness of that event. He said Rashid Behbudov asked that journalist to give him videotape of the grave. In 1988-89, when the Nagorno Karabakh conflict arose, Rashid Behbudov gave the videotape to Mikhail Gorbachov during disputes wit him around the territorial issues. Rashid Behbudovâ€™s wife also confirms that. He told his wife when he underwent treatment at hospital that they would kill him for that videotapeâ€.

Mahmoudov said one of the important points of this issue was that one of the USSR leaders Anastas Mikoyan tried to wipe off Shaumyanâ€™s traces. â€œMikoyan reported that he asked Indian archives to give materials about Shaumyan, but they responded him that there were no documents about him. He said that his son Sergo Mikoyan also investigated the issue and didnâ€™t find anything in the Indian archives. But Indian archive officials told British journalist Bryan Pearce that Mikoyans didnâ€™t ask them about anything. All these evidences show that Shaumyan was not among the 26 Commissars when they were executedâ€.

Mahmoudov said some of the people traveled to India during Soviet time visited places where Shaumyan stayed. â€œI promise that the issue will be investigated deeply and now researchers are working in the archives of foreign countries. We are working on the Indian archives too and most likely it will give resultsâ€.