1918 Lankaran massacres - The atrocities committed in the Lankaran uezd
The March massacres of 1918 did not bypass the Lankaran uezd either. Armed Russian-Armenian groups, just like in other parts of Azerbaijan, committed bloody crimes in the Lankaran uezd as well. In these violent crimes, 13 Lankaran residents were dismembered, and their bodies were placed in boxes and buried by the seaside. Villages were destroyed, and homes were plundered.
The role of 'Evelina' ship in the events
The pretext for the events in Lankaran uezd was the voyage of the 'Evelina' ship on 17 March 1918, transporting the body of Muhammad Taghiyev (son of millionaire Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev) from Lankaran to Baku.
Muhammad Taghiyev died in Lankaran from an accidental gunshot wound during a game of Russian roulette. The crew of the 'Evelina' ship that transported his remains to Baku consisted of Muslims. This caused concern among the Bolsheviks and Armenian armed groups. The ship's small 48-member crew inadvertently accelerated Bolshevik and Armenian bandits' plans against Lankaran. The incident marked the beginning of a new phase of Armenian aggression in the region, leading to even greater tragedies. As the small group that had buried Muhammad Taghiyev's body was preparing to depart Lankaran aboard the 'Evelina', armed Bolsheviks demanded the ship's crew surrender their weapons just as the vessel was about to leave the pier. When the "Evelina" crew refused, the ship immediately came under heavy machine gun and rifle fire. The entire crew was forcibly disarmed, and their weapons were confiscated by the Bolsheviks and Dashnaks.
Seizing the opportunity, the Armenians secretly spread a rumor among the Russian National Council, Caspian Sailors, Socialist Revolutionary (SR), and Menshevik parties claiming that the officers aboard the 'Evelina' received orders to destroy Russian-Molokan villages in Mughan together with Muslim military detachments in Lankaran. Thus, the Armenians obtained the pretext they needed to carry out the March massacres in Lankaran as well.
The attacks of Shivkunov's bandit gang
The pro-Armenian Shivkunov's gang seized Mirahmad Khan’s house in Lankaran, turning it into their headquarters. Using the pretext that armed groups were present in the village, Shivkunov’s bandits subjected Sutemurdov village to sustained gunfire for several days, setting fires and looting homes. To prevent further bloodshed, 13 village elders went to negotiate with Shivkunov, pleading for a ceasefire. However, on Shivkunov’s orders, soldiers took the elders hostage, escalating tensions. Soon after, the soldiers launched an assault on Sutemurdov, demanding that villagers surrender their weapons. This led to a bloody clash between the villagers and the soldiers. During the shootout, two soldiers were killed by friendly fire from their own Armenian comrades. Upon hearing of their deaths, Shivkunov ordered the beheading of all 13 elders who had come to negotiate.
The execution of the 13 elders
Haji Fakhri Sadigov, the imam of Sutemurdov village mosque in Lankaran uezd and the grandson of one of the genocide victims, said in an interview with APA that the 13 unarmed village elders who went for peace negotiations were first shot in the courtyard of what is now called the Khan House - their headquarters at that time - and then, according to accounts, chopped into pieces with swords: "The dismembered elders were initially buried in the Dehne area of the city, on the side where the Lankaran River flows into the city. After Shivkunov's gang had retreated, the situation calmed down. When the search for the elders began, an eyewitness named Musa the water-carrier told my grandfather’s brother, a tea server named Akbar, that the elders had been buried in boxes in the Dehne area."
The villagers only learned of this incident several days later. The bodies were exhumed from their burial site by the local residents and taken to the village cemetery. The corpses had been dismembered with such brutality that they could only be identified by certain distinguishing features: "They were brought out at night and laid before the mosque. The people waited until dawn. Then, both villagers and townspeople gathered to bury the remains. According to Islamic law, the mutilated bodies could not be ritually washed, as their flesh had been intermingled. Instead, dry ritual purification (tayammum) was performed, and a single funeral prayer was recited for all of them before they were buried at the site where the mosque and dervish lodge stand adjacent to each other.'"
He stated that when the crates were opened, each [body] was identified by certain distinguishing marks: "Mullah Hamid Akhund was a religious figure - they recognized him by his skullcap, as well as the ring on his hand. Another was identified by his aba cloak. As for my grandfather, Sheikh Annaghi Sheikh Abdulhuseyn oglu, they recognized him from the mutilated part of his jaw - he had always dyed his beard with henna. Their ages varied as well."
The continuing massacres in Lankaran uezd
The atrocities in the Lankaran uezd did not end there. During the March 1918 genocide, more than 40 villages in Lankaran were burned to the ground, and hundreds of civilians were massacred. In just one day, around 70 people were killed in the Garmatuk settlement, nearly 30 in the Mamusta village, 30 in the Kargalan village, over 20 in the Sutemurdov settlement, and up to 20 civilians in the Girdani village.
The search for shelter of the survivors of the massacre
In 1918, the inhabitants of Lankaran city and surrounding villages retreated to Osakuje forest to find shelter for themselves. When temporary calm returned and residents went back to their homes, they once again witnessed Armenian atrocities. Houses were destroyed by cannon fire, shops and homes were looted and plundered. On the bodies of those killed and thrown into the sea, all signs of Armenian savagery and cruelty could be seen. Shivkunov's bandit gang joined forces with Armenian Dashnak forces and began shelling the territory of Lankaran city from a military vessel with artillery fire. As a result, one side of the wall of Kichik Bazar Mosque was destroyed by cannon fire.
The Garmatuk Massacre
The people of Garmatuk sent the village elder, Haji Aghabala, to negotiate with the sailors in an attempt to stop the massacre. Haji Aghabala, who spoke Russian well, came to the seaside holding a white flag, but the negotiations yielded no results. Shivkunov declared that there would be no ceasefire until the killer of the soldier who died in the shooting at the Gərmətük cemetery was found. Garmatuk was shelled for two days. Not satisfied with this, Armenian soldiers searched the village and, upon finding seven young men in hiding, executed them on the spot without interrogation.
Note that Shivkunov’s bandit gang, particularly the Armenians, either killed or subjected to horrific torture the most respected and distinguished elders of Lankaran uezd. In 1918, among those brutally dismembered and murdered in Lankaran uezd, the youngest was 20 years old, and the oldest was 84.
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