At the end of 1917 – early 1918,in Baku had opened struggle by the Dashnak-Bolshevik forces against the national forces. On December 1917,the arrival of the Military Revolutionary Committee headed by S. Shaumyan, appointed by the Chairman of the Russian People’s Commissars Soviet from Tbilisi to Baku exacerbated the political situation. Red Army which was at the disposal of the Baku Council, was comprised of 20,000 armed forces, mostly Armenians. In March 1918 the political situation in Baku was very tense. Musavat, the strongest political party in the South Caucasus, was striving for Azerbaijan’s territorial autonomy.The Bolshevik forces, headed by Shaumyan, in cooperation with the Armenian National Council and the Dashnaktsutyun party, began a real war against Musavat. Disarmament of 48 officers and soldiers of the 48th Muslim division on the Evelina ship from Lankaran to Baku on March 27, 1918 was an excuse for the bloody clashes in Baku.On March 30, 1918, non-organized protest rallies began in different parts of the city.The city’s central and all Muslim neighborhoods have been subjected to armed attacks by Bolshevik-Armenian units, bombardment from airplanes, and continuous firing from the ships from the Caspian Fleet.On March, all sections of Azerbaijani population in Baku became victims of Armenian violence and looting.All efforts made by the Azerbaijani national elites and political forces to prevent further escalation of tension in the city have ultimately been ineffective.
According to the documents of the Extraordinary Investigation Comission, during the March massacre in 1918, in Baku and surrounding villages (Mohammadi, Ahmadli, Balakhani, Binagadi, Bibi-Heybat, Hokimli, Zabrat, Sabunchu, Ramana, Khirdalan, etc.) 12000 Muslims were the victims of the atrocities of the Armenian armed groups. In the tragic March of 1918, the amount of material damage inflicted on the city’s Muslim population was estimated at 400,000,000 rubles. The burned and destroyed buildings included the “Ismailia” (the building of Muslim Charity Association), the “Kaspi” newspaper, the Dagestan, Alexandria and Islamiya hotels. These Muslim hotels and caravanserai were burned with the people inside.
