The roundtable was attended by Subhan Talibli, a specialist at the Guba Genocide Memorial Complex, Doctor of Philosophy in History and Associate Professor; Tural Valizade, a teacher at Baku Military College and Baku Girls University and a doctoral student at Baku State University; Hasan Safari, Senior Researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of ANAS and Doctor of Philosophy in History; Rasim Mirzayev, Head of Department at the Veterans Organization of War, Labor and Armed Forces of the Republic of Azerbaijan; Vagif Mammadov, Chairman of the Yasamal District Council of Veterans of Labor, War, Armed Forces and Law Enforcement Agencies; as well as teachers and students of Baku Girls University and Baku State College of Communications and Transport.
First, the guests viewed an art exhibition in the foyer of the Center dedicated to the March 31 genocide.
The official part of the event began with the performance of the National Anthem of the Republic of Azerbaijan and a one-minute silence in memory of the victims of the March 31 genocide.
Nigar Huseynova, Chief Custodian of the Center’s collections, delivered the opening speech, emphasizing the historical significance of the decree signed by National Leader Heydar Aliyev on March 26, 1998. She noted that it was this decree that declared March 31 at the state level as the “Day of the Genocide of Azerbaijanis” and, for the first time, gave a legal and political assessment to the tragedy.
Speakers Subhan Talibli, Hasan Safari, Rasim Mirzayev, and Tural Valizade provided detailed information about the mass killings committed between March 30 and April 3, 1918, in Baku, Shamakhi, Guba, Khachmaz, Lankaran, Zangezur, and Karabakh. Their speeches substantiated, with archival documents and historical evidence, the crimes committed against the civilian population by the Baku Soviet and Dashnak Armenian armed groups.
At the end of the event, a documentary film titled “March 31 – the Day of the Genocide of Azerbaijanis” was screened.
