About two months after the massacres, on May 15, 1920, Karapet Vardapetyants, a priest and member of the Consistory of Shushi, and Mirza Ter-Sargsian, a church secretary, sent a letter to the Catholicos of all Armenians stating that more than 4,000 Armenians were killed during the massacres, 6,000 people fled and 3,000 were taken captive, many of whom were killed later, including women, children and the elderly.
The fact that this was a continuation of the Armenian Genocide carried out by the Ottoman Empire, in which the newly created Republic of Azerbaijan was also involved, is proved by plenty of archival documents.
Some of these documents, in particular, have been preserved in the Fund of National Archives of Armenia. About a month before the massacre took place, on February 25, 1920, the report sent by the Armenian diplomatic mission in Georgia states:
“Poidebard (the head of the French Military mission in Armenia) asks to inform you:
1. It is not Nuri (previous Ottoman minister, the brother of Enver Pasha, one of the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide) in Shushi but Khalil (Enver’s uncle, also a perpetrator of the Armenian Genocide).
2. Only the mobs will take part in the fights, not the army.
3. It is strictly ordered to wait for the Armenians to take the first step, placing responsibility on them.
4. Tartars are acting very cautious and adept in order to attract foreign missions to their side”.
As you can see, Khalil pasha - the uncle of Enver pasha, one of the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide - was there in the eve of the Shushi massacres. It is important to note that Enver pasha was personally involved in the murders of the hundreds of thousands of Armenians.
In a letter dated March 5, Karabakh Association in Yerevan notes that Azerbaijani authorities ordered Governor Sultanov (appointed in January 1919, with the support of the British General-Governor of Karabakh) and Khalil Pasha to launch a new offensive and disarm Karabakh.
“The latter (Sultanov and Khalil pasha) have organized mobs of Tartars and Kurds, mass pogroms of Armenians are being prepared, and they will start from Khankendi (Varakn, later Stepanakert) and Aghdam”,- the announcement reads.
According to the same statement, the Azerbaijani troops also demanded K...
