Azernews.Az

By Seymur Aliyev

The Azerbaijan Institute of History has submitted to the Prosecutor General's Office some documents citing facts of the 1918 genocide committed by Armenians against Azerbaijanis for their further submission to the Hague-based International Court of Justice.

According to the director of the Institute Yagub Mahmudov, following the handover of the first four volumes of relevant documents, another part of the papers will be submitted to the prosecutor's office after scrutiny.

"Part of the Azerbaijani territory in the Erivan khanate was granted to the Armenians on May 29, 1918 based on a wrong decision of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic [the first Azerbaijani independent state, which lasted 23 months]. The Armenian Republic of Ararat, established in the former Azerbaijani territories, repeatedly committed genocide against Azerbaijanis," Mahmudov told Trend news agency.

"Now we are studying these tragic historical facts. I believe that the Prosecutor General's Office will cooperate with the institute more closely in this regard and submit them to the international court," he said.

Azerbaijani and Turkish historians will jointly study the facts of the genocide committed by the Armenians against Turks and Azerbaijanis, Mahmudov said.

"A special commission has been established," he noted. "Results of researches will be made public as soon as they are ready."

During the mass killings in 1918, about 30,000 Azerbaijani citizens were brutally murdered by the Armenians and 836 villages were set on fire. Also, 132,000 Azerbaijanis were killed in Erivan.