At the beginning of the 20th century, the Armenian nationalists launched the implementation of their policy of ethnic and genocidal cleansing by the planned expulsion of the Azerbaijanis from their historic lands, by expanding their activities to realise their idea of ​​”Great Armenia” , put forward in the program of the Dachnaktsoutioun party. In 1905-1906, the Armenians committed massacres against the Azerbaijanis in Baku, Gandja, Karabagh, Irévan, Nakhtchivan, Ordoubad, Chérour-Dereleyez, Tiflis, Zanguézour, Gazakh and in d ‘other localities where the civilian population was brutally murdered, towns and villages burned and destroyed. Armenian troops devastated more than 200 localities populated by Azerbaijanis in the Shusha districts, Zanguézour and Djabraïl, in the governments of Irévan and Gandja, thousands of our compatriots have become refugees and displaced persons. The Armenians carried out an ethnic cleansing by exterminating without distinction more than 200,000 Azerbaijanis (including children, women and the elderly) to build in these territories “the State of Armenia”, promised by Tsarist Russia. Thus, the Armenians, still protected by tsarism, continued even during the First World War the massacres against the Azerbaijani people.

Following the events of February and October in 1917 in Russia, the Dachnaktsutioun party and the Armenian National Congress further expanded their activities. At the same time, S. Chaoumian, appointed by V. Lenin as Acting Extraordinary Commissioner for the Caucasus, in December 1917, became the organizer and leader of the massacres of the Azerbaijanis. During the period from the beginning of 1917 to March 1918, Armenian troops destroyed 197 villages in the government of Irévan, 109 villages in the Zanguézour district, 157 villages in Karabakh, burned and devastated 60 localities in the other regions.

The number of Armenian troops, under the direct command of Chaoumian, was nearly 20,000 at the beginning of 1918. Chaoumian, protected by both the Bolsheviks and Lenin, became the head of the Commune of Baku. On March 30 of the same year, Armenian Bolshevik troops bombed Baku with artillery fire from ships. Subsequently, the armed dachnaks began to attack the homes of Azerbaijanis and committed ruthless killings. The massacres had a massive character on March 31 and during the first days of April. Thousands of innocent Azerbaijanis were killed only because of their national affiliation. These days, troops of Armenian Bolsheviks exterminated 12,000 innocent Azerbaijanis. During these bloody events,

During the first five months of 1918, following the armed attack by the Armenians in the district of Gouba, more than 16,000 people were cruelly murdered, 167 villages were burned, 35 of which do not exist. These days. The facts discovered in the massacre of Azerbaijanis by groups of Armenian dachnaks in the district of Gouba have been proven once more in recent times. Thus, the discovery of mass graves in the city of Gouba in 2007 constitutes a fact confirming Armenian vandalism. During the study of the mass graves, it was revealed that people had been cruelly killed during the attack of the Armenian armed troops in Gouba in 1918 and that these graves belonged to the indigenous inhabitants collectively buried. It should also be noted that the Armenian armed troops, in collaboration with the leaders of Hamazasp, committed massacres not only against the Muslim population, but also against the Jews in Gouba. According to the results of studies carried out, it became clear that around 3,000 Jews were killed by Armenians in Gouba in 1918-1919.

In addition, hundreds of Azerbaijani localities, including 150 villages in Karabakh, were destroyed and burned, as well as ruthless massacres were perpetrated against the Azerbaijanis in Shusha . In March-April 1918, nearly 50,000 people were cruelly killed by the Armenian dachnaks in Baku and other Azerbaijani regions. More than 10,000 people were massacred in the district of Zanguézour, 10,270 people in that of Chamakhy (Chamakhi), in total 18,270 people with the city.

In the years 1918-1920, out of 575,000 Azerbaijanis who lived in the territory of present-day Armenia, 565,000 were killed and expelled from their native lands. This figure is mentioned in the book “The population of Soviet Armenia 1831-1931” by Z. Korkodian, who confirms that “the dachnaks left a Turkish (Azerbaijani) population of just over 10,000 people in the Soviet government in 1920. Following the return of 60,000 refugees in 1922, the Azerbaijanis made up 72,596 people there, while in 1931 the population of Azerbaijan amounted to 105,838 people ”. During the last two months of 1919, 96 villages were destroyed in the districts of Etchmiadzin and Surmeli of the government of Irévan, while all the villages of the district of Irévan were devastated, 132.

In general, the continuation of the massacres perpetrated by the Armenians in the years 1918-1920 in Baku, Gouba, Chamakhy, Kurdemir, Lenkoran, as well as in Shusha , in the government of Irévan, in Zanguézour, in Nakhchivan, in Cherour, Ordoubad, Kars and other regions have caused the most cruel extermination of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis and the expulsion of more than a million people from their native lands. By committing these savagery in Azerbaijani historic lands, the Armenians burned schools and mosques, destroyed material cultural elements.

The Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry, established following the founding of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan, on May 28, 1918, began to investigate the crimes perpetrated by the Armenians. With a government decree, March 31 was celebrated annually as a Day of Mourning (celebrated as a National Day of Mourning on March 31, 1919 and 1920). However, the fall of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan prevented this case from being completed. When the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan was founded, the geopolitical situation in the region led to the granting of the city of Irévan to the Armenians as a political center. Thus, in 1918, on the territory of the former Khanate of Irévan, the Azerbaijani lands, the Republic of Armenia was founded.

The artificial increase of Armenians in the mountainous part of Karabakh, following the transfer process forming part of the colonization policy of Tsarist Russia and continued throughout the 19th century, caused since the beginning of the 20th century the appearance of their territorial ambitions and their policy of aggression against Azerbaijan. The greatest ambition of the Armenians was to take Karabagh and Zanguézour. In order to carry out its occupation plans, the government of Armenia has sent armed troops there. Therefore, the Armenian troops aspiring to seize the Karabakh lands have devastated hundreds of localities, cruelly annihilated thousands of civilians among the Azerbaijani population.

In January 1919, the Armenian Dashnak government put forward a land claim concerning Karabakh against Azerbaijan. A first official attempt has therefore been made to link the mountainous part of Karabakh to Armenia. The Azerbaijani government has repeatedly offered to resolve the problem by peaceful means, but the position taken by the dachnaks has prevented these proposals from being realized.

The Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan, which considered the maintenance of territorial integrity and the security of its citizens as its priority objective, firmly rejected the territorial claims of the Republic of Armenia. The Azerbaijani parliament, having deliberated on the “Karabakh” issue, began to take practical measures to prevent the separatist movement. To this end, the Azerbaijani government detached, on January 15, 1919, the districts of Shusha , Djabraïl, Djavanchir and Zanguézour from the government of Gandja and founded the general government of Karabakh, whose center was Shusha and Governor General Khosrov bey Soultanov. The latter was instructed by the Azerbaijani government to establish order and train local authorities.

Thanks to intensive efforts by the Azerbaijani government, with the mediation of representatives of the United States of America, a contract was concluded on November 23, 1919, in Tiflis, between the republics of Azerbaijan and Armenia. In accordance with the contract, the confrontations were to be stopped, the contentious issues, including border issues, were to be settled by negotiation. However, the Armenian side brutally violated this agreement and committed terrible massacres against the Azerbaijanis by sending its troops to Azerbaijani lands. But, at the time when the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan existed, Armenia’s attempts to seize Karabakh by diplomatic and military means were resolutely prevented.