Western Azerbaijan Community

“On mass expulsion of Azerbaijanis from their historical and ethnic lands in Armenian SSR in 1948-1953”

Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan

As a result of the policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide purposefully carried out over the past two centuries in the Caucasus against Azerbaijanis, our people have experienced hardships, national tragedy, and deprivation. As an outcome of this gradually implemented inhuman policy, the Azerbaijanis, having become exiles from the territory now called Armenia - from their original historical and ethnic  lands, where they lived for thousands of years - were subjected to massacres, and thousands of historical and cultural monuments and settlements elonging to our people were destroyed. Resolutions of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 4083 of December 23, 1947, and  No. 754 of March 10, 1948, were another historical criminal act against the Azerbaijani people. On the basis of these resolutions, in 1948-1953, more than one hundred and fifty thousand Azerbaijanis were forcibly expelled from the ancestral lands of their ancestors, located on the territory of the Armenian SSR.

These decisions violated customary law, had been carried out within authoritarian-totalitarian regime’s policies of repression and resulted in the loss of thousands of people, including children and the elderly, who died unable to endure extremely difficult conditions of resettlement, sharp climate changes, physical shock and moral genocide. In this case, along with the criminal policy of the Armenian chauvinist circles and the leadership of the USSR, the position of the leadership of Azerbaijan at

that time, which contradicted the fate of its people and its participation in the organization and implementation of crimes committed against our compatriots, played an important role. Unfortunately, the fact of the deportation of Azerbaijanis from the territory of the Armenian SSR in 1948-1953 over the past 50 years has not been sufficiently studied; these events have not been given a political and legal assessment.

Considering the foregoing, I hereby resolve as follows:

1. In order to comprehensively study the mass deportation of Azerbaijanis from historical-ethnic lands on the territory of the Armenian SSR in 1948-1953, to give a political and legal assessment of this historical crime committed at the state level against the Azerbaijani people, and to bring it to the attention of the international community, to form a state commission in the following composition:

Chairman of the State Commission:

Heydar Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Deputy Chairman of the State Commission:

Artur Rasizade, Prime Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Members of the State Commission:

Ramiz Mehdiyev, Head of the Presidential Administration of the

Republic of Azerbaijan

Vasif Talibov, Chairman of the Supreme Assembly of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic

Izzat Rustamov, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Elchin Efendiyev, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Gasan Gasanov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Namik Abbasov, Minister of National Security of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Ramil Usubov, Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of

Azerbaijan

Eldar Hasanov, Prosecutor General of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Sudaba Gasanova, First Deputy Minister of Justice of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Khanlar Hajiyev, Chairman of the Supreme Court of the Azerbaijan Republic

Sirus Tabrizli, Minister of Press and Information of the Republic of

Azerbaijan

Vafa Guluzade, Foreign Policy Advisor for the President of Azerbaijan

Gidayat Orujev, State Advisor of the Republic of Azerbaijan for

Interethnic Relations

         Fatma Abdullazade, Head of the department on humanitarian policy

issues of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Shahin Aliyev, Head of the Department of Legislation and Legal

Expertise of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Fuad Aleskerov, Head of Work with Law Enforcement Bodies of

The Presidential Administration of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Yusif Gumbatov, Head of the Department for Work with Territorial

Administration Bodies of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Ali Hasanov, Head of the Department of Social and Political Affairs

of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Rafael Allahverdiyev, Head of the Baku City Executive Power

Nizami Khudiyev, Chairman of the State Television and Radio Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Faramaz Maksudov, President of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences

Anar Rzayev, Chairman of the Writers’ Union of Azerbaijan

Jamil Guliyev, Acting Academician-Secretary of the Department of

Social Sciences of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences

Igrar Aliyev, Director of the Institute of History of the Academy of

Sciences of Azerbaijan

Budag Budagov, Director of the Institute of Geography of the

Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences

Atakhan Pashayev, Chief of the Central State Archive under the

Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Yusif Yusifov, Head of the Department of General History of the

Azerbaijan Pedagogical University named after N.Tusi

2. The Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Azerbaijan shall

resolve issues related to the implementation of this Decree.

Heydar Aliyev

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Baku, December 18, 1997.

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