The Illusive Goal Number 3

For most of you, the 3 Main Goals of Peace Corps are unknown. The 1st 2 Goals can be guessed in some form of another by most though...

1.   1. Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
2. 2.  Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.

Ahhh, but there is a third Goal.


     3. Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

So part of the purpose of this blog, is to encourage a knowledge and understanding of the Azerbaijani culture to whomever reads this blog. So for today's blog...a bit of a history lesson....


With Winter well underway and Spring just out of our rasps, there is a darker bit of Azerbaijani history that is being reflected on. There are three main days of Remembrance that are observed in the winter months that are an important part of the traditions. Here, these days are a very big part of the winter months, as reenactments take place in villages, gruesome pictures are posted all over school walls, and footage plays on repeat on the t.v.These "Death days"  are remembered each year, so as not to forget those who have been lost.

A little about each (content taken from the internet, as much of the history is debated)

Azerbaijan's Rememberance Days

Yirmi Yanvar (also known as January Massacre or Black Saturday) - 19&20 January 1990
Black January
Late at night on January 19, 1990 after blowing up of the central television station and termination of phone and radio lines by Soviet special forces, 26,000 Soviet troops entered Baku. According to one report, 93 Azerbaijanis and 29 Soviet soldiers were killed in the street skirmishes. Other reports state that 21 soldiers were killed and 90 wounded in the fighting.^[However, how the soldiers died is still disputed. The soldiers' death toll was claimed by Soviet authorities to have resulted from armed resistance, although some of the soldiers could have been victims of friendly fire.

Khojaly Massacre - 25 &26 February 1992
Khojaly Massacre
Azerbaijan honors victims - Boston Globe
The Khojoly Massacre was the killing^[of hundreds of ethnic  Azerbaijani civilians from the town of Khojaly on 25–26 February 1992 by the Armenian and CIS armed forces during the Nagorno-Karabakh War. According to the Azerbaijani side, as well as Memorial Human Rights Center, Human Rights Watch and other international observers, the massacre was committed by the ethnic Armenian armed forces, reportedly with help of the Russian 366th Motor Rifle Regiment, apparently not acting on orders from the command. The death toll provided by Azerbaijani authorities is 613 civilians, including 106 women and 83 children.

***Recently there was a campaign conducted by the Azerbaijan–American Alliance (AAA) with the aims of targeting one hundred million people. The campaign used posters and banners which were hung on central streets, public transport and metro stations in New York and Washington DC.

March Days - 30 March - 2 April 1918
Massacre of 1918
The March Days refer to an inter-ethnic strife and massacres of up to 12,000 Azerbaijanis and other Muslims that took place between March 30 and April 2, 1918 in the city of Baku and adjacent areas of the Baku Governorate of Russian Empire.


Quba Mass Grave - May 1918
In May 1918, an event similar to the March Days occurred in the Guba. Under the command of Hamazasp Srvantsyan. According to the investigative commission formed by the Government of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic,  Hamazasp's unit burned and destroyed the city of Quba and killed at least 122 people.

In 2007, during the construction of a stadium, builders discovered Guba mass grave. Studies of Azerbaijani and foreign scientists have confirmed that the human remains found there were local residents of various nationalities, including Jews and Lezgins, who had been massacred in 1918. To date, 600 human remains found, including about 50 children and 100 women.

***On February 29, 2012 My site mate and I took a trip out to the Mass Grave to pay our respects.