Document No. P 16674, preserved in the archives of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs! This is a letter sent on July 20, 1920, by Damien de Martel, France’s former High Commissioner (Ambassador) for the Caucasus based in Tbilisi, to the French Foreign Ministry. The letter is currently kept in the ministry’s archives.

Axar.az reports historian Zaur Aliyev made this comment in reference to a photo he shared (the photo is presented at the end of the article – ed.).

The historian noted that the letter describes how, in June 1920, 4,000 Azerbaijanis — including women and children — living in Armenia, around the capital Yerevan, were subjected to a mass massacre by the Armenian army.

Excerpt from the letter…"Regarding these military operations, I have received multiple accounts from witnesses who recently returned from Armenia about how the operations were conducted. At the end of June, Armenian troops besieged 25 Tatar (Azerbaijani) villages south of Yerevan, where over 40,000 Muslims (Azerbaijanis) lived. The population in this area near the capital, which had no claims of independence, had always led a quiet and peaceful life. They were driven out of their villages by artillery fire and forced into the Aras River. The vacated villages were quickly occupied by newly arriving Armenians. During this incident, 4,000 people — including women and children —were thrown into the Aras River and killed by Armenian soldiers. By detailing these events in this letter, I intend to show that it is not always the same people (nation) who suffer mass killings…”