Azerbaijan’s Consulate General commemorates the Holocaust in Los Angeles

The Consulate General of Azerbaijan in Los Angeles hosted on Nov. 9, 2017 a commemoration dedicated to the 79th anniversary of the Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) in Nazi Germany, which ushered in the Holocaust against the Jewish people.

Held with the “Save a Heart Foundation,” which was established by the Jewish doctors of the world-famous Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the event was attended by members of the Foundation.

Speaking at the event, the Chairman of the Foundation Dr. Yzhar Charuzi and the Foundation member Esther Blaugrund expressed their gratitude to the Consulate General for hosting this important commemoration. Talking about the Kristallnacht of Nov. 9/10, 1938, when Jews were subjected to brutal pogroms throught the Nazi Germany, the speakers mentioned that namely this tragic night became the beginning of the eventual ‘Final Solution’ and the Holocaust that would kill over 6 million Jews by the end of the World War II in 1945.

Azerbaijan’s Consul General Nasimi Aghayev noted in his remarks that the Azerbaijani people could feel the pain and suffering of the Jewish people. Speaking of the genocides suffered by the Azerbaijani people in the 20th century, Aghayev mentioned the infamous March Genocide of 1918, which was committed by Armenian Dashnaks and Bolsheviks against tens of thousands of Azerbaijani civilians – a fact corroborated by a New York Times report of 1919 and other independent sources. The Consul General noted that alongside Azerbaijanis, the Jewish citizens of Azerbaijan were also among the victims of this horrific genocide in 1918. Aghayev said that the injustices and cruelties against Azerbaijanis continued in the early 1992, when the town of Khojaly in Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region was invaded by Armenian troops, who carried out a brutal mass murder of the fleeing civilian population. “The Khojaly Genocide was part of a larger campaign by Armenia to invade and ethnically cleanse around 20% of Azerbaijan’s sovereign territory,” so Aghayev. The Consul General noted that given this tragic history and centuries-old brotherhood between the Azerbaijani and Jewish people, “it is a moral obligation for both nations to stand and work together in order to make sure that such tragedies are not repeated again”.

Aghayev also mentioned that during the Holocaust Azerbaijan embraced and sheltered tens of thousands of Jews fleeing the Nazi persecutions in Eastern Europe.

The event concluded with the screening of a documentary film “Shores of Light” by Israeli film-makers about the Holocaust survivors and the poignant story of warmth and compassion after a terrible war.