| Revision as of 23:58, 21 September 2021 editKevo327 (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users7,777 edits Undid revision 1045506213 by 119.157.66.9 (talk) part of a quoteTags: Undo Mobile edit Mobile web edit Advanced mobile edit← Previous edit | Revision as of 06:31, 22 September 2021 edit undoMarshallBagramyan (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Extended confirmed users, Pending changes reviewers7,780 edits The 20,000 figure seems too fantastically high and doesn't look like it's even well-sourced. Also trimming down most of the useless block quotes cited here. Virtually none of them are coming from eyewitnesses and they add little next to nothingNext edit → | ||
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| | fatalities = 500<ref name="Hovan"/> | |||
| | fatalities = 500<ref name="Hovan"/> to 20,000 Armenians<ref name="nesl">{{Cite web| title = The Nagorno-Karabagh Crisis: A Blueprint for Resolution | work = ] and the ] Center for International Law & Policy |date=June 2000 | page = 3 | url = http://www.deutscharmenischegesellschaft.de/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/The-Nagorno-Karabagh-Crisis.pdf |format=PDF| quote = In August 1919, the Karabagh National Council entered into a provisional treaty agreement with the Azerbaijani government. Despite signing the Agreement, the Azerbaijani government continuously violated the terms of the treaty. This culminated in March 1920 with the Azerbaijanis' massacre of Armenians in Karabagh's former capital, Shusha, in which it is estimated that more than 20,000 Armenians were killed.}}</ref> | |||
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| The '''Shusha massacre''' or '''Shushi massacre''' ({{lang-hy|Շուշիի ջարդեր|translit=Shushii charder}}) was the mass killing of the ] population of ] and the destruction of the Armenian half of the city in 1920 |
The '''Shusha massacre''' or '''Shushi massacre''' ({{lang-hy|Շուշիի ջարդեր|translit=Shushii charder}}) was the mass killing of the ] population of ] and the destruction of the Armenian half of the city in 1920<ref>{{cite book|last=Chorbajian|first=Levon|title=The Caucasian Knot: The History & Geopolitics of Nagorno-Karabagh|year=1994|publisher=Zed Books|location=London|isbn=9781856492881|page=141|quote=The city of Shushi, formerly the third largest city in Transcaucasia, saw its Armenian population decimated by the massacre of March 1920.}}</ref><ref>{{in lang|ru}} A. Zubov, ,"Znamiya" journal, 2000, #4 "Британская администрация почему-то передала населенные армянами уезды Елизаветпольской губернии под юрисдикцию Азербайджана. Британский администратор Карабаха полковник Шательворт не препятствовал притеснениям армян, чинимым татарской администрацией губернатора Салтанова. Межнациональные трения завершились страшной резней, в которой погибла большая часть армян города Шуши. Бакинский парламент отказался даже осудить свершителей Шушинской резни, и в Карабахе вспыхнула война." <br /> "The British administrator of Karabakh, Colonel D.I. Shuttleworth did not interfere with the discrimination of Armenians by ]ian administration of governor Saltanov. The national clashes ended by the terrible massacres in which the most of Armenians in Shusha town perished. The Parliament in ] refused even condemn the accomplishers of the massacres in Shusha and the war was started in Karabakh."</ref> | ||
| The |
The massacre took place between 22 and 26 March 1920, and had as its background a ] over competing claims of ownership of the region by ] and ]. | ||
| ==Background== | ==Background== | ||
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| On April 23, 1919, the National Council of ] met again in Shusha and again rejected Azerbaijan's claim of ], insisting on their right of ]. After this, a local ] detachment encircled the ] quarters of Shusha, demanding the inhabitants to surrender the fortress. Shots were fired, but when the British mediated, Armenians agreed to surrender to them instead.<ref name="Armenia 1990, page 270"/> | On April 23, 1919, the National Council of ] met again in Shusha and again rejected Azerbaijan's claim of ], insisting on their right of ]. After this, a local ] detachment encircled the ] quarters of Shusha, demanding the inhabitants to surrender the fortress. Shots were fired, but when the British mediated, Armenians agreed to surrender to them instead.<ref name="Armenia 1990, page 270"/> | ||
| On the 4 and 5 June 1919, armed clashes occurred in Shusha between the two communities and Sultanov began a blockade of the town's Armenian quarters. American nurses working in Shusha for ] wrote of a massacre "by ] of 700 of the Christian inhabitants of the town".<ref>]</ref> A cease-fire was quickly organised after the Armenian side agreed to Sultanov's condition that members of the ] leave the town. However, a new wave of violence then swept through neighbouring Armenian-populated villages: in mid-June ] mounted "irregulars", about 2,000 strong, ] a large Armenian village, ], just outside Shusha, and approximately 600 Armenians lay dead.<ref name="Armenia 1990, page 270"/> | On the 4 and 5 June 1919, armed clashes occurred in Shusha between the two communities and Sultanov began a blockade of the town's Armenian quarters. American nurses working in Shusha for ] wrote of a massacre "by ] of 700 of the Christian inhabitants of the town".<ref>"," '']'', 4 September 1919.</ref> A cease-fire was quickly organised after the Armenian side agreed to Sultanov's condition that members of the ] leave the town. However, a new wave of violence then swept through neighbouring Armenian-populated villages: in mid-June ] mounted "irregulars", about 2,000 strong, ] a large Armenian village, ], just outside Shusha, and approximately 600 Armenians lay dead.<ref name="Armenia 1990, page 270"/> | ||
| The seventh Congress of the Armenians of Karabagh was convened in Shusha on 13 August 1919. It concluded with the agreement of 22 August, according to which Nagorno-Karabagh would consider itself to be provisionally within the borders of the ] until its final status was decided at the Peace Conference in Paris. | The seventh Congress of the Armenians of Karabagh was convened in Shusha on 13 August 1919. It concluded with the agreement of 22 August, according to which Nagorno-Karabagh would consider itself to be provisionally within the borders of the ] until its final status was decided at the Peace Conference in Paris. | ||
| On 19 February 1920 Sultanov issued a demand that the Armenian National Council of Karabagh "urgently to solve the question of the final incorporation of Karabagh into Azerbaijan".<ref name="Nagorno Karabagh in 1918-1920"> {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080124213324/http://nkr.am/eng/history/1918.htm |date=2008-01-24 }}</ref> The Council, at their eighth congress held from 23 February to 4 March, responded that Azerbaijan's demand violated the terms of the 22nd August provisional agreement and warned that "repetition of the events will compel the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabagh to turn to appropriate means for defence".<ref name="Nagorno Karabagh in 1918-1920"/> Armenians of Karabakh prepared a revolt against |
On 19 February 1920 Sultanov issued a demand that the Armenian National Council of Karabagh "urgently to solve the question of the final incorporation of Karabagh into Azerbaijan".<ref name="Nagorno Karabagh in 1918-1920"> {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080124213324/http://nkr.am/eng/history/1918.htm |date=2008-01-24 }}</ref> The Council, at their eighth congress held from 23 February to 4 March, responded that Azerbaijan's demand violated the terms of the 22nd August provisional agreement and warned that "repetition of the events will compel the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabagh to turn to appropriate means for defence".<ref name="Nagorno Karabagh in 1918-1920"/> Armenians of Karabakh prepared a revolt against Azerbaijani authority.<ref name="Ован">The Armenian People from ancient to modern times, ed. by Richard G. Hovannisian, USA, 1997, Vol. II, p. 318.</ref> | ||
| ===Revolt=== | ===Revolt=== | ||
| According to ], the failure at ] sealed the doom of ]. "As planned, the ] militia entered Shusha on the evening of March 22, supposedly to receive its pay and to felicitate Governor-General Sultanov on the occasion of ]. That same night, about 100 armed men led by Nerses Azbekian slipped into the city to disarm the Azerbaijani garrison in the Armenian quarter. But everything went wrong. The Varanda militiamen spent most of the night eating and drinking and were late in taking up their assigned positions, whereas Azbekian's detachment, failing to link up with the militia, began firing on the Azerbaijani fort from afar, awakening the troops and sending them scurrying to arms. It was only then that the Varanda militiamen were roused and began seizing Azerbaijani officers quartered in Armenian homes. The confusion on both sides continued until dawn, when the Azerbaijanis learned that their garrison at Khankend had held and, heartened, began to spread out into the Armenian quarter. The fighting took the Armenians of Shusha by surprise. Several thousand fled under cover of the dense fog by way of ] into the Varanda countryside.<ref name="Hovan"/> | According to ], the failure at ] sealed the doom of ]. "As planned, the ] militia entered Shusha on the evening of March 22, supposedly to receive its pay and to felicitate Governor-General Sultanov on the occasion of ]. That same night, about 100 armed men led by Nerses Azbekian slipped into the city to disarm the Azerbaijani garrison in the Armenian quarter. But everything went wrong. The Varanda militiamen spent most of the night eating and drinking and were late in taking up their assigned positions, whereas Azbekian's detachment, failing to link up with the militia, began firing on the Azerbaijani fort from afar, awakening the troops and sending them scurrying to arms. It was only then that the Varanda militiamen were roused and began seizing Azerbaijani officers quartered in Armenian homes. The confusion on both sides continued until dawn, when the Azerbaijanis learned that their garrison at Khankend had held and, heartened, began to spread out into the Armenian quarter. The fighting took the Armenians of Shusha by surprise. Several thousand fled under cover of the dense fog by way of ] into the Varanda countryside."<ref name="Hovan"/> | ||
| Audrey L. Altstadt writes, referring to a British correspondent in ], that representatives of ] in the region decided that the police of Karabakh should be made up of equal numbers of Armenians and Azerbaijanis; however, in late March 1920, the Armenian half of the police murdered the Azerbaijani half during the latter's traditional ] holiday celebrations.<ref>Audrey L. Altstadt. Azerbaijani Turks: Power and Identity Under Russian Rule. Hoover Press, 1992. {{ISBN|0-8179-9182-4}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8179-9182-1}}, p. 103</ref> | Audrey L. Altstadt writes, referring to a British correspondent in ], that representatives of ] in the region decided that the police of Karabakh should be made up of equal numbers of Armenians and Azerbaijanis; however, in late March 1920, the Armenian half of the police murdered the Azerbaijani half during the latter's traditional ] holiday celebrations.<ref>Audrey L. Altstadt. Azerbaijani Turks: Power and Identity Under Russian Rule. Hoover Press, 1992. {{ISBN|0-8179-9182-4}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8179-9182-1}}, p. 103</ref> | ||
| ==Massacre== | ==Massacre== | ||
| According to ], "Azerbaijani troops, joined by the city's Azerbaijani inhabitants, turned Armenian ] into an ]. From March 23 to 26, some 2,000 structures were consumed in the flames, including the churches and ], cultural institutions, schools, libraries, the business section and the grand homes of the merchant class. Bishop Vahan (Ter-Grigorian), long an advocate of accommodation with the Azerbaijani authorities, paid the price of retribution, as his tongue was torn out before his head was cut off and paraded through the streets on a spike. The chief of police, Avetis Ter-Ghukasian, was turned into a human torch, and many intellectuals were among the 500 Armenian victims |
According to ], "Azerbaijani troops, joined by the city's Azerbaijani inhabitants, turned Armenian ] into an ]. From March 23 to 26, some 2,000 structures were consumed in the flames, including the churches and ], cultural institutions, schools, libraries, the business section and the grand homes of the merchant class. Bishop Vahan (Ter-Grigorian), long an advocate of accommodation with the Azerbaijani authorities, paid the price of retribution, as his tongue was torn out before his head was cut off and paraded through the streets on a spike. The chief of police, Avetis Ter-Ghukasian, was turned into a human torch, and many intellectuals were among the 500 Armenian victims."<ref name="Hovan">Richard G. Hovannisian. The Republic of Armenia, Vol. III: From London to Sèvres, February–August 1920 p. 152.</ref> | ||
| According to the description of Azerbaijani ] Odzhakhkuli Musayev, "a ruthless destruction of defenceless women, children, old women and old men began. Armenians were exposed to a mass slaughter .... And what beautiful Armenian girls were ]d and then shot. ... At an order of ... Khosrov-bek Sultanov, ]s proceeded for more than six days, houses in the Armenian part were crushed, plundered and reduced all to ashes, everyone led women away whenever they wished, to ]ist ]s. During these historically "artful" punishments Khosrov-bek Sultanov, keeping speeches, talked to ]s about holy war (]) and called on to them to finish off the Armenians of city Shusha, not sparing women, children, etc."<ref>Институт Истории АН Армении, Главное архивное управление при СМ Республики Армения, Кафедра истории армянского народла Ереванского Государственного Университета. Нагорный Карабах в 1918–1923 гг. Сборник документов и материалов. Ереван, 1992. Документ №443: из письма члена компартии Азербайджана Оджахкули Мусаева правительству РСФСР. стр. 638–639 (Institute of History of the Academy of sciences of Armenia, the Main archival department at Ministerial council of Republic Armenia, Faculty of history of Armenian people of the Yerevan State University. Nagorny Karabakh per 1918–1923. Collection of documents and materials. ], 1992. The document №443: from the letter of a member of communist party of Azerbaijan Odzhakhkuli Musayev to the government of ]. рр. 638–639)</ref> | |||
| According to the '']'' (Third Edition, 1970), these events contributed to the death of 2,096 of the city's population. Subsequently, only a few Armenian families remained.<ref>''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'', vol. 17, London, Collier Macmillan, 1973, p. 301. quoted by Tim Potier. Conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia: A Legal Appraisal. {{ISBN|90-411-1477-7}}</ref> | |||
| ] wrote about Shusha in the 1920s: " ... in this town, which formerly, of course, was healthy and with every amenity, the picture of catastrophe and massacres was terribly vivid ... They say after the massacres all the wells were full of corpses. ( ... ) We didn't see anyone in the streets or on the mountain. Only downtown, in the market-square there were a lot of people, but there wasn't any Armenian among them, they were all Muslims."<ref>(in Russian) Н. Я. Мандельштам. ''Книга третья''. Париж, YMCA-Ргess, 1987, с.162–164.</ref> | |||
| On January 21, 1936, in the ], during the reception of the delegation from the ], ] remembers his visit to destroyed Shusha: | |||
| "Even today I remember what I saw in Shusha in 1920, with horror. The most beautiful Armenian town was completely destroyed, and in the wells we saw ]s of women and children."<ref>Партиздат ЦК ВКП(б), 1936, с. 60–63</ref> | |||
| The former Minister of Internal Affairs of the ], ], was assassinated during ] of the ] for his involvement in these events.<ref>"Помимо лидеров младотурок руководство операции "Немезис" приняло решение о ликвидации некоторых деятелей мусаватистского правительства Азербайджана, виновных, по их мнению, в организации резни армян в Баку в сентябре 1918 г. – бывшего премьер-министра Фатали хана Хойского (июнь 1920 г.), а также бывшего министра Бехбуд хана Дживаншира (июль 1921 г.), организатора резни армян в Шуши (Карабах)." (Ростов н/Д., 2005)</ref> | The former Minister of Internal Affairs of the ], ], was assassinated during ] of the ] for his involvement in these events.<ref>"Помимо лидеров младотурок руководство операции "Немезис" приняло решение о ликвидации некоторых деятелей мусаватистского правительства Азербайджана, виновных, по их мнению, в организации резни армян в Баку в сентябре 1918 г. – бывшего премьер-министра Фатали хана Хойского (июнь 1920 г.), а также бывшего министра Бехбуд хана Дживаншира (июль 1921 г.), организатора резни армян в Шуши (Карабах)." (Ростов н/Д., 2005)</ref> | ||
| == |
==Human toll== | ||
| According to the latest statistical data published in ] calendar in 1917, in 1916 just before the Russian revolution, the population of the town of ] was 43,869, of which 23,396 (53%) were ], and 19,121 (44%) were ] (Azerbaijanis).<ref> |
According to the latest statistical data published in ] calendar in 1917, in 1916 just before the Russian revolution, the population of the town of ] was 43,869, of which 23,396 (53%) were ], and 19,121 (44%) were ] (Azerbaijanis).<ref>''Kavkazskii Kalendar na 1917 god''. Tiflis, 1916, pp. 190–196.</ref> A conservative estimate by Hovannisian places the death toll at 500 Armenians and the destruction of many buildings in Shusha.<ref name="Hovan"/> | ||
| The massacre resulted in between 500 to 20,000 deaths<ref name="Hovan"/> and destruction of many buildings in Shusha. | |||
| === |
===Memory=== | ||
| {{Over-quotation|section|date=August 2013}} | |||
| The prominent ] ] ] who was in Shusha in 1931 wrote a ] ("The Phaeton Driver") dedicated to the Shusha massacres: | The prominent ] ] ] who was in Shusha in 1931 wrote a ] ("The Phaeton Driver") dedicated to the Shusha massacres: | ||
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| Are visible there from all directions, | Are visible there from all directions, | ||
| The cocoon of soulless work | The cocoon of soulless work | ||
| Buried |
Buried in the mountains.<ref>Osip Mandelstam, "Faetonshchik," {{cite web |url=http://www.klassika.ru/stihi/mandelshtam/mandel107.html |title=Archived copy |access-date=2007-08-29 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070813154250/http://www.klassika.ru/stihi/mandelshtam/mandel107.html |archive-date=2007-08-13 }}</ref><ref>Osip Mandelstam. ''Sochineniia''. 2 vols. (Moscow, 1990) 1: pp. 517–519.</ref> | ||
| </poem> | </poem> | ||
| Visiting Shusha several years after its devastation together with Osip, ] wrote, "in this town, which formerly, of course, was healthy and endowed with every amenity, the picture of catastrophe and massacres was terribly vivid ... They say after the massacres all the wells were full of corpses.... We didn't see anyone in the streets or on the mountain. Only in the centre of town, in the market-square, there were a lot of people, but there wasn't any Armenian among them, they were all Muslims."<ref>(in Russian) N. Ya. Mandelstam. ''Kniga tretia''. Paris: YMCA-Ргess, 1987, pp. 162–164.</ref> Numerous other communist officials recalled the destruction of the town, including, ],<ref>Partizdat TsK VKP (b), 1936, pp. 60–63.</ref> ],<ref>(in Russian) Шатуновская О. Г . Об ушедшем веке. Рассказывает Ольга Шатуновская / сост.: Д. Кутьина, А. Бройдо, А. Кутьин. – La Jolla (Calif.) : DAA Books, 2001. – 470 с., c. 71</ref>, and ] and ],<ref>"Here during the 3 days in March 1920, 7000 houses were destroyed and burnt, and the people are marking different numbers of that who were ]d...". (in Russian) Marietta Shaginyan, "Soviet Transcaucasus", Armgiz, 1947, p. 254</ref> Russian-Georgian writer Anaida Bestavashvili drew a comparison between the burning of Shusha to the destruction of ] in her ''The People and the Monuments''.<ref>{{dead link|date=May 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} // Армянский вестник, # 1–2, 2000</ref> | |||
| Two prominent Armenian-Russian ] activists, ] and ], wrote about the massacres in their ].<ref>"Here during the 3 days in March 1920, 7000 houses were destroyed and burnt, and the people are marking different numbers of that who were ]d...". (in Russian) Marietta Shaginyan, "Soviet Transcaucasus", Armgiz, 1947, p. 254</ref> Mikoyan, who was in the region, later remarked: "According to the ] information, at Azerbaijani Mousavatist government's disposal was army of 30-thousands, of whom 20 thousands deployed near the border of Armenia... The army of Azerbaijan shortly before that massacred the Armenians in Shusha, Karabakh."<ref>(in Russian) Микоян Анастас. Так было (воспоминания), http://biblioteka.org.ua/book.php?id=1121020105&p=19</ref> | |||
| Russian-Georgian writer Anaida Bestavashvili compared in her "The people and the monuments" publication the pogroms and the burning of Shusha to the tragedy of ].<ref>{{dead link|date=May 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} // Армянский вестник, # 1–2, 2000</ref> | |||
| Historian ] wrote that the refusal of the British authorities in Shusha to interfere with the massacre was a result of a "century of pro-Turkishness".<ref name="Armenia 1990, page 270"/> | |||
| Research analyst Kalli Raptis wrote in her book ''Nagorno-Karabakh and the Eurasian Transport Corridor'', "In July 1918, the First Armenian Assembly of Nagorno Karabakh declared the region self-governing and created a national Council and government. In August 1919, the Karabakh national Council entered into a provisional treaty arrangement with the Azerbaijani government in order to avoid military conflict with a superior adversary". Azerbaijan's violation of the treaty culminated in March 1920 with the massacre of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh's capital, ] (called ] by the ]s)".<ref name="eliamep">{{Cite web|quote=massacre of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh's capital, Shushi (called Shusha by the Azerbaijanis)" |author=Kalli Raptis |title=Nagorno-Karabakh and the Eurasian Transport Corridor |url=http://www.eliamep.gr/eliamep/files/op9803.PDF |work=] }}{{dead link|date=September 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> | |||
| The ''Armenia, Armenia: about the country and the people from the ] to our days'' reference book considers the pogroms of Shusha as a part of genocide of Armenians practiced all over ]: "Shushi, the capital of Karabakh was seized by Azerbaijani nationalists on March 23, 1920, over 20,000 Armenians were killed and 7000 houses, libraries, churches, cemeteries and ]s were leveled in three days and three nights."<ref>Armenia, Armenia: about the country and the people from the ] to our days", a reference-book, by V. Krivopuskov, V. Osipov, V. Alyoshkin and others, ed. V.V. Krivopuskov, Third ed., revised and expanded. Moscow, Golos-Press, 2007. 136 p., p. 30-31, {{ISBN|978-5-7117-0179-8}}</ref> | |||
| ] wrote about the massacres: "Finally, in August 1919, the ] yielded to provisional and conditional Azerbaijani jurisdiction. The twenty-six conditions strictly limited the Azerbaijani administrative and military presence in the region and underscored the internal autonomy of Mountainous Karabagh. | |||
| Violations of those conditions by Azerbaijan culminated in an abortive rebellion in March 1920. In retribution, the Azerbaijani forces burned the beautiful city of Shushi, hanged Bishop Vahan, and massacred much of the population. It was the end of Armenian Shushi."<ref>The Armenian People from ancient to modern times, ed. by ], USA, 1997, Vol. II, p. 318</ref> | |||
| Modern journalist ] wrote in his book '']'' about these events:<ref>{{cite book|last=de Waal|first=Thomas|title=]|year=2003|publisher=New York University Press|location=New York|isbn=9780814719459|author-link=Thomas de Waal|pages=51–25}}</ref> | |||
| {{quote|The devastating sack of 1920 came after the Russians had left and at the end of another period of economic disruption and civil war. On that occasion an Azerbaijani army rampaged through the Armenian upper town, burning whole streets and killing hundreds of Armenians. When the Russians returned, wearing Bolshevik uniforms, Stepanakert was made the new capital of Nagorny Karabakh. The ruins of the Armenian quarter of Shusha stood, ghostly and untouched, for more than forty years.}} | |||
| In Karabakh, the Armenian community was split between the age-old dilemma of cooperation or confrontation. There were those – primarily ]s and villagers – who wanted unification with ], and those – mainly ]s, ]s, and ]s – who, in the words of the Armenian historian Richard Hovannisian, "admitted that the district was economically with eastern ] and sought accommodation with the Azerbaijani government as the only way to spare Mountainous Karabagh from ruin". The latter group was mainly concentrated in Shusha, but both groups were killed or expelled when an Armenian rebellion was brutally put down in March 1920 with a toll of hundreds of Shusha Armenians. He also wrote that "In March 1920, an Azerbaijani army sacked the town, burning the Armenian quarter and killing some five hundred Armenians." | |||
| According to Tim Potier, "Following the ], Karabakh became part of the independent ], although its control was hotly disputed by Ottoman and British forces, as well as, of course, Armenians and Azerbaijanis. Shusha had, by this time, come to be regarded by the Armenian people as an Armenian ] and it was not until 28 February 1920 that the Armenian ]s of Shusha reluctantly agreed to recognise Azerbaijan's authority. The situation was to alter following the events of 4 April, when a ] of Armenians from Shusha to nearby ] (], today the capital of ]), following an Armenian uprising put down by Azerbaijani forces, transformed, almost overnight, Shusha into an Azerbaijani city.<ref>Tim Potier. Conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, ], and ]: A Legal Appraisal. {{ISBN|90-411-1477-7}}</ref> | |||
| On March 20, 2000, a memorial stone was laid in Shusha on the site of the planned monument to the victims of the pogrom. The ] government introduced a proposal to the ] to establish March 23 as a day of memorial of the victims of the Shusha pogroms.<ref>Nagornyy Karabakh marks 80th anniversary of 1920 Armenian pogroms, Noyan Tapan, 24 Mar. 2000</ref> | |||
| ==See also== | ==See also== | ||
Revision as of 06:31, 22 September 2021
1920 mass killing of Armenian civilians by Azerbaijani forces in Nagorno-Karabakh| Shushi massacre | |
|---|---|
 Ruins of the Armenian half of Shusha after the city's destruction by Azerbaijani army in March 1920. In the center: defaced Armenian Ghazanchetsots Cathedral | |
| Location | Nagorno-Karabakh (disputed between Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and First Republic of Armenia) |
| Date | March 1920 |
| Target | Armenian civilians |
| Attack type | Massacre, riots, pogrom |
| Deaths | 500 |
The Shusha massacre or Shushi massacre (Template:Lang-hy) was the mass killing of the Armenian population of Shusha and the destruction of the Armenian half of the city in 1920
The massacre took place between 22 and 26 March 1920, and had as its background a conflict over competing claims of ownership of the region by Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Background
At the end of the First World War, the ownership of the territory of Nagorno-Karabagh was disputed between the newly founded states of the Democratic Republic of Armenia and the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. Shusha – the territory's largest settlement, its capital, and with a mixed population consisting mostly of ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijanis – found themselves at the centre of the dispute.
The government of Azerbaijan proclaimed in Baku the annexation of the disputed territory and, on January 15, 1919, appointed Khosrov bek Sultanov, as governor-general of Karabagh. The United Kingdom had a small detachment of troops stationed in Shusha and acceded to Sultanov's appointment as provisional governor, but insisted that a final decision on the territory's ownership should be decided only at a future peace conference.
In response to Sultanov's appointment, the General Assembly of the Armenians of Karabagh (Armenian National Council of Karabagh), meeting in Shusha on February 19, "rejected with legitimate indignation all pretence of Azerbaijan with regard to Armenian Karabagh, which said Assembly has declared an integral part of Armenia".
On April 23, 1919, the National Council of Karabagh met again in Shusha and again rejected Azerbaijan's claim of sovereignty, insisting on their right of self-determination. After this, a local Azerbaijani detachment encircled the Armenian quarters of Shusha, demanding the inhabitants to surrender the fortress. Shots were fired, but when the British mediated, Armenians agreed to surrender to them instead.
On the 4 and 5 June 1919, armed clashes occurred in Shusha between the two communities and Sultanov began a blockade of the town's Armenian quarters. American nurses working in Shusha for Near East Relief wrote of a massacre "by Tartars of 700 of the Christian inhabitants of the town". A cease-fire was quickly organised after the Armenian side agreed to Sultanov's condition that members of the Armenian National Council leave the town. However, a new wave of violence then swept through neighbouring Armenian-populated villages: in mid-June Azerbaijani mounted "irregulars", about 2,000 strong, attacked, looted and burnt a large Armenian village, Khaibalikend, just outside Shusha, and approximately 600 Armenians lay dead.
The seventh Congress of the Armenians of Karabagh was convened in Shusha on 13 August 1919. It concluded with the agreement of 22 August, according to which Nagorno-Karabagh would consider itself to be provisionally within the borders of the Republic of Azerbaijan until its final status was decided at the Peace Conference in Paris.
On 19 February 1920 Sultanov issued a demand that the Armenian National Council of Karabagh "urgently to solve the question of the final incorporation of Karabagh into Azerbaijan". The Council, at their eighth congress held from 23 February to 4 March, responded that Azerbaijan's demand violated the terms of the 22nd August provisional agreement and warned that "repetition of the events will compel the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabagh to turn to appropriate means for defence". Armenians of Karabakh prepared a revolt against Azerbaijani authority.
Revolt
According to Richard Hovannisian, the failure at Khankendi sealed the doom of Shusha. "As planned, the Varanda militia entered Shusha on the evening of March 22, supposedly to receive its pay and to felicitate Governor-General Sultanov on the occasion of Novruz Bairam. That same night, about 100 armed men led by Nerses Azbekian slipped into the city to disarm the Azerbaijani garrison in the Armenian quarter. But everything went wrong. The Varanda militiamen spent most of the night eating and drinking and were late in taking up their assigned positions, whereas Azbekian's detachment, failing to link up with the militia, began firing on the Azerbaijani fort from afar, awakening the troops and sending them scurrying to arms. It was only then that the Varanda militiamen were roused and began seizing Azerbaijani officers quartered in Armenian homes. The confusion on both sides continued until dawn, when the Azerbaijanis learned that their garrison at Khankend had held and, heartened, began to spread out into the Armenian quarter. The fighting took the Armenians of Shusha by surprise. Several thousand fled under cover of the dense fog by way of Karintak into the Varanda countryside."
Audrey L. Altstadt writes, referring to a British correspondent in Baku, that representatives of Allied Powers in the region decided that the police of Karabakh should be made up of equal numbers of Armenians and Azerbaijanis; however, in late March 1920, the Armenian half of the police murdered the Azerbaijani half during the latter's traditional Novruz Bayram holiday celebrations.
Massacre
According to Richard Hovannisian, "Azerbaijani troops, joined by the city's Azerbaijani inhabitants, turned Armenian Shusha into an inferno. From March 23 to 26, some 2,000 structures were consumed in the flames, including the churches and consistory, cultural institutions, schools, libraries, the business section and the grand homes of the merchant class. Bishop Vahan (Ter-Grigorian), long an advocate of accommodation with the Azerbaijani authorities, paid the price of retribution, as his tongue was torn out before his head was cut off and paraded through the streets on a spike. The chief of police, Avetis Ter-Ghukasian, was turned into a human torch, and many intellectuals were among the 500 Armenian victims."
The former Minister of Internal Affairs of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, Behbud Khan Javanshir, was assassinated during Operation Nemesis of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation for his involvement in these events.
Human toll
According to the latest statistical data published in Caucasus calendar in 1917, in 1916 just before the Russian revolution, the population of the town of Shusha was 43,869, of which 23,396 (53%) were Armenians, and 19,121 (44%) were Tatars (Azerbaijanis). A conservative estimate by Hovannisian places the death toll at 500 Armenians and the destruction of many buildings in Shusha.
Memory
The prominent Russian poet Osip Mandelstam who was in Shusha in 1931 wrote a poem ("The Phaeton Driver") dedicated to the Shusha massacres:
So in Nagorno-Karabakh
These were my fears
Forty thousand dead windows
Are visible there from all directions,
The cocoon of soulless work
Buried in the mountains.
Visiting Shusha several years after its devastation together with Osip, Nadezhda Mandelstam wrote, "in this town, which formerly, of course, was healthy and endowed with every amenity, the picture of catastrophe and massacres was terribly vivid ... They say after the massacres all the wells were full of corpses.... We didn't see anyone in the streets or on the mountain. Only in the centre of town, in the market-square, there were a lot of people, but there wasn't any Armenian among them, they were all Muslims." Numerous other communist officials recalled the destruction of the town, including, Sergo Ordzhonikidze, Olga Shatunovskaya,, and Anastas Mikoyan and Marietta Shaginyan, Russian-Georgian writer Anaida Bestavashvili drew a comparison between the burning of Shusha to the destruction of Pompeii in her The People and the Monuments.
See also
References
- ^ Richard G. Hovannisian. The Republic of Armenia, Vol. III: From London to Sèvres, February–August 1920 p. 152.
- Chorbajian, Levon (1994). The Caucasian Knot: The History & Geopolitics of Nagorno-Karabagh. London: Zed Books. p. 141. ISBN 9781856492881.
The city of Shushi, formerly the third largest city in Transcaucasia, saw its Armenian population decimated by the massacre of March 1920.
- (in Russian) A. Zubov, Политическое будущее Кавказа: опыт ретроспективно-сравнительного анализа (Political future of the Caucasus),"Znamiya" journal, 2000, #4 "Британская администрация почему-то передала населенные армянами уезды Елизаветпольской губернии под юрисдикцию Азербайджана. Британский администратор Карабаха полковник Шательворт не препятствовал притеснениям армян, чинимым татарской администрацией губернатора Салтанова. Межнациональные трения завершились страшной резней, в которой погибла большая часть армян города Шуши. Бакинский парламент отказался даже осудить свершителей Шушинской резни, и в Карабахе вспыхнула война."
"The British administrator of Karabakh, Colonel D.I. Shuttleworth did not interfere with the discrimination of Armenians by Tatarian administration of governor Saltanov. The national clashes ended by the terrible massacres in which the most of Armenians in Shusha town perished. The Parliament in Baku refused even condemn the accomplishers of the massacres in Shusha and the war was started in Karabakh." - ^ "Armenia: The Survival of a Nation", revised second edition, 1990, by Christopher J. Walker, page 270
- "letter from Avetis Aharonian, president of the delegation of the Republic of Armenia, addressed to the presidents of the delegations of Italy, France, England, and the U.S."
- "Nurses Stuck to Post," The New York Times, 4 September 1919.
- ^ "Nagorno Karabagh in 1918–1920" Archived 2008-01-24 at the Wayback Machine
- The Armenian People from ancient to modern times, ed. by Richard G. Hovannisian, USA, 1997, Vol. II, p. 318.
- Audrey L. Altstadt. Azerbaijani Turks: Power and Identity Under Russian Rule. Hoover Press, 1992. ISBN 0-8179-9182-4, ISBN 978-0-8179-9182-1, p. 103
- "Помимо лидеров младотурок руководство операции "Немезис" приняло решение о ликвидации некоторых деятелей мусаватистского правительства Азербайджана, виновных, по их мнению, в организации резни армян в Баку в сентябре 1918 г. – бывшего премьер-министра Фатали хана Хойского (июнь 1920 г.), а также бывшего министра Бехбуд хана Дживаншира (июль 1921 г.), организатора резни армян в Шуши (Карабах)." I. P. Dobaev, V. I. Nemchina: И.П.Добаев, В.И.Немчина. Новый терроризм в мире и на Юге России: сущность, эволюция, опыт противодействия (Ростов н/Д., 2005)
- Kavkazskii Kalendar na 1917 god. Tiflis, 1916, pp. 190–196.
- Osip Mandelstam, "Faetonshchik," "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-08-13. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - Osip Mandelstam. Sochineniia. 2 vols. (Moscow, 1990) 1: pp. 517–519.
- (in Russian) N. Ya. Mandelstam. Kniga tretia. Paris: YMCA-Ргess, 1987, pp. 162–164.
- Partizdat TsK VKP (b), 1936, pp. 60–63.
- (in Russian) Шатуновская О. Г . Об ушедшем веке. Рассказывает Ольга Шатуновская / сост.: Д. Кутьина, А. Бройдо, А. Кутьин. – La Jolla (Calif.) : DAA Books, 2001. – 470 с., c. 71
- "Here during the 3 days in March 1920, 7000 houses were destroyed and burnt, and the people are marking different numbers of that who were massacred...". (in Russian) Marietta Shaginyan, "Soviet Transcaucasus", Armgiz, 1947, p. 254
- Anaida Bestavashvili, Lyudi i pamyatniki (in Russian) // Армянский вестник, # 1–2, 2000
Further reading
- Armenia, Armenia: about the country and the people from the Biblical times to our days, a reference-book, by V. Krivopuskov, V. Osipov, V. Alyoshkin and others, ed. V.V. Krivopuskov, Third ed., revised and expanded. Moscow, Golos-Press, 2007. pp. 30–31.
- (in Russian) В Нагорном Карабахе осудили погромы 1920 года в Шуши
External links
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| See also | List of massacres of Armenians |
Categories:
- 1920 in Armenia
- 1920 in Azerbaijan
- Massacres in Armenia
- History of the Republic of Artsakh
- Massacres perpetrated by Muslims
- Persecution of Oriental Orthodox Christians
- Persecution of Christians by Muslims
- Massacres in Azerbaijan
- Conflicts in 1920
- March 1920 events
- Mass murder in 1920
- Massacres in the 1920s
- Azerbaijani war crimes
- War crimes in Azerbaijan
- Military history of Shusha