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Topkhana forest is an imaginary forest claimed to have been located near Shusha in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of the South Caucasus and destroyed by Armenians in 1988. The claim of its existence was created for propaganda purposes by Azerbaijan. The background to its creation was tensions over the political future of Nagorno-Karabakh, and it precipitated and encouraged civil and interethnic unrest that would eventually erupt into the Nagorno-Karabakh War.

Background

In October 1988 Abdurrahman Vazirov, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, announced in a speech that a bridge should be constructed across the Hunut gorge in order to expand the town of Shusha onto the opposite bank and link it to the surrounding countryside. Shusha was predominantly Azeri-populated but the opposite bank was inhabited exclusively by Armenians, who considered this was an attempt to expand Azeri-inhabited territory in Nagorno Karabakh at the expense of its Armenian population. The Karabakh Committee decided a symbolic Armenian-held structure should be erected on that opposite bank, and on 5th November consulted with the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Armenia, who, in return for an assurance that the upcoming October Revolution parade in Yerevan would not be disrupted, agreed to send trucks loaded with building materials for the construction. The trucks and materials arrived in Shusha on 7th November. This (in the Gregorian calendar) was the anniversary of the October 1917 revolution - but Shusha had been placed under curfew and the usual Communist parades and ceremonies had been cancelled. In some sources the proposed structure is described as a workshop, in most it is described as a recreational facility for workers at Yerevan's Kanaker aluminium factory.

History

Topkhana or Topkhan is the name of a gently-sloping hillside opposite (and visible from) the town of Shusha, but separated from the town by deep gorge containing the Karkar (also known as the Dashalti) river. Its name derives from it being the location of cannons ("top" in Turkish) of Mohammad Khan Qajar during his siege of Shushi in 1795. In early November 1988, before any construction had happened, the site was described by Galina Starovoitova as home to "just one rather spindly tree and some scrubby bushes".

On the 9th November 1988 construction work began at Topkhana on a vacation resort for workers at Yerevan's Kanaker aluminium factory. Permission for the work had been granted by the civic authorities of nearby Askeran, who had designated 15 acres of land for the project. However, the authorities in Baku were incensed that they had not been asked to give permission and the Azerbaijani government halted the construction and had the building materials removed from the site. Yuri Rost considered that this demonstration of control from Baku indicated to even the most passive inhabitants of Nagorno-Karabakh that there would be no political or economic reforms without secession from Azerbaijan. Marc Malkasian describes it as a "major symbolic skirmish".

The halting of the construction was accompanied by an "atmosphere of hysteria" erupting in Baku, fed by inaccurate information printed in local Baku newspapers, none of which had actually sent a reporter to Shusha. Nationalists had taken control of the Azerbaijani press, publishing stories that a "sacred grove" had been destroyed by Armenians who were going to build an aluminium plant. The aim was to stir up popular pro-Azerbaijani and anti-Armenian sentiments - an editorial in Bakinskiy Rabochiy (Baku Worker) asserted that for Azerbaijanis Topkhana was "the final drop that made the cup of patience overflow". Azerbaijan radio claimed that Topkhane was a "historical natural monument" and the site of an Azerbaijani fortress. In the words of Malkasian "a rather nondescript hill became a sacred forest in Baku media" as a "product of Transcaucasia's overheated political atmosphere". This resulted in an organized Azerbaijani popular movement emerging for the first time in the growing Nagorno-Karabagh crisis and, starting on November 17, large-scale demonstrations began in Baku's Lenin Square to protest against the supposed destruction at Topkhana. The November 17th event is now commemorated as a national holiday in Azerbaijan, known as "National Revival Day".

As the Baku demonstrations continued, they became increasingly Islamic and increasingly anti-Armenian, with chants of "death to the Armenians" and demands that those convicted of the murder of Armenians during the Sumgait pogrom be released. The demonstrations also developed into an anti-central government, anti-Soviet protest. On November 23 a curfew was imposed in Baku: as troops tried unsuccessfully to disperse the crowds, attacks on Armenians and their homes became more numerous. Civil unrest also spread to other towns in Azerbaijan with Armenian minorities, particularly Kirovabad.

Azerbaijani sources still maintain that the Baku reports of November 1988 about Topkhana are true, describing the alleged forest as "a true miracle of nature", claiming "here relict plants living bears, wolves, wild boars, foxes, hares, deer, quail, pigeons, a variety of other animals and birds. Along the forest stretched subalpine and alpine meadows, deep gorges boggle the imagination and springs. It is estimated that more than 2,000 oak trees and other rare species of trees have been felled and Topkhana transported to Armenia. Its rich flora and fauna continue to destroyed."

The gorge below Shusha containing the Karkar river is called the Hunot gorge and is a heavily-forested area: it now forms part of the Hunot Gorge State Reserve and is a popular tourist attraction for hikers. Photographs of the Hunot Gorge Reserve's forest are often presented as images of Topkhana forest in Azerbaijani sources.

Notes

1. Yuri Rost, "Armenian Tragedy". London, Weidenfield and Nicolson, 1990, pages 74-77.
2. Bakour Karapetyan, "The Roots of the Karabagh Problem", page 163.
3. Yuri Rost, "Armenian Tragedy". London, Weidenfield and Nicolson, 1990. Page 78.
4. Mark Malkasian, "Gha-ra-bagh!: The Emergence of the National Democratic Movement in Armenia", p169. Wayne State University Press, 1996.
5. Stuart J. Kaufman, "Modern Hatreds: The Symbolic Politics of Ethnic War". p67.
6. JPRS Report: Soviet Union Political Affairs, February 1989, page 60.
7. Stuart J. Kaufman, "Modern Hatreds: The Symbolic Politics of Ethnic War", p66.
8. 1992 Azerbaijani law defining official holidays: AZƏRBAYCAN RESPUBLİKASININ QANUNU. 1992-ci il, 27 oktyabr
9. Mark Malkasian, "Gha-ra-bagh!: The Emergence of the National Democratic Movement in Armenia", p170. Wayne State University Press, 1996.
10. http://portal.azertag.az/ru/node/1085#.VE5HI_msVr8

External links

Citizens of Baku in 2013 are asked what Topkhana forest is. Topxana meşəsi harada yerləşir?

• Orphaned articles from November 2014
• Geography of Nagorno-Karabakh
• Forests
• Fictional forests