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{{Short description|1920 mass killing of Armenian civilians by Azerbaijani forces in Nagorno-Karabakh}}
]]]
{{Infobox civilian attack
The '''Shushi massacres''' <ref>Armenia in Crisis: The 1988 Earthquake - Page 6
| title = Shusha massacre
by Pierre Verluise</ref> were anti-Armenian pogroms during a war which resulted in more than
| partof = the ]
20,000 Armenian deaths and the destruction of ''Shushi''. <ref>Why IDPs Matter in the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict by Seepan V. Parseghian, p.5</ref> <ref>Historic Maps of Armenia: The Cartographic Heritage - Page 7
| image = Ruins of the Armenian part of the city of Shusha after the March 1920 pogrom by Azerbaijani armed units. In the center - church of the Holy Savior.jpg
by Rouben Galichian</ref>
| image_size = 300px
| caption = Ruins of the Armenian half of ] after the city's destruction by the Azerbaijani army in March 1920. In the center: the defaced Armenian ]
| location = ] (disputed between ] and ])
| target = ] civilians
| date = March 1920
| type = ], ]
| perpetrators = ] and Azerbaijani inhabitants of Shusha
| fatalities = 500–20,000 Armenians
}}


The '''Shusha''' or '''Shushi massacre''' ({{langx|hy|Շուշիի ջարդեր|translit=Šušii ǰarder}}), also known as the '''Shusha pogrom''',<ref>{{Cite news |date=2005-07-06 |title=Глава 3. Шуша. Рассказ о соседях |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/russian/in_depth/newsid_4655000/4655249.stm |access-date=2024-05-10 |work=bbc.co.uk |language=en-GB}}</ref> was the mass killing of the ] population of ] from 22–26 March 1920.{{sfn|Herzig|Kurkchiyan|2005|p=105}}{{sfn|Geldenhuys|2009|pp=96–97 }} The number of deaths vary across sources, with the most conservative estimate being 500, and the highest estimates reaching 20,000.
== Name ==
Mostly known as the ''Shushi massacre'' and sometimes the Shushi pogroms, see below for the usage of 'genocide'.

According to Chairman of the parliamentary Commission for Foreign Relations of Karabakh, Vahram Atanesyan:
{{cquote|The massacre of Armenians in Shushi in 1920 is nothing but a genocide, Chairman of the parliamentary Commission for Foreign Relations of Karabakh, Vahram Atanesyan, said at a press-conference today. He said the massacre was perpetrated by Azerbaijan with the support of the Turkish expeditionary corps. Atanesyan stressed that Karabakh has never been a part of Azerbaijan and was de facto independent at that moment, its status being recognized by Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. <ref>Chairman of the parliamentary Commission for Foreign Relations of Karabakh, Vahram Atanesyan, at a press-conference</ref>}}


==Background== ==Background==
]
On June 4-5, 1919, an armed Armenian-Turkish clash takes place in Shushi, organized and incited by Governor-General Sultanov. The town was isolated and blockaded, and the Armenian population found itself in acute need of food. The barracks in Khankendi (Stepanakert) were filled with soldiers of the Azeri army, and only a single unit of the English army was located in the town, which comprised of Sipayis (?), Muslim Indians. The Armenian part of Shushi was under a siege imposed by the armed Turks. The Armenian forces were not only scarce, but had no weapon cartridges.
At the end of the ], the ownership of the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh was disputed between the newly established republics of the ] and ]. Shusha—the territory's largest settlement, its centre for social and cultural life, and with a mixed population consisting mostly of ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijanis—found itself at the heart of the dispute. The government of Azerbaijan proclaimed in ] the ] of the disputed territory and, on 15 January 1919, appointed ],<ref name="Armenia 1990, page 270">Walker, Christopher J. ''Armenia: The Survival of a Nation'', revised 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 1990), p. 270.</ref> as governor-general of Karabakh. The ] 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 could only be decided at a future peace conference.{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}}


In response to Sultanov's appointment, the General Assembly of the Armenians of Karabakh (]), meeting in Shusha from 10–21 February, issued a message stating that it "denies Azerbaijani authority in any form whatsoever."{{sfn|Hovannisian|1971|p=164}} On 23 April 1919, the ] convened in Shusha and again rejected Azerbaijan's claim of ], insisting on their right of ]. After this, a local ] detachment encircled the ] quarters of Shusha and demanded that the inhabitants to surrender the fortress. Shots were fired, but by virtue of British mediation, the Armenians agreed to surrender to them instead.<ref name="Armenia 1990, page 270"/> According to Colonel J.C. Rhea, acting Allied high commissioner, Sultanov "countenanced a polity of extermination of Armenians".{{sfn|Lieberman|2013|p=56}}
The attempts to subjugate Karabakh to Azerbaijan kept failing. The Armenian National Council of Karabakh remained unflinching. Sultanov’s goal was bring Karabagh to its knees through massacres, violence and terror, and he was going to start from Shushi. The shootings of June 4-5 left casualties on both sides. The English mission in Shushi presented to the Armenian side Sultanov’s condition for a ceasefire: removal of the Armenian National Council members from the town. On June 5, three members of the Council left Shushi. The ceasefire was reached partially due to the interference of the English soldiers. But a new wave of violence swept through the neighboring villages of Ghaibalishen, Pahlul and Krkzhan, which were pillaged June 5-7. About 700 people, mostly innocent civilians, were killed in Ghaibalishen.


On 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>" {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210815211921/https://en.wikisource.org/The_New_York_Times/Nurses_stuck_to_post |date=2021-08-15 }}," '']'', 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 gang activities were led by the brother of the Governor-General.


The Seventh Congress of the Armenians of Karabakh was convened in Shusha on 13 August 1919. It concluded with the agreement of 22 August, according to which Nagorno-Karabakh would consider itself to be provisionally within the borders of the ] until its final status was decided at the Peace Conference in Paris. As the historian Richard Hovhannisyan points out, the agreement concluded in August 1919 strictly limited the Azerbaijani administrative and military presence in the region and established the internal autonomy of Nagorno-Karabakh.<ref name=":0">''Hovannisian R. G.'' The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times. — Palgrave Macmillan, 1997. — Vol. II. Foreign Dominion to Statehood: The Fifteenth Century to the Twentieth Century. — P. 318. — 493 p. — <nowiki>ISBN 0312101686</nowiki>, <nowiki>ISBN 9780312101688</nowiki>. "Finally, in August 1919, the Karabagh National Assembly 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."</ref> Armenians remained divided on their response and a stock of arms was built up on both sides and the Armenians decided to deter a Tatar attack by staging an abortive uprising.{{sfn|Wright|2003|p=98}}
{{cquote|Throughout Karabakh, Armenians particulary those from the city of Shushi fell victim to massacres during the continuous onslaught. <ref>Implementation of the Helsinki Accords: By United States Congress. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, United States, p.69</ref>}}


==Persecutions and uprising==
===Massacres in Shushi on March 22-26, 1920===
]
From the very start of 1920, Governor Sultanov, breaking the terms of the temporary agreement of August 22, 1919, tightened the blockade around Karabagh, not only through accumulation of armed forces in the strategically important locations, but also by arming the Turkish population, preparing the latter for guerrilla fights.
The August agreement for Armenian autonomy and Azerbaijani demilitarization was violated by the Azerbaijani authorities almost immediately. Sultanov received orders from Baku to annex both Karabakh and Syunik. The Azerbaijani garrison was reinforced and troops were deployed without the required two-thirds consent of the Karabakh administration council. Turkish general ] had a leading role in Azerbaijani militarization and recruiting Muslim partisans. The Armenian population was forcibly disarmed. Azerbaijan imposed an economic blockade on Karabakh, which Armenian PM ] accused of being intended to starve the Armenian population into submission.{{sfn|Hovannisian|1996a|pp=137–143}}


Several incidences of Armenian travelers outside of Shusha being beaten, robbed, or killed occurred. On 22 February, up to 400 Armenians (per Armenian sources) in ] and ] were massacred after an unidentified body was discovered, believed to be that of an Azerbaijani soldier. Two weeks later, that soldier reportedly returned to his company, having been a deserter.{{sfn|Hovannisian|1996a|pp=137–143}} In March 1920, Sultanov began prohibiting Armenians from leaving Shusha without special permission, forced Armenian residents to quarter Azerbaijani soldiers, and began dismissing Armenians who had served as officers in the Russian army.{{sfn|Hovannisian|1996a|p=147}}
In the winter and spring of 1920, Sultanov, as always, was well aware of the degree of the Armenian population’s armament in Karabakh, which in fact was much worse than that of the Turks. One of his dispatches reads: “I think this is the most suitable moment for the final resolution of the Nagorno Karabagh issue, since they have few cartridges available.


Matters came to a head on the evening of 22 March, when "the ] militia entered Shusha...supposedly to receive its pay and to felicitate Governor-General Sultanov on the occasion of ]," writes historian ]. "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."{{sfn|Hovannisian|1996a|p=152}} This jolted the Varanda militiamen from their initial dormancy, as they "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."{{sfn|Hovannisian|1996a|p=152}}
Armenians were also aware of Sultanov’s preparations and tried to resist them.


==Massacre==
In the early morning of March 23, 1920, when the Turkish population of Shushi was celebrating Novruz Bairam, a small Armenian detachment entered Shushi and tried to take over the barrack in accordance with an uprising program developed by the Karabakh self-defense commanders.
Immediately after the quelling of the uprising, Azerbaijani troops, along with city's Azerbaijani inhabitants, turned their wrath on Shusha' Armenian population.{{sfn|Hovannisian|1996a|p=152}} The city's churches were put to the flame, as were cultural institutions, schools, libraries, the business section, and the homes of wealthy Armenians. Bishop Vahan (Ter-Grigorian), who had sought a policy of accommodation with the Azerbaijani authorities, was murdered and beheaded, his "head paraded through the streets on a spike."{{sfn|Hovannisian|1996a|p=152}} Chief of police Avetis Ter-Ghukasian was "turned into a human torch," while hundreds of others were similarly murdered with impunity.{{sfn|Hovannisian|1996a|p=152}}


==Aftermath==
This started an exchange of fire, which served as a signal for Shushi’s armed Turkish population, the Azeri army soldiers and Kurdish gangs abounding in the town to attack the Armenian district, plunder, set everything on fire and start a horrible massacre of the Armenian population.
Five to six thousand Armenians managed to escape by way of ] (Karintak) to ] and ].{{sfn|Bagdasaryan|2015}} By 11 April 1920, some thirty villages in Nagorno-Karabakh had been "devastated" by Azerbaijani forces as a result of the uprising, leaving 25,000 homeless (including nearly 6,000 refugees from Shusha).{{sfn|Hovannisian|1996a|pp=157–158}}


=== Death toll ===
There is another version of what exactly started the massacre, according to which a Turkish officer tried to disarm a young Armenian and insulted the honor of the Armenian’s wife in the guy’s presence. The young man killed the officer, and then his whole family was slaughtered by the Turks accompanying the officer. While the shooting was going on, the Turks called for help from their companions-in-arms and brothers in faith.
]
According to the 1917 edition of '']'', there were 43,869 residents in Shusha on {{OldStyleDate|14 January|1916|1 January}}—the city was composed of 23,396 ] who formed 53.3 percent of the population and 19,091 ] (mainly ]) who formed 43.5 percent of the population.{{sfn|Кавказский календарь на 1917 год|pp=190–192}}{{sfn|Bagdasaryan|2015}}


The total death toll of the Shusha massacre is unknown, with figures ranging from several hundred,{{sfn|Hovannisian|1996a|p=152}} to 20,000.{{sfn|Smele|2015|p=137}}
The Turkish part of Shushi, the army located in the town, the “guerrilla” gangs that had arrived from other locations, seized by the rage of killing and plundering, ceaselessly and mercilessly slaughtered, destroyed, burnt and looted the Armenian part of the town for three days.


Citing a contemporary Armenian government report, Hovannisian places the death toll of the massacre at 500 Armenians and the destruction of many buildings in Shusha.{{sfn|Hovannisian|1996a|p=152}}{{efn|Hovannisian also writes of a "Melkumian report" that claims that 5,000–6,000 were "left behind" during the massacre whilst 8,000 escaped.}} German historian ] states that the Armenian quarter of Shusha was "wiped off the face of the earth", indicated by 25 of 1,700 homes surviving the pogrom; also adding that 8,000 Armenians were massacred during the pogrom.{{sfn|Baberovski|2010|p=171}} Soviet historian ] wrote that 3–4 thousand or more than 12 thousand Armenians were killed and 7,000 homes were destroyed in three-days.{{sfn|1920 թվականի Շուշիի կոտորածը}} The '']'' entry for Shusha writes that "up to 20 percent of the population died" when the city was burned.{{sfn|Great Soviet Encyclopedia}}
Nobody did or could have counted the number of victims and those who miraculously survived the ordeal. Let us mention again that, according to the 1914 data, more than 22 thousand Armenians lived in Shushi, whereas in 1921 their number was about 300.


== Retribution ==
The documented records provide more than sufficient evidence for stating that the massacre of the Armenians in Shushi was thoroughly prepared by the Azerbaijanian authorities, under the command of experienced Turkish emissaries (Khalil pasha). Otherwise it would be hard to believe that the peaceful population that was amid sending its prayers to God could in a wink of an eye, without arms, rush out for an attack upon hearing the shooting noise, and start the beastly destruction of everybody and everything.
Former minister of internal affairs of Azerbaijan ] was assassinated during ] by members of the ], who suspected him of involvement in the massacre.<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>


===Memory===
On February 29, 1920 Sultanov sent a telegram to the Minister of Azerbaijan’s home affairs regarding the askyars’ dream: “They cherish an unfaltering dream of conquering Karabakh”.
The prominent ] ] ], who visited Shusha in 1930, wrote the poem "The Phaeton Driver" (1931) in memory of the massacre and burning:


<poem style="margin-left: 20px">
The part of the dream that relates to Shushi was fulfilled.
So in ]
These were my fears
Forty thousand dead windows
Are visible there from all directions,
The cocoon of soulless work
Buried in the mountains.<ref>Osip Mandelstam, "Faetonshchik," {{cite web |url=http://www.klassika.ru/stihi/mandelshtam/mandel107.html |title=Мандельштам Осип &#124; Классика.ру – электронная библиотека классической литературы |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 }} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070813154250/http://www.klassika.ru/stihi/mandelshtam/mandel107.html |date=2007-08-13 }}</ref><ref>Osip Mandelstam. ''Sochineniia''. 2 vols. (Moscow, 1990) 1: pp. 517–519.</ref><ref>Baines, Jennifer. ''Mandelstam: The Later Poetry''. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976), pp. 41–42.</ref>
</poem>


Visiting Shusha 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.&nbsp;– La Jolla (Calif.) : DAA Books, 2001.&nbsp;– 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> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221129180207/http://armenianhouse.org/raffi/also-ru/bestavashvili.html |date=2022-11-29 }} // Армянский вестник, # 1–2, 2000</ref>
“Ermenistan that you have seen is now burnt down, just about five or ten houses were left…“
“After killing the prominent Armenians, their severed heads were carried and displayed during rounds made at the marketplaces…”
“You will see no more Armenians in our area; neither will you meet a Turk who has brought less than one hundred thousand’s worth of loot”. (Excerpts from the originals of Ottoman letters written in Arabic letters).


On 20 March 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 23 March as a day of memorial for the victims of the pogrom.<ref>Nagornyy Karabakh marks 80th anniversary of 1920 Armenian pogroms, Noyan Tapan, 24 Mar. 2000</ref>
==Remembering==
The prominent Russian poet ] who was in Shushi in ] wrote a poem ("The phaeton driver") dedicated to this event:


==See also==
So in Nagorno-Karabakh
*]


== Notes ==
These were my fears
{{Notelist}}


==References==
Forty thousand dead windows
{{Reflist}}


== Bibliography ==
Are visible there from all directions,
{{Refbegin|colwidth=30em}}
*{{Cite web |title=1920 թվականի Շուշիի կոտորածը |trans-title=The Shushi Massacre of 1920 |url=https://republic.mediamax.am/story/100 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220719045023/https://republic.mediamax.am/story/100/ |archive-date=19 July 2022 |access-date=19 November 2022 |website=Republic.Mediamax.am |language=hy |ref={{Harvid|1920 թվականի Շուշիի կոտորածը}} }} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220719045023/https://republic.mediamax.am/story/100/ |date=19 July 2022 }}


The cocoon of soulless work


*{{Cite book |last=Baberovski |first=Yorg |url=http://test8.dlibrary.org/ru/nodes/1045-vrag-est-vezde-stalinizm-na-kavkaze |title=Враг есть везде. Сталинизм на Кавказе |publisher=Rossiyskaya politicheskaya entsiklopediya (ROSSPEN) Fond «Prezidentskiy tsentr B. N. Yeltsina» |year=2010 |isbn=978-5-8243-1435-9 |location=Moscow |pages=171 |language=ru |trans-title=The enemy is everywhere. Stalinism in the Caucasus |author-link=Jörg Baberowski |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221008172127/http://test8.dlibrary.org/ru/nodes/1045-vrag-est-vezde-stalinizm-na-kavkaze |archive-date=8 October 2022 |url-status=live }} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221008172127/http://test8.dlibrary.org/ru/nodes/1045-vrag-est-vezde-stalinizm-na-kavkaze |date=8 October 2022 }}
Buried at the mountains. <ref>Осип Мандельштам, Фаэтонщик, http://www.klassika.ru/stihi/mandelshtam/mandel107.html</ref><ref>Осип Мандельштам. Сочинения в 2-х тт. Том 1: Стихотворения, переводы. Москва, Художественная литература, 1990, c. 94</ref>).</nowiki>


*{{Cite web |last=Bagdasaryan |first=Gegam |date=March 2015 |title=Три нераскрытых обстоятельства резни армян в Шуши |trans-title=Three unsolved circumstances of the massacre of Armenians in Shushi |url=https://theanalyticon.com/ru/%d0%bd%d0%be%d0%b2%d0%be%d1%81%d1%82%d0%b8/%d1%82%d1%80%d0%b8-%d0%bd%d0%b5%d1%80%d0%b0%d1%81%d0%ba%d1%80%d1%8b%d1%82%d1%8b%d1%85-%d0%be%d0%b1%d1%81%d1%82%d0%be%d1%8f%d1%82%d0%b5%d0%bb%d1%8c%d1%81%d1%82%d0%b2%d0%b0-%d1%80%d0%b5%d0%b7%d0%bd/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221114224058/https://theanalyticon.com/ru/%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8/%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B8-%D0%BD%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%BA%D1%80%D1%8B%D1%82%D1%8B%D1%85-%D0%BE%D0%B1%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%8F%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BB%D1%8C%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%B0-%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B7%D0%BD/ |archive-date=14 November 2022 |access-date=15 November 2022 |website=theanalyticon.com |location=Stepanakert |language=ru }} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221114224058/https://theanalyticon.com/ru/%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8/%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B8-%D0%BD%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%BA%D1%80%D1%8B%D1%82%D1%8B%D1%85-%D0%BE%D0%B1%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%8F%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BB%D1%8C%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%B0-%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B7%D0%BD/ |date=14 November 2022 }}
==See also==
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]


*{{cite book |last=Geldenhuys |first=Deon|title= Contested States in World Politics |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |year=2009 |isbn= 9780230234185 |volume=3 |location=Berkeley}}
== External links ==
*
*
*


*{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/greatsovietencyc0017unse |title=Great Soviet Encyclopedia |publisher=] |year=1973 |volume=17 |location=New York |pages=301 |ref={{harvid|Great Soviet Encyclopedia}} }}
== Publications ==
*Vahram Atanesian: 20,000 Armenians Died In Shushi Massacres of 1920


*{{Cite book |last1=Herzig |first1=Edmund |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/229988654 |title=The Armenians: Past and Present in the Making of National Identity |last2=Kurkchiyan |first2=Marina |publisher=RoutledgeCurzon |year=2005 |isbn=0-203-00493-0 |location=London |oclc=229988654 }}
==References==

{{Reflist}}
*{{Cite The Republic of Armenia Volume 1}}

*{{Cite The Republic of Armenia Volume 3}}

*{{Cite Kavkazskiy Kalendar 1917}}

*{{Cite web |url=http://www.armeniaforeignministry.com/fr/nk/nk_file/article/11.html |title=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. |access-date=2008-01-24 |archive-date=2007-09-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070914134425/http://www.armeniaforeignministry.com/fr/nk/nk_file/article/11.html |url-status=live |ref={{harvid|"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."}} }} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070914134425/http://www.armeniaforeignministry.com/fr/nk/nk_file/article/11.html |date=2007-09-14 }}

*{{cite book |last=Lieberman |first=Benjamin|title= Terrible Fate Ethnic Cleansing in the Making of Modern Europe |publisher= Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|year=2013 |isbn= 9781442230385 |volume=|location=}}

*{{Cite book |last=Mkrtchʻyan |first=Shahen |title=Shoushi: The City of Tragic Fate |publisher=Gasprint |year=2008 |location=Yerevan}}

*{{Cite book |last=Smele |first=Jonathan D. |title=Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916–1926 |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-4422-5281-3 |location=Lanham, Maryland |oclc=923010906}}

*{{Cite book |last=Welt |first=Cory D. |title=Explaining ethnic conflict in the South Caucasus: Mountainous Karabagh, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia |year=2004}}

*{{Cite book |last=Wright |first=John |title=Transcaucasian Boundaries |year=2003 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |isbn=978-0805079326}}

*{{Cite book |last=Ziemer |first=Ulrike |title=Ethnic Belonging, Gender, and Cultural Practices Youth Identities in Contemporary Russia |publisher=] |year=2014 |isbn=9783838261522}}
{{Refend}}

{{Anti-Armenianism}}
{{Coord missing|Armenia}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Shusha Pogrom}}
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Latest revision as of 08:32, 13 November 2024

1920 mass killing of Armenian civilians by Azerbaijani forces in Nagorno-Karabakh
Shusha massacre
Part of the Armenian–Azerbaijani war (1918–1920)
Ruins of the Armenian half of Shusha after the city's destruction by the Azerbaijani army in March 1920. In the center: the defaced Armenian Ghazanchetsots Cathedral
LocationNagorno-Karabakh (disputed between Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and First Republic of Armenia)
DateMarch 1920
TargetArmenian civilians
Attack typeMassacre, pogrom
Deaths500–20,000 Armenians
PerpetratorsAzerbaijani Army and Azerbaijani inhabitants of Shusha

The Shusha or Shushi massacre (Armenian: Շուշիի ջարդեր, romanizedŠušii ǰarder), also known as the Shusha pogrom, was the mass killing of the Armenian population of Shusha from 22–26 March 1920. The number of deaths vary across sources, with the most conservative estimate being 500, and the highest estimates reaching 20,000.

Background

Shusha's Armenian quarters in the aftermath of their destruction by Azerbaijani army in March 1920. In the background: defiled Cathedral of the Holy Savior and Aguletsots church.

At the end of the First World War, the ownership of the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh was disputed between the newly established republics of the Armenia and Azerbaijan. Shusha—the territory's largest settlement, its centre for social and cultural life, and with a mixed population consisting mostly of ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijanis—found itself at the heart of the dispute. The government of Azerbaijan proclaimed in Baku the annexation of the disputed territory and, on 15 January 1919, appointed Khosrov bek Sultanov, as governor-general of Karabakh. 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 could only be decided at a future peace conference.

In response to Sultanov's appointment, the General Assembly of the Armenians of Karabakh (Armenian National Council of Karabakh), meeting in Shusha from 10–21 February, issued a message stating that it "denies Azerbaijani authority in any form whatsoever." On 23 April 1919, the Karabakh Council convened 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 and demanded that the inhabitants to surrender the fortress. Shots were fired, but by virtue of British mediation, the Armenians agreed to surrender to them instead. According to Colonel J.C. Rhea, acting Allied high commissioner, Sultanov "countenanced a polity of extermination of Armenians".

On 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 Karabakh was convened in Shusha on 13 August 1919. It concluded with the agreement of 22 August, according to which Nagorno-Karabakh 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. As the historian Richard Hovhannisyan points out, the agreement concluded in August 1919 strictly limited the Azerbaijani administrative and military presence in the region and established the internal autonomy of Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenians remained divided on their response and a stock of arms was built up on both sides and the Armenians decided to deter a Tatar attack by staging an abortive uprising.

Persecutions and uprising

Ruins of the Armenian part of Shusha after the 1920 pogrom. In back is the church of the Holy Mother of God (Kanach Zham).

The August agreement for Armenian autonomy and Azerbaijani demilitarization was violated by the Azerbaijani authorities almost immediately. Sultanov received orders from Baku to annex both Karabakh and Syunik. The Azerbaijani garrison was reinforced and troops were deployed without the required two-thirds consent of the Karabakh administration council. Turkish general Halil Kut had a leading role in Azerbaijani militarization and recruiting Muslim partisans. The Armenian population was forcibly disarmed. Azerbaijan imposed an economic blockade on Karabakh, which Armenian PM Alexander Khatisian accused of being intended to starve the Armenian population into submission.

Several incidences of Armenian travelers outside of Shusha being beaten, robbed, or killed occurred. On 22 February, up to 400 Armenians (per Armenian sources) in Khankend and Aghdam were massacred after an unidentified body was discovered, believed to be that of an Azerbaijani soldier. Two weeks later, that soldier reportedly returned to his company, having been a deserter. In March 1920, Sultanov began prohibiting Armenians from leaving Shusha without special permission, forced Armenian residents to quarter Azerbaijani soldiers, and began dismissing Armenians who had served as officers in the Russian army.

Matters came to a head on the evening of 22 March, when "the Varanda militia entered Shusha...supposedly to receive its pay and to felicitate Governor-General Sultanov on the occasion of Novruz Bairam," writes historian Richard G. Hovannisian. "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." This jolted the Varanda militiamen from their initial dormancy, as they "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."

Massacre

Immediately after the quelling of the uprising, Azerbaijani troops, along with city's Azerbaijani inhabitants, turned their wrath on Shusha' Armenian population. The city's churches were put to the flame, as were cultural institutions, schools, libraries, the business section, and the homes of wealthy Armenians. Bishop Vahan (Ter-Grigorian), who had sought a policy of accommodation with the Azerbaijani authorities, was murdered and beheaded, his "head paraded through the streets on a spike." Chief of police Avetis Ter-Ghukasian was "turned into a human torch," while hundreds of others were similarly murdered with impunity.

Aftermath

Five to six thousand Armenians managed to escape by way of Dashalty (Karintak) to Varanda and Dizak. By 11 April 1920, some thirty villages in Nagorno-Karabakh had been "devastated" by Azerbaijani forces as a result of the uprising, leaving 25,000 homeless (including nearly 6,000 refugees from Shusha).

Death toll

The Armenian quarter of Shusha after the massacre, with the Holy Saviour cathedral in the background.

According to the 1917 edition of Kavkazskiy kalendar, there were 43,869 residents in Shusha on 14 January [O.S. 1 January] 1916—the city was composed of 23,396 Armenians who formed 53.3 percent of the population and 19,091 Shia Muslims (mainly Azerbaijanis) who formed 43.5 percent of the population.

The total death toll of the Shusha massacre is unknown, with figures ranging from several hundred, to 20,000.

Citing a contemporary Armenian government report, Hovannisian places the death toll of the massacre at 500 Armenians and the destruction of many buildings in Shusha. German historian Jörg Baberowski states that the Armenian quarter of Shusha was "wiped off the face of the earth", indicated by 25 of 1,700 homes surviving the pogrom; also adding that 8,000 Armenians were massacred during the pogrom. Soviet historian Marietta Shaginyan wrote that 3–4 thousand or more than 12 thousand Armenians were killed and 7,000 homes were destroyed in three-days. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia entry for Shusha writes that "up to 20 percent of the population died" when the city was burned.

Retribution

Former minister of internal affairs of Azerbaijan Behbud Khan Javanshir was assassinated during Operation Nemesis by members of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, who suspected him of involvement in the massacre.

Memory

The prominent Russian poet Osip Mandelstam, who visited Shusha in 1930, wrote the poem "The Phaeton Driver" (1931) in memory of the massacre and burning:

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 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.

On 20 March 2000, a memorial stone was laid in Shusha on the site of the planned monument to the victims of the pogrom. The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic government introduced a proposal to the National Assembly to establish 23 March as a day of memorial for the victims of the pogrom.

See also

Notes

  1. Hovannisian also writes of a "Melkumian report" that claims that 5,000–6,000 were "left behind" during the massacre whilst 8,000 escaped.

References

  1. "Глава 3. Шуша. Рассказ о соседях". bbc.co.uk. 2005-07-06. Retrieved 2024-05-10.
  2. Herzig & Kurkchiyan 2005, p. 105.
  3. Walker, Christopher J. Armenia: The Survival of a Nation, revised 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 1990), p. 270.
  4. Hovannisian 1971, p. 164.
  5. Lieberman 2013, p. 56.
  6. "Nurses Stuck to Post Archived 2021-08-15 at the Wayback Machine," The New York Times, 4 September 1919.
  7. Hovannisian R. G. The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times. — Palgrave Macmillan, 1997. — Vol. II. Foreign Dominion to Statehood: The Fifteenth Century to the Twentieth Century. — P. 318. — 493 p. — ISBN 0312101686, ISBN 9780312101688. "Finally, in August 1919, the Karabagh National Assembly 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."
  8. Wright 2003, p. 98.
  9. ^ Hovannisian 1996a, pp. 137–143.
  10. Hovannisian 1996a, p. 147.
  11. ^ Hovannisian 1996a, p. 152.
  12. ^ Bagdasaryan 2015.
  13. Hovannisian 1996a, pp. 157–158.
  14. Кавказский календарь на 1917 год, pp. 190–192.
  15. Smele 2015, p. 137.
  16. Baberovski 2010, p. 171.
  17. 1920 թվականի Շուշիի կոտորածը.
  18. Great Soviet Encyclopedia.
  19. "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)
  20. Osip Mandelstam, "Faetonshchik," "Мандельштам Осип | Классика.ру – электронная библиотека классической литературы". Archived from the original on 2007-08-13. Retrieved 2007-08-29. Archived 2007-08-13 at the Wayback Machine
  21. Osip Mandelstam. Sochineniia. 2 vols. (Moscow, 1990) 1: pp. 517–519.
  22. Baines, Jennifer. Mandelstam: The Later Poetry. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976), pp. 41–42.
  23. (in Russian) N. Ya. Mandelstam. Kniga tretia. Paris: YMCA-Ргess, 1987, pp. 162–164.
  24. Partizdat TsK VKP (b), 1936, pp. 60–63.
  25. (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
  26. "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
  27. Anaida Bestavashvili, Lyudi i pamyatniki (in Russian) Archived 2022-11-29 at the Wayback Machine // Армянский вестник, # 1–2, 2000
  28. Nagornyy Karabakh marks 80th anniversary of 1920 Armenian pogroms, Noyan Tapan, 24 Mar. 2000

Bibliography


  • Geldenhuys, Deon (2009). Contested States in World Politics. Vol. 3. Berkeley: Palgrave Macmillan UK. ISBN 9780230234185.
  • Lieberman, Benjamin (2013). Terrible Fate Ethnic Cleansing in the Making of Modern Europe. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 9781442230385.
  • Mkrtchʻyan, Shahen (2008). Shoushi: The City of Tragic Fate. Yerevan: Gasprint.
  • Welt, Cory D. (2004). Explaining ethnic conflict in the South Caucasus: Mountainous Karabagh, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia.
  • Wright, John (2003). Transcaucasian Boundaries. Palgrave Macmillan UK. ISBN 978-0805079326.
Anti-Armenian sentiment
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See alsoList of massacres of Armenians

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