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The Shushi massacres were anti-Armenian pogroms during the Armenian-Azerbaijani War in 1920, when Azeri and Turkish army soldiers attacked the inhabitants of the town of Shushi (Shusha) in Nagorno-Karabakh. The massacres took place on March 22-26, 1920, and resulted in more than 20,000 Armenian deaths and the destruction of Shushi.

Name

Known as the Shushi massacres or the Shushi pogroms, the usage of the word 'genocide' has been reported as well:

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.

— Chairman of the parliamentary Commission for Foreign Relations of Karabakh, Vahram Atanesyan

Background

On June 4-5, 1919, an armed clash between Armenians and Turks took place in Shushi, organized and incited by Governor-General Khosrov beg 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 consisted 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.

The attempts to subjugate Karabakh to Azerbaijan kept failing. The Armenian National Council of Karabakh remained unflinching. Sultanov’s goal was to bring Karabagh to its knees through massacres, violence and terror, and he had planned 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 on June 5-7. About 700 people, mostly innocent civilians, were killed in Ghaibalishen.

The gang activities were led by the brother of the Governor-General.

When the Karabakh capital of Shusha fell to Azerbaijani forces on March 1920, its entire Armenian population was killed or expelled.

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.

In the winter and spring of 1920, Sultanov was well aware of the degree of the Armenian population’s armament in Karabakh, which in fact was much more lower 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. Armenians were also aware of Sultanov’s preparations and tried to resist them.

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.

This started an exchange of fire which served as a signal for Azeri army soldiers and Kurdish gangs abounding in the town to attack the Armenian district, plunder, set everything on fire and start a massacre of the Armenian population.

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.

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.

In the Caucasus a whole town, Shusha, was razed to the ground and most of its inhabitants— about 20000 people were slaughtered.

Nobody did or could have counted the number of victims and those who miraculously survived the ordeal. According to the 1914 data, more than 22 thousand Armenians lived in Shushi, whereas in 1921 their number was about 300. Nadezhda Mandelstam wrote about Shushi of 1920s: "("...in this town, which formerly off course was healthy and with every amenity, the picture of catastrofe and massacres was terribly visual... They say after the massacres all the wells were full of dead bodies. ...We didn't see anyone in the streets on the mountain. Only at downtown- in the market-square there were a lot of people, but there wasn't any Armenian among them, all were Muslims".

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 .

On January 21, 1936, in the Moscow Kremlin, during the reception of the delegation from Soviet Azerbaijan, Sergo Ordzhonikidze remembers his visit to destroyed Shushi: "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 dead bodies of women and children" .

Remembering

The prominent Russian poet Osip Mandelstam who was in Shushi in 1931 wrote a poem ("The phaeton driver") dedicated to this tragedy:

So in Nagorno-Karabakh
These were my fears
Forty thousand dead windows
Are visible there from all directions,
The cocoon of soulless work
Buried at the mountains.

One of the Komsomol leaders of Soviet Azerbaijan- Olga Shatunovskaya later wrote in her memoirs: "Azerbaijan dont want to lose the power as Nagorno-Karabakh is a great region. Its autonomous but only nominally, during these years they ousted many Armenians, closed schools, colleges. Earlier the main city was Shusha. When in 1920s there was a massacre, they burnt all the central part of the town, and then they even didnt restored it."

Two prominent Armenian-Russian Communist activists- Anastas Mikoyan and writer Marietta Shaginyan wrote about this pogroms in their memoirs. Mikoyan, who was in that region, later marks: "According to the reconaissance information, at Azerbaijani Mousavatist government's disposal was army of 30-thousands, of whom 20 thousants deployed near the border of Armenia... The army of Azerbaijan shortly before that massacred the Armenians in Shusha, Karabakh" .

In 1 July, 1997, in her speech in the House of Lords, United Kingdom, Baroness Caroline Cox marked: "Armenians have repeatedly suffered atrocities at the hands of Turks and Azeris, including the murder of 1.5 million Armenians by Turkey in the genocide of 1915; the massacre of 20,000 Armenians in the ancient Armenian city of Shushi in 1920; and massacres in Sumgait and Baku in 1988 and 1990" .

Research analyst Kalli Raptis in her book "Nagorno-Karabakh and the Eurasian Transport Corridor" wrote: ""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, Shushi (called Shusha by the Azerbaijanis)".

In March 20, 2000, a memorial stone was laid in Shushi on the site of the future monument to the victims of the slaughter. The government introduced a proposal to the National Assembly to establish March 23, as a day of memorial of the victims of the Shushi massacres.

See also

• Maraghar Massacre
• Sumgait pogrom
• Kirovabad pogrom
• Khojaly Massacre

External links

• Shushi Massacres (Video)
• United Nations document
• Shoushi Massacres of Armenians
• Shushi- Armenian city of sorrow and triumph

Publications

• (in Russian) В Нагорном Карабахе осудили погромы 1920 года в Шуши http://pda.regnum.ru/news/611517.html
• (in Russian) М. Григорян, "Из 35 тысяч армян не осталось в Шуши ни одного..." // "Голос Армении", 24 Марта 2007 г., http://www.golos.am/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5213

References

1. "British administrator of Karabakh colonel Chatelword didnt empede 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 Shushi town perished. The Parliament in Baku refused even condemn the accomplishers of the massacres in Shushi and the war was started in Karabakh. A. Zubov (in Russian) А.Зубов Политическое будущее Кавказа: опыт ретроспективно-сравнительного анализа, журнал "Знамья", 2000, #4, http://magazines.russ.ru/znamia/2000/4/zubov.html
2. "massacre of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh's capital, Shushi (called Shusha by the Azerbaijanis)", Kalli Raptis, "Nagorno-Karabakh and the Eurasian Transport Corridor", http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:MSbXaimmyAcJ:www.eliamep.gr/eliamep/files/op9803.PDF
3. World Directory of Minorities - Page 145 by Minority Rights Group, Miranda Bruce-Mitford
4. "A month ago after the massacres of Shushi, in April 19, 1920, prime-ministers of England, France and Italy with participation of the representatives of Japan and USA collected in San-Remo..." Giovanni Guaita (in Russian) Джованни ГУАЙТА, Армения между кемалистским молотом и большевистской наковальней // «ГРАЖДАНИН», M., # 4, 2004 http://www.grazhdanin.com/grazhdanin.phtml?var=Vipuski/2004/4/statya17&number=%B94
5. Armenia in Crisis: The 1988 Earthquake - Page 6 by Pierre Verluise
6. "exterminé la population arménienne dans l'ancienne capitale Chouchi au début du 20ème siècle." La nation, un concept républicain (14ème partie) : les solutions républicaines fondées sur les états-nations pour des conflits actuels, par Valentin Boudras-Chapon // ReSPUBLICA journal, Mardi 22 mai 2007
7. "De 1918 à 1920, les républiques indépendantes d’Arménie et d’Azerbaïdjan se sont disputées le contrôle du Karabagh, pour des raisons symboliques et stratégiques. Des pogroms et des incendies anéantissent le quartier arménien de Chouchi en février 1920." Situation des réfugiés et déplacés d’origine arménienne sur le territoire de l’ex-Union soviétique //Commission de Refugies, France http://www.commission-refugies.fr/IMG/pdf/Ex-URSS_-_situation_des_refugies_et_deplaces_d_origine_armenienne_sur_le_territoire_de_l_ex-Union_sovietique.pdf
8. La construction de l'État en Arménie: un enjeu caucasien - Page 69 by Gérard J. Libaridian
9. "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, Shushi, in which it is estimated that more than 20,000 Armenians were killed." The Nagorno-Karabagh Crisis:A Blueprint for Resolution, A Memorandum Prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group and the New England Center for International Law & Policy, June, 2000, p. 3 http://www.nesl.edu/center/pubs/nagorno.pdf
10. Lords Hansard text for 1 Jul 1997 (170701-19) http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199798/ldhansrd/vo970701/text/70701-19.htm
11. "In March, 1920 a terrible pogrom took place in Shushi, organized by Azerbaijanis with the support of Turkish forces. Azerbaijani and Soviet authorities during the decades will deny and try to hush up the mass killings of about 30000 Armenians. Giovanni Guaita (see Джованни ГУАЙТА, Армения между кемалистским молотом и большевистской наковальней // «ГРАЖДАНИН», M., # 4, 2004 http://www.grazhdanin.com/grazhdanin.phtml?var=Vipuski/2004/4/statya17&number=№4
12. Why IDPs Matter in the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict by Seepan V. Parseghian, p.5
13. Historic Maps of Armenia: The Cartographic Heritage - Page 7 by Rouben Galichian
14. Russian analysts Igor Babanov and Konstantin Voevodsky write that "On March, 1920, during the occupation of Shushi town, 30 thousand Armenians were massacred". / Игорь Бабанов, Константин Воеводский, Карабахский кризис, Санкт-Петербург, 1992
15. Massacre of Armenians in Shushi in 1920 is nothing but a genocide: Chairman of the parliamentary Commission for Foreign Relations of Karabakh, Vahram Atanesyan, at a press-conference, Arminfo, March 23, 2002
16. Нагорный Карабах в 1918—1923 гг.: сборник документов и материалов. Ереван, 1992, стр., стр. 240, документ № 155
17. "Kavkazskoe slovo" newspaper,1.07.1919
18. Нагорный Карабах в 1918—1923 гг.: сборник документов и материалов. Ереван, 1992, стр. 265—269, документы №№ 177, 178
19. Нагорный Карабах в 1918—1923 гг.: сборник документов и материалов. Ереван, 1992, стр. 162—164, документ № 105
20. (in Russian) "Slovo" newspaper, 28.08.1919
21. Нагорный Карабах в 1918—1923 гг.: сборник документов и материалов. Ереван, 1992, стр., стр. 240, документ № 155
22. Walker, Armenia and Karabakh, p.91
23. Goldenberg, Pride of Small Nations, p.159
24. Modern Hatreds: The Symbolic Politics of Ethnic War By Stuart J. Kaufman, p.51
25. "Communist" newspaper, Baku, 25 June, 1920
26. The Nagorno-Karabagh Crisis:A Blueprint for Resolution, A Memorandum Prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group and the New England Center for International Law & Policy, June, 2000, p. 3 http://www.nesl.edu/center/pubs/nagorno.pdf
27. Нагорный Карабах в 1918—1923 гг.: сборник документов и материалов. Ереван, 1992, стр. 385, документ № 261
28. U.S.S.R. Speaks for Itself - Page 24 1941
29. (in Russian) Н. Я. Мандельштам. Книга третья. Париж, YMCA-Ргess, 1987, с.162-164.
30. (in Russian) Нагорный Карабах в 1918—1923 гг.: сборник документов и материалов. Ереван, 1992, стр. 376, документ № 254
31. "For example, also in the 1920s, Azeris brutally massacred and evicted Armenians from the town of Shushi, which had been a famous and historic centre of Armenian culture." Nagorno Karabakh: forgotten people in a forgotten war, Contemporary Review, Jan, 1997 by Caroline Cox. See also: "Fighting broke out in 1920 over whether Shusha would be part of the newly declared republics of Armenia or Azerbaijan. Thousands died and the Armenian population fled the city." Jerusalem of Karabakh" at the heart of Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, by Michael Mainville, Agence France Presse, 7/25/07
32. Партиздат ЦК ВКП(б), 1936, с. 60-63
33. Осип Мандельштам, Фаэтонщик, http://www.klassika.ru/stihi/mandelshtam/mandel107.html
34. Осип Мандельштам. Сочинения. В 2-х т. Т.1, с.517-519.
35. (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
36. "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
37. (in Russian) Микоян Анастас. Так было (воспоминания), http://biblioteka.org.ua/book.php?id=1121020105&p=19
38. Lords Hansard text for 1 Jul 1997 (170701-19) http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199798/ldhansrd/vo970701/text/70701-19.htm
39. Kalli Raptis, "Nagorno-Karabakh and the Eurasian Transport Corridor", http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:MSbXaimmyAcJ:www.eliamep.gr/eliamep/files/op9803.PDF
40. Nagornyy Karabakh marks 80th anniversary of 1920 Armenian pogroms, Noyan Tapan, 24 Mar. 2000

• Massacres
• Anti-Armenianism