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| title = Shushi massacre | title = Shushi massacre
| partof = | partof =
| 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 | image = Ruins of the Armenian part of the city of Shushi after the March 1920 pogrom by Azerbaijani armed units. In the center - church of the Holy Savior.jpg
| image_size = 300px | image_size = 300px
| alt = | alt =
| caption = Ruins of the Armenian half of ] after the city's destruction by Azerbaijani army in March 1920. In the center: defaced Armenian ] | caption = Ruins of the Armenian half of ] after the city's destruction by Azerbaijani army in March 1920. In the center: defaced Armenian ]
| location = ] (disputed between ] and ]) | location = ] (disputed between ] and ])
| target = ] civilians | target = ] civilians
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| type = ], ], ] | type = ], ], ]
| fatalities = 500 <ref name="Hovan"/> up 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 | 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> | fatalities = 500 <ref name="Hovan"/> up 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 | 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, Shushi, in which it is estimated that more than 20,000 Armenians were killed.}}</ref>
| injuries = | injuries =
| victim = | victim =
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The '''Shusha massacre''' or '''Shushi massacre''' ({{lang-hy|Շուշիի ջարդեր|translit=Shushii charder}}), also known as the '''Shusha pogrom''', 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 '''Shushi massacre''' ({{lang-hy|Շուշիի ջարդեր|translit=Shushii charder}}), also known as the '''Shushi pogrom''', 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 Shushi town perished. The Parliament in ] refused even condemn the accomplishers of the massacres in Shushi and the war was started in Karabakh."</ref>


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 ]. 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==
] ]
] ]
] ]
At the end of the ], the ownership of the territory of ] was disputed between the newly founded states of the ] and the ]. Shusha&nbsp;– the territory's largest settlement, its capital, and with a mixed population consisting mostly of ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijanis&nbsp;– found themselves at the centre of the dispute. At the end of the ], the ownership of the territory of ] was disputed between the newly founded states of the ] and the ]. Shushi&nbsp;– the territory's largest settlement, its capital, and with a mixed population consisting mostly of ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijanis&nbsp;– found themselves at the centre of the dispute.


The government of Azerbaijan proclaimed in ] the ] of the disputed territory and, on January 15, 1919, appointed ],<ref name="Armenia 1990, page 270">"Armenia: The Survival of a Nation", revised second edition, 1990, by Christopher J. Walker, page 270</ref> as governor-general of Karabagh. 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 should be decided only at a future peace conference. The government of Azerbaijan proclaimed in ] the ] of the disputed territory and, on January 15, 1919, appointed ],<ref name="Armenia 1990, page 270">"Armenia: The Survival of a Nation", revised second edition, 1990, by Christopher J. Walker, page 270</ref> as governor-general of Karabagh. The ] had a small detachment of troops stationed in Shushi 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 (]), 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".<ref></ref> In response to Sultanov's appointment, the General Assembly of the Armenians of Karabagh (]), meeting in Shushi 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".<ref></ref>


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 Shushi and again rejected Azerbaijan's claim of ], insisting on their right of ]. After this, a local ] detachment encircled the ] quarters of Shushi, 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>"," '']'', 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"/> On the 4 and 5 June 1919, armed clashes occurred in Shushi between the two communities and Sultanov began a blockade of the town's Armenian quarters. American nurses working in Shushi 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 Shushi, 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 Shushi 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 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> 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 Shushi 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 Shushi 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."<ref name="Hovan">Richard G. Hovannisian. The Republic of Armenia, Vol. III: From London to Sèvres, February–August 1920 p. 152.</ref> 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>


The former Minister of Internal Affairs of the ], ], was assassinated during ] of the ] as they believed that he was involved in Shusha 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> The former Minister of Internal Affairs of the ], ], was assassinated during ] of the ] as they believed that he was involved in Shushi 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>


==Human toll== ==Human toll==
According to the 1917 publication of the ''Caucasian Calendar'', there were 43,869 residents in Shusha in 1916. 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.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.prlib.ru/item/417322 |title=Кавказский календарь на 1917 год |publisher=Tipografiya kantselyarii Ye.I.V. na Kavkaze, kazenny dom |year=1917 |edition=72nd |location= |publication-place=Tiflis |pages=190–192 |language=Russian |trans-title=Caucasian calendar for 1917 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211104233151/https://www.prlib.ru/item/417322 |archive-date=4 November 2021}}</ref> A conservative estimate by Armenian-American historian ] places the death toll of the massacre at 500 Armenians and the destruction of many buildings in Shusha.<ref name="Hovan"/> The Armenian quarter of Shusha was "wiped off the face of the earth", which was indicated by only 25 of 1,700 homes surviving the pogrom—in one night, 8,000 Armenians of Shusha had been killed,<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Baberovski |first=Yorg |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=Moskva |pages=169 |language=ru |trans-title=The enemy is everywhere. Stalinism in the Caucasus}}</ref> and another 8,000 had become refugees,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hovannisian |first=Richard G. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/238471 |title=The Republic of Armenia |date=1971–1996 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=0-520-01805-2 |volume=3 |location=Berkeley |pages=152 |oclc=238471 |quote=Melkumian states that 8,000 inhabitants of Shushi escaped from the city, with another 5,000 to 6,000 remaining behind.}}</ref> whilst the remainder had supposedly escaped from the city in the lead-up to the massacre. According to the 1917 publication of the ''Caucasian Calendar'', there were 43,869 residents in Shushi in 1916. 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.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.prlib.ru/item/417322 |title=Кавказский календарь на 1917 год |publisher=Tipografiya kantselyarii Ye.I.V. na Kavkaze, kazenny dom |year=1917 |edition=72nd |location= |publication-place=Tiflis |pages=190–192 |language=Russian |trans-title=Caucasian calendar for 1917 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211104233151/https://www.prlib.ru/item/417322 |archive-date=4 November 2021}}</ref> A conservative estimate by Armenian-American historian ] places the death toll of the massacre at 500 Armenians and the destruction of many buildings in Shushi.<ref name="Hovan"/> The Armenian quarter of Shushi was "wiped off the face of the earth", which was indicated by only 25 of 1,700 homes surviving the pogrom—in one night, 8,000 Armenians of Shushi had been killed,<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Baberovski |first=Yorg |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=Moskva |pages=169 |language=ru |trans-title=The enemy is everywhere. Stalinism in the Caucasus}}</ref> and another 8,000 had become refugees,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hovannisian |first=Richard G. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/238471 |title=The Republic of Armenia |date=1971–1996 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=0-520-01805-2 |volume=3 |location=Berkeley |pages=152 |oclc=238471 |quote=Melkumian states that 8,000 inhabitants of Shushi escaped from the city, with another 5,000 to 6,000 remaining behind.}}</ref> whilst the remainder had supposedly escaped from the city in the lead-up to the massacre.


===Memory=== ===Memory===
The prominent ] ] ] who was in Shusha in 1931 wrote a ] ("The Phaeton Driver") dedicated to the Shusha massacres: The prominent ] ] ] who was in Shushi in 1931 wrote a ] ("The Phaeton Driver") dedicated to the Shushi massacres:


<poem style="margin-left: 20px"> <poem style="margin-left: 20px">
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</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.&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> // Армянский вестник, # 1–2, 2000</ref> Visiting Shushi 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.&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 Shushi to the destruction of ] in her ''The People and the Monuments''.<ref> // Армянский вестник, # 1–2, 2000</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> On March 20, 2000, a memorial stone was laid in Shushi 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 Shushi pogroms.<ref>Nagornyy Karabakh marks 80th anniversary of 1920 Armenian pogroms, Noyan Tapan, 24 Mar. 2000</ref>


==See also== ==See also==
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{{Coord missing|Armenia}} {{Coord missing|Armenia}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Shusha Pogrom}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Shushi Pogrom}}
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Revision as of 16:39, 29 August 2022

1920 mass killing of Armenian civilians by Azerbaijani forces in Nagorno-Karabakh
Shushi massacre
File:Ruins of the Armenian part of the city of Shushi after the March 1920 pogrom by Azerbaijani armed units. In the center - church of the Holy Savior.jpgRuins of the Armenian half of Shushi after the city's destruction by Azerbaijani army in March 1920. In the center: defaced Armenian Ghazanchetsots Cathedral
LocationNagorno-Karabakh (disputed between Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and First Republic of Armenia)
DateMarch 1920
TargetArmenian civilians
Attack typeMassacre, riots, pogrom
Deaths500 up to 20,000 Armenians

The Shushi massacre (Template:Lang-hy), also known as the Shushi pogrom, was the mass killing of the Armenian population of Shushi 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

Shushi'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.
Ruins of the Armenian part of Shushi after the 1920 pogrom. In back is the church of the Holy Mother of God (Kanach Zham).
The Armenian quarter of Shushi after the massacre, with the Holy Saviour cathedral in the back.

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. Shushi – 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 Shushi 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 Shushi 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 Shushi 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 Shushi, 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 Shushi between the two communities and Sultanov began a blockade of the town's Armenian quarters. American nurses working in Shushi 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 Shushi, and approximately 600 Armenians lay dead.

The seventh Congress of the Armenians of Karabagh was convened in Shushi 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 Shushi. "As planned, the Varanda militia entered Shushi 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 Shushi 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 Shushi 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 as they believed that he was involved in Shushi massacre.

Human toll

According to the 1917 publication of the Caucasian Calendar, there were 43,869 residents in Shushi in 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. A conservative estimate by Armenian-American historian Richard G. Hovannisian places the death toll of the massacre at 500 Armenians and the destruction of many buildings in Shushi. The Armenian quarter of Shushi was "wiped off the face of the earth", which was indicated by only 25 of 1,700 homes surviving the pogrom—in one night, 8,000 Armenians of Shushi had been killed, and another 8,000 had become refugees, whilst the remainder had supposedly escaped from the city in the lead-up to the massacre.

Memory

The prominent Russian poet Osip Mandelstam who was in Shushi in 1931 wrote a poem ("The Phaeton Driver") dedicated to the Shushi 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 Shushi 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 Shushi to the destruction of Pompeii in her The People and the Monuments.

On March 20, 2000, a memorial stone was laid in Shushi 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 March 23 as a day of memorial of the victims of the Shushi pogroms.

See also

References

  1. ^ Richard G. Hovannisian. The Republic of Armenia, Vol. III: From London to Sèvres, February–August 1920 p. 152.
  2. "The Nagorno-Karabagh Crisis: A Blueprint for Resolution" (PDF). Public International Law & Policy Group and the New England Center for International Law & Policy. June 2000. p. 3. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. (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 Shushi town perished. The Parliament in Baku refused even condemn the accomplishers of the massacres in Shushi and the war was started in Karabakh."
  5. ^ "Armenia: The Survival of a Nation", revised second edition, 1990, by Christopher J. Walker, page 270
  6. "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."
  7. "Nurses Stuck to Post," The New York Times, 4 September 1919.
  8. ^ "Nagorno Karabagh in 1918–1920" Archived 2008-01-24 at the Wayback Machine
  9. The Armenian People from ancient to modern times, ed. by Richard G. Hovannisian, USA, 1997, Vol. II, p. 318.
  10. 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
  11. "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)
  12. Кавказский календарь на 1917 год [Caucasian calendar for 1917] (in Russian) (72nd ed.). Tiflis: Tipografiya kantselyarii Ye.I.V. na Kavkaze, kazenny dom. 1917. pp. 190–192. Archived from the original on 4 November 2021.
  13. Baberovski, Yorg (2010). Враг есть везде. Сталинизм на Кавказе [The enemy is everywhere. Stalinism in the Caucasus] (in Russian). Moskva: Rossiyskaya politicheskaya entsiklopediya (ROSSPEN) Fond «Prezidentskiy tsentr B. N. Yeltsina». p. 169. ISBN 978-5-8243-1435-9.
  14. Hovannisian, Richard G. (1971–1996). The Republic of Armenia. Vol. 3. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 152. ISBN 0-520-01805-2. OCLC 238471. Melkumian states that 8,000 inhabitants of Shushi escaped from the city, with another 5,000 to 6,000 remaining behind.
  15. Osip Mandelstam, "Faetonshchik," "Мандельштам Осип | Классика.ру - электронная библиотека классической литературы". Archived from the original on 2007-08-13. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
  16. Osip Mandelstam. Sochineniia. 2 vols. (Moscow, 1990) 1: pp. 517–519.
  17. (in Russian) N. Ya. Mandelstam. Kniga tretia. Paris: YMCA-Ргess, 1987, pp. 162–164.
  18. Partizdat TsK VKP (b), 1936, pp. 60–63.
  19. (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
  20. "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
  21. Anaida Bestavashvili, Lyudi i pamyatniki (in Russian) // Армянский вестник, # 1–2, 2000
  22. Nagornyy Karabakh marks 80th anniversary of 1920 Armenian pogroms, Noyan Tapan, 24 Mar. 2000

Further reading

External links

Anti-Armenian sentiment
Events
See alsoList of massacres of Armenians

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