Shushi Massacres

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

Background

On June 4-5, 1919, an armed Armenian-Turkish fight took place in Shushi. It was organized and started by Azeri Governor-General Khosrov beg Sultanov. The town was closed off by a blockade, and the Armenian population found itself needing food.

Massacres in Shushi on March 22-26, 1920

From the very start of 1920, Governor Sultanov, breaking the temporary treaty agreement of August 22, 1919, continued the blockade around Karabakh. He increased the number of armed forces in strategically important locations and gave weapons to the local Azeri population.

In the early morning of March 23, 1920, the Azeri army soldiers and Kurdish gangs attacked the Armenian part of town and began a horrible massacre of the Armenian population, which finished in March 26, 1920.

Remembering

The famous Russian poet Osip Mandelstam, who was in Shushi in 1931, wrote a poem called "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.

”

In July 1, 1997, the Baroness Caroline Cox gave a speech in the House of Lords, United Kingdom remembering the lives of Armenians who have been killed and specifically mentioned the occurrence in Shushi in 1920.

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)".

Shushi Massacres Media

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  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.

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

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

Other websites

• United Nations document
• Shoushi Massacres of Armenians Archived 2007-09-15 at the Wayback Machine

Publications

• Vahram Atanesian: 20,000 Armenians Died In Shushi Massacres of 1920 http://www.nkrusa.org/newsletter/montly_newsletter/2002/march_april/page4.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 Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine