List of massacres in Azerbaijan

The following lists are of massacres that have occurred within the current boundaries of Azerbaijan (numbers may be approximate).

Before 1988

Name Year Date Location Deaths Targeted group Notes
Sack of Shamakhi 1721 18 August Shamakhi 4,000–5,000[1][2] Shia inhabitants of Shamakhi Shia inhabitants of the city (includes the city's officials) were killed by rebellious Sunni Lezgin tribesmen.[1][2]
Battle of Ganja (1804) 1804 February Ganja 1,500–3,000[3] Inhabitants of Ganja Civilians were massacred during the capture of the city by the Russians; some of the captured soldiers were executed[4]
Armenian–Tatar massacres of 1905–1906 1905–1906 February Baku; Ganja;Nakhchivan; Shusha; Tiflis 3,000–10,000 Armenians, Azerbaijanis
Shamkhor Massacre 1918 January Şəmkir 1,000 armed Russian soldiers Russian soldiers killed by Azerbaijani nationalists[5][6][7]
March Days 1918 March 30 – April 2 Azerbaijan 12,000–25,000 Azerbaijanis According to the statements of Azerbaijan representatives, "the Bolsheviks".[9]
September Days 1918 September Baku 10,000–15,000 Armenians Armenians killed by the Army of Islam[10][11]
Khaibalikend Massacre 1919 June 5–7 Nagorno-Karabakh 600–700 Armenians Armenians killed by armed ethnic Azerbaijani and Kurdish irregulars and Azerbaijani soldiers;[12] Villages of Khaibalikend, Jamillu, Karkujahan and Pahliul were destroyed[13][14]
Muslim uprisings in Kars and Sharur–Nakhichevan 1919–1920 July–December Nakhchivan 10,000[15] Armenians
Agulis Massacre 1919 December 24–25 Yuxarı Əylis 1,400[16][17] Armenians Early-20th-century anti-Armenian massacre of the Armenian population of Agulis by the Turkish army accompanied by the Azerbaijani refugees from Zangezur which resulted in the destruction of the town of Agulis.[18][19]
Shusha pogrom 1920 March 22–26 Shusha 500–20,000[20][21] Armenians Armenians killed by Azerbaijanis
1920 Ganja Revolt 1920 June Ganja 15,000 Azerbaijanis Bolsheviks slaughtered civilians including women and children after the capture of rebel Ganja. Many women were raped and Koran were burnt.[22][23]

Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

The following is a list of massacres and pogroms, which took place in the course of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War and the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War between Armenians and Azerbaijanis.

Name Year Date Location Deaths Targeted group Notes
Capture of Gushchular and Malibeyli 1992 February 10–12 Malibeyli, Ashaghi Gushchular, Yukhari Gushchular villages of Shusha District 8 (per Helsinki Watch)[24]
15–50 (per Azerbaijan)[25]
Azerbaijanis Azerbaijanis killed by Armenian irregular armed units[24]
Khojaly Massacre 1992 February 25–26 Khojaly, Azerbaijan More than 200[26][27] (per Human Rights Watch)

613[28] (per Azerbaijan)

Azerbaijanis Azerbaijanis killed by Armenian troops.
Maraga Massacre 1992 April 10 Maraga 40–100 Armenians Armenians killed (many decapitated); corpses buried in a mass grave outside the village.[29]
Bombardment of Tartar 2020 September 28 —November 10 Tartar District 17 Azerbaijanis Azerbaijanis killed by alleged indiscriminate attacks of Armenian Armed Forces.[30]
2020 Ganja missile attacks 2020 October 4–17 Ganja 32 Azerbaijanis Azerbaijanis killed by alleged indiscriminate attacks of Armenian Armed Forces.[30]
2020 Barda missile attacks 2020 October 27—November 7 Barda, Əyricə, and Qarayusifli 27 Azerbaijanis Use of cluster munitions against civilians by Armenian Armed Forces and Artsakh Defence Army.[31]

Other Massacres after 1988

Name Year Date Location Deaths Targeted Group Notes
Azerbaijan State Oil Academy shooting 2009 April 30 Baku 12 Students and staff members Victims included two nationals of Sudan and a Syrian national.[32]

References

  1. ^ a b Atkin 1980, p. 4.
  2. ^ a b Matthee 2012, p. 225.
  3. ^ Peter Avery; William Bayne Fisher, Gavin Hambly, Charles Melville (1991-10-25). The Cambridge history of Iran: From Nadir Shah to the Islamic Republic. Cambridge University Press. p. 332. ISBN 978-0-521-20095-0.
  4. ^ THE SIEGE AND ASSAULT OF FORTRESS GANJA (in Russian)
  5. ^ The formation of the Soviet Union: communism and nationalism, 1917-1923 By Richard Pipes - p. 103
  6. ^ the Modern encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet history, Volume 39 by Joseph L. Wieczynski - p. 170
  7. ^ Wladimir S. Woytinsky: La Democratie. p. 113
  8. ^ Michael Smith. "Pamiat' ob utratakh i Azerbaidzhanskoe obshchestvo/Traumatic Loss and Azerbaijani. National Memory". Azerbaidzhan i Rossiia: obshchestva i gosudarstva (Azerbaijan and Russia: Societies and States) (in Russian). Sakharov Center. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
  9. ^ "New Republics in the Caucasus". The New York Times Current History. 11 (2): 492. March 1920.
  10. ^ Hovannisian. Armenia on the Road to Independence, p. 227.
  11. ^ Human Rights Watch. Playing the "Communal Card": Communal Violence and Human Rights. New York: Human Rights Watch, 1995.
  12. ^ Hovannisian, Richard. The Republic of Armenia: Vol. I, The First Year, 1918-1919. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971, pp. 176–177, notes 51-52.
  13. ^ (in Armenian) Vratsian, Simon. Հայաստանի Հանրապետութիւն (The Republic of Armenia). Paris: H.H.D. Amerikayi Publishing, 1928, pp. 286-87.
  14. ^ Hovannisian. Republic of Armenia, Vol. I, p. 181.
  15. ^ Hovannisian, Richard G. (1982). The Republic of Armenia. Vol. 2. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 107. ISBN 0-520-04186-0.
  16. ^ Shatan Nat’ali (1928). Turkism from Angora to Baku and Turkish Orientation. Translated by Punik Pub. the University of Michigan (published Jan 1, 2002). p. 84. ASIN B002H1PV5Y. 1,400 - massacre in Agulis in 1919
  17. ^ Hovannisian, Richard G. (1982). The Republic of Armenia, Vol. II: From Versailles to London, 1919-1920. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 207–238. ISBN 0-520-04186-0.
  18. ^ Bert Vaux (2008). Zok: The Armenian dialect of Agulis (PDF). In between Paris and Fresno: Armenian studies in honor of Dickran Kouymjian. pp. 283–301. city of Agulis, located in southeastern Nakhichevan. Following the massacre of the Armenian population of Agulis by the Turkish army in 1919{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
  19. ^ Mikail Mamedov (20 November 2018). "Reading the novel Stone Dreams on the 100th anniversary of the "Great Catastrophe"". Cambridge University Press. The novel also refers to the massacre committed by Turkish troops on Christmas of 1919 in the midst of the Armenian Genocide, 1915–1923. At that time, Turkish commander Adif-bey ordered the mass execution of the Armenian population in the author's home village Aylis (Agulis in Armenian). Almost all Armenians were killed, with the exception of a few young girls who by the late 1980s had turned into gray-haired women.
  20. ^ Richard G. Hovannisian. The Republic of Armenia, Vol. III: From London to Sèvres, February–August 1920
  21. ^ Thomas de Waal. Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War. ISBN 0-8147-1944-9
  22. ^ The I.L.P.'s ALLIES. Soviet Massacre in the Caucasus // Western Gazette. — 1920. — 1 June. — p. 12.
  23. ^ 15,000 massacred // Cheltenham Chronicle. — 1920. — 2 June. — p. 4
  24. ^ a b Denber, Rachel; Goldman, Robert K. (1992). Bloodshed in the Caucasus: escalation of the armed conflict in Nagorno Karabakh. Praeger Publishers. pp. 24–27. ISBN 0-275-96241-5. Retrieved 2010-12-20. Kalbajar.
  25. ^ Denber, Rachel; Goldman, Robert K. (1992). Bloodshed in the Caucasus: escalation of the armed conflict in Nagorno Karabakh. Praeger Publishers. pp. 24–27. ISBN 0-275-96241-5. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
  26. ^ "Human Rights Watch World Report 1993 – The Former Soviet Union". Hrw.org. Archived from the original on 18 February 2015. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
  27. ^ Human Rights Watch/Helsinki (Organization : U.S.) (1994). Azerbaijan : Seven years of conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. Panico, Christopher., Rone, Jemera., Human Rights Watch (Organization). New York: Human Rights Watch. ISBN 1-56432-142-8. OCLC 32207851.
  28. ^ "United Nations Security Council: Letter Dated 7 October 2001 from the Permanent Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations Addressed to the President of the Security Council". International Legal Materials. 40 (5): 1281. September 2001. doi:10.1017/s0020782900020878. ISSN 0020-7829. S2CID 232249484.
  29. ^ Cox, Caroline and John Eibner. Ethnic Cleansing in Progress: War in Nagorno Karabakh. Zurich and Washington D.C.: Institute for Religious Minorities in the Islamic World, p. 58, 1993.
  30. ^ a b "Armenia: Unlawful Rocket, Missile Strikes on Azerbaijan | Human Rights Watch". 2020-12-11. Retrieved 2025-10-01.
  31. ^ "Armenia/Azerbaijan: First confirmed use of cluster munitions by Armenia 'cruel and reckless'". Amnesty International. 2020-10-29. Retrieved 2025-10-01.
  32. ^ "General Prosecutor's Office and Interior Ministry issue official statement on shooting in Azerbaijan State Oil Academy". anspress.com. Archived from the original on 2009-05-02. Retrieved 2025-10-01.

Sources

  • Atkin, Muriel (1980). Russia and Iran, 1780–1828. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978-0-8166-5697-4.
  • Matthee, Rudi (2012). Persia in Crisis: Safavid Decline and the Fall of Isfahan. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-1-84511-745-0.