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The following lists are of massacres that have occurred within the current boundaries of Azerbaijan (numbers may be approximate).
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The following lists are of massacres that have occurred within the current boundaries of Azerbaijan (numbers may be approximate).
| 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 1905–1907 | 1905–1907 | February | Baku; 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] |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sumgait pogrom | 1988 | February 27 – March 1 | Sumgait | 32 (26 Armenians and 6 Azerbaijanis) [24] | Armenians | Armenians killed by Azerbaijanis; 20 ambulances were destroyed, [25] and reports detail widespread rape, [26] mutilation, robberies and disemboweling of fetuses [27] [28] |
| Kirovabad pogrom | 1988 | November | Kirovabad | 130 Armenians | Armenians | Azeri-led pogrom directed against Armenian inhabitants of Kirovabad (now Ganja) |
| Baku Pogrom | 1990 | January 13 | Baku | 90 | Armenians | Armenians killed by Azerbaijanis; many incidents of rape, robbery and torture; [29] 700 injured. [30] [31] |
| Black January | 1990 | January 19–20 | Baku, Azerbaijan | 133–137 | Peaceful protesters of the Azerbaijani national independence movement | Killed by Soviet troops; ambulance workers rushing to help the wounded and random passers-by, including women and children, among the dead |
| Operation Ring | 1991 | April 30 – May 15 | Shahumyan Province | unknown | Armenians | number of casualties unknown, approximately 17,000 people displaced, gross human rights violations [32] |
| Capture of Gushchular and Malibeyli | 1992 | February 10–12 | Malibeyli, Ashaghi Gushchular, Yukhari Gushchular villages of Shusha District | 8 (per Helsinki Watch) [33] 15–50 (per Azerbaijan) [34] | Azerbaijanis | Azerbaijanis killed by Armenian irregular armed units [33] |
| Khojaly Massacre | 1992 | February 25–26 | Khojaly, Azerbaijan | More than 200 [35] [36] (per Human Rights Watch) 613 [37] (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. [38] |
| Name | Year | Date | Location | Deaths | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 Tbilisi–Agdam bus bombing | 1990 | August 10 | Khanlar (now Goygol) | 15–20 | A bus carrying about 60 passengers from Georgia's capital Tbilisi to Aghdam is bombed in Khanlar (now Goygol). The bombing was carried out by two ethnic Armenians named Armen Avanesyan and Mikhail Tatevosov, who were members of Vrezh, an underground militant anti-Azerbaijan group operated out of Rostov-on-Don. |
| 1994 Baku Metro bombings | 1994 | March 19 and July 3 | Baku Metro, Baku | 27 | 27 people were killed and 91 wounded in a series of terrorist incidents that targeted the Baku Metro |
| Attack on Abu Bakr Mosque of Baku | 2008 | August 17 | Baku | 3 | Three people were killed and eleven more were injured when the perpetrators threw a grenade through a window of the mosque [39] |
| Azerbaijan State Oil Academy shooting | 2009 | April 30 | Baku | 13 (including perpetrator) | School shooting perpetrated by Georgian citizen of Azerbaijani descent, Farda Gadirov. 13 also injured. [40] |
| 2024 Qusar attack | 2024 | September 14 | Qusar District | 8 (including one attacker) | IS militants attack Azerbaijani security forces in Qusar District, northern Azerbaijan, killing 7 security personnel and injuring 1. |
The Khojaly massacre was the mass killing of Azerbaijani civilians by Armenian forces and the 366th CIS regiment in the town of Khojaly on 26 February 1992. The event became the largest single massacre throughout the entire Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The First Republic of Armenia, officially known at the time of its existence as the Republic of Armenia, was an independent Armenian state that existed from May 1918 to 2 December 1920 in the Armenian-populated territories of the former Russian Empire known as Eastern or Russian Armenia. The republic was established in May 1918, with its capital in the city of Yerevan, after the dissolution of the short-lived Transcaucasian Federation. It was the first Armenian state since the Middle Ages.
The First Nagorno-Karabakh War was an ethnic and territorial conflict that took place from February 1988 to May 1994, in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in southwestern Azerbaijan, between the majority ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh backed by Armenia, and the Republic of Azerbaijan with support from Turkey. As the war progressed, Armenia and Azerbaijan, both former Soviet republics, entangled themselves in protracted, undeclared mountain warfare in the mountainous heights of Karabakh as Azerbaijan attempted to curb the secessionist movement in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Karabakh Council was the unrecognised government over Mountainous Karabakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) in eastern Armenia between 1918 and 1920. The council's body was elected by the assembly of Mountainous Karabakh—the representative body of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh—on 27 July 1918. Initially it was called the People's Government of Karabakh, but in September 1918 it was renamed into the Karabakh Council. The Karabakh Council's control throughout 1918–1920 did not exceed the ethnic Armenian locales of Karabakh which were subordinate to them. The council's statehood related to the historical Artsakh province and the modern-day self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh founded in 1991. Its capital was the city of Shushi (Shusha).
The Armenian-Azerbaijani war (1918–1920) was a conflict that took place in the South Caucasus in regions with a mixed Armenian-Azerbaijani population, broadly encompassing what are now modern-day Azerbaijan and Armenia. It began during the final months of World War I and ended with the establishment of Soviet rule.
The Maraga massacre was the mass murder of Armenian civilians in the village of Maraga (Maragha) by Azerbaijani troops, which had captured the village on April 10, 1992, in the course of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. The villagers, including men, women, children and elderly, were killed indiscriminately and deliberately, their houses were pillaged and burnt; the village was destroyed. Amnesty International reports that over 100 women, children and elderly were tortured and killed and a further 53 were taken hostage, 19 of whom were never returned.
The Shusha or Shushi massacre, 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.
Armenians in Azerbaijan are the Armenians who lived in great numbers in the modern state of Azerbaijan and its precursor, Soviet Azerbaijan. According to the statistics, about 500,000 Armenians lived in Soviet Azerbaijan prior to the outbreak of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1988. Most of the Armenians in Azerbaijan had to flee the republic, like Azerbaijanis in Armenia, in the events leading up to the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, a result of the ongoing Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. Atrocities directed against the Armenian population took place in Sumgait, Ganja and Baku. Armenians continued to live in large numbers in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which was controlled by the break-away state known as the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic from 1991 until the region was forcibly retaken by Azerbaijan in 2023. After the Azerbaijani takeover, almost all Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh left the region.
Armenians had a historic presence in Nakhchivan. According to an Armenian tradition, Nakhchivan was founded by Noah, of the Abrahamic religions. During the Soviet era, Nakhchivan saw a significant demographic shift. The Armenian population saw a great reduction in their numbers throughout the years repatriating to Armenia. Nakhchivan's Armenian population gradually decreased to around 0%. Still some Armenian political groupings of Armenia and the Armenian diaspora, claim that Nakhchivan should belong to Armenia. The Medieval Armenian cemetery of Jugha (Julfa) in Nakhchivan, regarded by Armenians as the biggest and most precious repository of medieval headstones marked with Christian crosses – khachkars, was completely demolished by 2006.
Khosrov bey Alipasha bey oghlu Sultanov, also spelled as Khosrow Sultanov, was an Azerbaijani statesman, General Governor of Karabakh and Minister of Defense of the Azerbaijani Democratic Republic.
The Aghdam Mosque or Juma Mosque is a Shia Islam mosque, located in the ghost town of Aghdam, Azerbaijan. Completed in the 1870s, the mosque was desecrated during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War and restored following the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War.
The Capture of Gushchular and Malibeyli was an incident in which eight ethnic Azerbaijani civilians were killed by Armenian irregular armed units in simultaneous attacks on the villages of Malibeyli, Ashaghi Gushchular, and Yukhari Gushchular in the Shusha District of Azerbaijan, on February 10–12, 1992 during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.
The siege of Stepanakert started in late 1991, during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, in Stepanakert, the largest city in Nagorno-Karabakh, when the Azerbaijani forces circled the city. Until May 1992, the city and its Armenian population were the target of a months-long campaign of bombardment by Azerbaijan. The bombardment of Stepanakert and adjacent Armenian towns and villages, which took place under the conditions of total blockade by Azerbaijan, caused widespread destruction and many civilian deaths.
The Khaibalikend massacre was the mass killing of Armenian civilians in the villages of Ghaibalishen (Khaibalikend), Jamilli, and Karkijahan and Pahlul in Nagorno-Karabakh, from June 5 to 7, 1919. The villages were destroyed, and from 600 to 700 ethnic Armenians, including women and children, were murdered by armed ethnic Azeri and Kurdish irregulars and Azerbaijani soldiers. The massacre was organized by Nagorno-Karabakh's Governor-General Khosrov bek Sultanov and led by his brother, Sultan bek Sultanov.
Anti-Armenian sentiment or Armenophobia is widespread in Azerbaijan, mainly due to the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. According to the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), Armenians are "the most vulnerable group in Azerbaijan in the field of racism and racial discrimination." A 2012 opinion poll found that 91% of Azerbaijanis perceive Armenia as "the biggest enemy of Azerbaijan." The word "Armenian" (erməni) is widely used as an insult in Azerbaijan. Stereotypical opinions circulating in the mass media have their deep roots in the public consciousness.
The Agulis massacre was a massacre of the Armenian population of Agulis by Azerbaijani state authorities and Azeri locals from Ordubad and refugees from Zangezur as part of the Muslim uprisings in Kars and Sharur–Nakhichevan against the First Republic of Armenia. The attack, lasting from December 24 to December 25, 1919, resulted in the destruction of the town of Agulis.
The Zangezur uezd was a county (uezd) of the Elizavetpol Governorate of the Russian Empire with its administrative center in Gerusy from 1868 until its formal abolition and partition between the Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan in 1921. The area of the Zangezur uezd corresponded to most of the contemporary Syunik province of Armenia, and Lachin, Gubadly, Zangilan, and the westernmost parts of Shusha districts of Azerbaijan.
In the aftermath of World War I and during the Armenian–Azerbaijani and Russian Civil wars, there were mutual massacres committed by Armenians and Azerbaijanis against each other. A significant portion of the Muslim population of the Erivan Governorate were displaced during the internecine conflict by the government of Armenia. Starting in 1918, Armenian partisans expelled thousands of Azerbaijani Muslims in Zangezur and destroyed their settlements in an effort to "re-Armenianize" the region. These actions were cited by Azerbaijan as a reason to start a military campaign in Zangezur. Ultimately, Azerbaijan took in and resettled tens of thousands of Muslim refugees from Armenia. The total number of killed is unknown.
The Agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan respecting the District of Zanghezour was a peace agreement between the short-lived Armenian and Azerbaijani republics signed on 23 November 1919 in Tiflis and brokered by Georgia. The peace treaty came as a result of an unsuccessful Azerbaijani military campaign to absorb the Armenian-controlled Zangezur region, with the aim of forming a link with the Azerbaijani-controlled Nakhichevan. Despite the peace agreement, Azerbaijan in March 1920 again moved its forces westward to attempt to capture Zangezur, however, was stopped due to an Armenian rebellion in Nagorno–Karabakh and the country's sovietisation in April.
1,400 - massacre in Agulis in 1919
city of Agulis, located in southeastern Nakhichevan. Following the massacre of the Armenian population of Agulis by the Turkish army in 1919[ dead link ]
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.
Kalbajar.
