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. Atkin 1980, p. 4.
2. 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
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^{[ dead 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. 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. "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.