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'{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2015}} {{multiple issues| {{cleanup|date=January 2011}} {{incomprehensible|date=April 2019}}}} {{Infobox military conflict | conflict = Armenian–Tatar massacres | partof = [[Revolution of 1905]] | image = Neft.jpg | image_size = 290 | caption = A [[Cossack]] military patrol near the [[Baku oilfields]], ca. 1905. | date = 1905–1907 | place = [[Caucasus]], [[Russian Empire]] | territory = | result = Violence quelled by intervention of [[Cossack]] regiments | status = | combatant1 = Armenian groups * [[Armenian Revolutionary Federation|ARF]] members | combatant2 = Caucasian Tatar groups<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1905/06/23/archives/butchery-in-the-caucasus-a-state-of-civil-war-30000-combatants-of.html BUTCHERY IN THE CAUCASUS.; A State of Civil War -- 30,000 Combatants of Various Races] ''[[The New York Times]]''</ref> | combatant3 = {{flag|Russian Empire}} | commander1 = | commander2 = | commander3 = | strength1 = | strength2 = | strength4 = | casualties1 = | casualties2 = | casualties4 = 128 Armenian and 158 Tatar villages destroyed 3,000-10,000 Armenians and Caucasian Tatars killed | notes = | campaignbox = {{Campaignbox 1905 Russian Revolution}} }} The '''Armenian–Tatar massacres''' (also known as the '''Armenian-Tartar war''', the '''Armeno-Tartar war''') refers to the bloody inter-ethnic confrontation between [[Armenians]] and Caucasian Tatars (later known as [[Azerbaijanis]])<ref>Suha Bolukbasi. [https://books.google.com/books?id=v2qLIiqoCK8C&pg=PA43 Nation-building in Azerbaijan]. Willem van Schendel (ed.), [[Erik Jan Zürcher]] (ed.). ''Identity politics in Central Asia and the Muslim world''. I.B.Tauris, 2001. "Until the 1905—6 Armeno-Tatar (the Azeris were called Tatars by Russia) war, localism was the main tenet of cultural identity among Azeri intellectuals."</ref><ref>Joseph Russell Rudolph. [https://books.google.com/books?id=OYjnwO_hQh8C&pg=PA187 Hot spot: North America and Europe]. ABC-CLIO, 2008. "To these larger moments can be added dozens of lesser ones, such as the 1905-06 Armenian-Tartar wars that gave Azeris and Armenians an opportunity to kill one another in the areas of Armenia and Azerbaijan that were then controlled by Russia..."</ref> throughout the [[Caucasus Viceroyalty (1801–1917)|Russian Caucasus]] in 1905–1907.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/46781/Azerbaijan/129462/History#ref=ref481438 Britannica Online Encyclopedia. Azerbaijan. History.]</ref><ref>[[Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary]]. [http://www.vehi.net/brokgauz/all/103/103729.shtml Turks]</ref><ref>Willem van Schendel, Erik Jan Zürcher. Identity Politics in Central Asia and the Muslim World: Nationalism, Ethnicity and Labour in the Twentieth Century. I.B.Tauris, 2001. {{ISBN|1-86064-261-6}}, {{ISBN|978-1-86064-261-6}}, p. 43</ref> The [[massacre]]s started during the [[Russian Revolution of 1905]]. The most violent clashes occurred in 1905 in February in [[Baku]], in May in [[Nakhichevan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic|Nakhchivan]], in August in [[Shusha]] and in November in [[Ganja (city)|Elizabethpol]], heavily damaging the cities and the [[Baku oilfields]]. Some violence, although of lesser scale, broke out also in [[Tbilisi|Tiflis]]. The clashes were not confined to the towns; according to Polish-American historian [[Tadeusz Swietochowski]], 28 Armenian and 158 Caucasian Tatar villages were destroyed or pillaged.<ref>Cornell, p. 69.</ref><ref>[[Tadeusz Swietochowski]]. ''Russia and Azerbaijan: A Borderland in Transition''. Columbia University Press, 1995. {{ISBN|0-231-07068-3}}, {{ISBN|978-0-231-07068-3}}</ref>{{Better source needed|date=December 2021}} [[Svante Cornell]] states that [[Armenian Revolutionary Federation|ARF]] members on the Armenian side were more effective and Tatars being poorly organized, leading to more casualties on the Tatar side.<ref>Cornell, p. 56.</ref> == In Baku == [[File:Azeri (tatar) victim in Baku.jpg|thumbnail|A Tatar victim of the massacres in Baku|300px]] [[Svante Cornell]], a Swedish scholar holding senior positions at Stockholm-based Institute for Security and Development Policy, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program (CACI) and American Foreign Policy Council, in his "Small nations and great powers: a study of ethnopolitical conflict in the Caucasus" provides various sources that give conflicting accounts on the [[Baku]] events.<ref name="svante">Cornell, p. 55.</ref> Sources such as British historian [[Christopher J. Walker]] (the author of ''Armenia: The Survival of a Nation'',<ref>Walker, Christopher, ''Armenia and Karabagh: The Struggle for Unity'', London, Minority Rights Group, 1991.</ref> Italian historian [[Luigi Villari]]<ref>Villari, p. 270.</ref> and Lebanese-Armenian historian Hratch Dasnabedian,<ref>Hratch Dasnabedian, History of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutiun 1890/1924, Milano: Oemme, 1990, p81.</ref> argue that the Azeris provoked the fighting, leading to a strong Armenian response. Villari claimed that Tatars had started the conflict by killing numerous unarmed Armenians in February 1905 which allowed the Armenian community to give a strong response. Dasnabedian claimed that the Azeris, ‘free to massacre with impunity’, ‘unleashed a war against the Armenians, with a clear intention to massacre, pillage, and destroy, killing unarmed Armenians in February 1905 in Baku, and later moving to other cities including Karabakh, which resulted in a response from the Dashnaks who managed to ‘stop the original momentum of the armed and destructive Azeri mobs’ and even ‘counterattack and sometimes severely punish’ the Azeris. On the other hand, [[Erich Feigl]], an Austrian producer of films of Austrian-German-Turkish co-production and a denier of [[Armenian genocide]]<ref>Feigl, Erich. ''A Myth of Terror : Armenian Extremism, Its Causes and Its Historical Context, page 7.</ref> claimed that the Dashnaks committed terrorist acts (similar to those orchestrated in the Ottoman Empire) against the Azeri majority in Shusha, Baku and Ganja, leading to the eruption of violence and elimination of the most of the Azerbaijani leading stratum in Baku.<ref>Erich Feigl, Un Mythe de la Terreur: Le Terrorisme Arménien, ses Origines et ses Causes, Salzburg: Druckhaus Nonntal, 1991, p214–15</ref> According to [[Charles van der Leeuw]], a Baku-based Dutch correspondent known for stressing the need to obtain insight in “the other side of the story”, claimed that the riots started with the killing of an Azeri schoolboy and a shopkeeper in Baku, followed by Azeri mob's march on the Armenian quarters of Baku; and 126 Azeris and 218 Armenians killed within four days. According to the Baku Statistical Bureau, 205 Armenians and 111 Tatars were killed in the clashes, of which 9 were women, 20 were children, and 13 were elderly, along with 249 wounded.<ref>Saint-Peterburg Vedomosti, 25 May 1905</ref> == In Nakhichevan and Shusha == [[File:Natchivanm.jpg|thumb|The corpses of Armenians killed in the May massacre in Nakhchivan]] After the Baku clashes, Muslim communities in the [[Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic|Nakhchivan]] district began smuggling consignments of weapons from Persia. By April, murders of Armenians in the district began to assume alarming proportions and the Armenian community applied to the Russian authorities for protection. However, Luigi Villari describes the district's governor as "bitterly anti-Armenian" and the vice-governor in [[Yerevan]] as an "Armenophobe".<ref>Villari, p. 270.</ref> On 25 May, acting on a previously arranged plan, bands of armed Tatars attacked the market area in the town of [[Nakhchivan City|Nakhchivan]], looting and burning Armenian businesses and killing any Armenians they could find. Approximately 50 Armenians were murdered and some of the Armenian shopkeepers were burnt alive in their shops. On the same day, Tatar villagers from the countryside began attacking their Armenian neighbours. Villari cites official reports mentioning that "out of a total of 52 villages with Armenian or mixed Armenian-Tartar populations, 47 were attacked, and of that 47, 19 were completely destroyed and abandoned by their inhabitants. The total number of dead, including those in Nakchivan town, was 239. Later, in a revenge attack, Armenians attacked a Tartar village, killing 36 people".<ref>Villari, pp. 270-274.</ref> The situation in [[Shusha]] was different than in Nakhchivan. According to the journalist [[Thomas de Waal]], out of the 300 killed and wounded, about two-thirds were Tatars as the Armenians were better shooters and enjoyed the advantage of position.<ref>{{cite book|last=de Waal|first=Thomas|title=[[Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War]]|year=2003|publisher=New York University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-8147-1945-9|author-link=Thomas de Waal|page=190}}</ref> == In Ganja == Prior to the Armenian-Tatar massacres, Ganja, known to Armenians as Gandzak ([[wikt:Գանձակ|Գանձակ]],<ref>"the union of Georgian and Armenian armies near Gandzak", [http://bse.sci-lib.com/article071649.html Армянская Советская Социалистическая Республика], [[Great Soviet Encyclopedia]]</ref><ref>"Mkhitar Gosh was born in Gandzak", [http://bse.sci-lib.com/article079340.html Мхитар Гош], [[Great Soviet Encyclopedia]]</ref><ref>"Gandzak (Ganja)" [jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/6/2/145.pdf The death of the last 'Abbasid Caliph': a contemporary Muslim account, by Boyle J. // Semitic Studies.1961; 6: 145-161</ref> ) had a sizable [[Armenians|Armenian]] population.<ref>Soviet Census in 1926-1979, Newspaper Pravda Press, Moscow, 1983</ref><ref>According to the 1892 official data, "10524 of 25758 inhabitants of the city were Armenians, there were 6 Armenian Apostolic (Gregorian) churches", [http://gatchina3000.ru/brockhaus-and-efron-encyclopedic-dictionary/039/39112.htm ''Elizavetpol'' article, Brockauz and Efron Encyclopedia (in Russian)]</ref> ==Analysis== According to the historian [[Firuz Kazemzadeh]], "it is impossible to pin the blame for the massacres on either side. It seems that in some cases ([[Baku]], [[Ganja, Azerbaijan|Elizabethpol]]) the Tatars fired the first shots, in other cases ([[Shusha]], [[Tiflis]]) the Armenians."<ref name="Kazemzadeh">[[Firuz Kazemzadeh]]. ''Struggle For Transcaucasia (1917—1921)'', New York Philosophical Library, 1951</ref> According to French writer [[Claude Anet]], who in April 1905 crossed the Caucasus region by automobile, "the many minorities - and, in particular , Azeris (Tatars) and Armenians - resumed ancestral clashes". Anet wrote that the [Russian] government accused the Armenians of being the instigators but he believed the government was wrong. He explained that the Armenians, who formed the trading and active class, were not liked by the government, Muslim population and Georgians for being non-Orthodox (they formed a [[Armenian Apostolic Church|separate Church]] whose Catholicos resided in Etchmiadzin, near Yerevan), anti-government (the Armenians wanted a fair and strong political power that would protect them and therefore wanted the downfall of the autocratic and bureaucratic regime), "getting rich quickly at the expense of the populations in the midst of which they live and excelling in the money business like the Jews", "using bombs for defence instead of hand-to-hand combat". He wrote that "for a long time Russian policy was made in the Caucasus against the Armenians" and that "Russian policy aroused the Tatars against the Armenians, who themselves were not suspected of intellectualism".<ref>{{cite news |last=Anet |first=Claude |authorlink=Claude Anet |url=https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/1990/02/ANET/42328 |title="Who are we killing ? The Armenians" - A French witness in Baku 1905 |work=Le Monde diplomatiqueLe Monde diplomatique |location=Paris |publisher=[[Le Monde]] |date=1990-02-01 |page=11 |accessdate=2021-09-12 }}</ref> During the massacres, the government, despite its sufficient strength, did not intervene. Viceroy Vorontsov-Dashkov himself said that government forces had done nothing to prevent the massacres.{{sfn|Kazemzadeh|1951|page=19}}'' ==See also== * [[Armenia–Azerbaijan relations]] ==References== {{Reflist|colwidth=30em}} ==Bibliography== * Cornell, S. (2005) ''Small Nations and Great Powers: A Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict in the Caucasus'', Routledge Curzon: London. {{ISBN|9780700711628}} * Luigi Villari (1906), ''Fire and Sword in the Caucasus'' [http://armenianhouse.org/villari/caucasus/fire-and-sword.html], London, T. F. Unwin, {{ISBN|0-7007-1624-6}} * [[Thomas De Waal]] (2004), ''Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War'', NYU Press, {{ISBN|978-0-8147-1945-9}} * * {{cite book |author = Firuz Kazemzadeh |title = The Struggle for Transcaucasia (1917-1921) |place = New-York |publisher = Hyperion Press |year = 1951 |isbn = 9780830500765 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=K9xWAAAAYAAJ |ref = {{SfnRef|Kazemzadeh |1951}} }} {{Anti-Armenianism}} {{Anti-Azerbaijanism}} {{Armenia topics}} {{Azerbaijan topics}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Armenian-Tatar Massacres Of 1905-1907}} [[Category:Mass murder in 1905]] [[Category:Mass murder in 1906]] [[Category:Mass murder in 1907]] [[Category:1905 in the Russian Empire]] [[Category:1906 in the Russian Empire]] [[Category:1907 in the Russian Empire]] [[Category:1905 in Georgia (country)]] [[Category:1906 in Georgia (country)]] [[Category:1907 in Georgia (country)]] [[Category:Massacres in the 1900s]] [[Category:Massacres in Armenia]] [[Category:Massacres in Azerbaijan]] [[Category:Massacres of Armenians]] [[Category:1905 in Armenia]] [[Category:1906 in Armenia]] [[Category:1907 in Armenia]] [[Category:1905 in Azerbaijan]] [[Category:1906 in Azerbaijan]] [[Category:1907 in Azerbaijan]] [[Category:Armenia–Azerbaijan relations]] [[Category:History of the Caucasus under the Russian Empire]]'