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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 = the [[Russian 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 Viceroyalty (1801–1917)|Caucasus]], [[Russian Empire|Russia]] [[Erivan Governorate]] [[Elizavetpol Governorate]] [[Baku Governorate]] | 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> * Difai Party <ref> [az][https://az.wikipedia.org/wiki/Difai_Partiyas%C4%B1] | combatant3 = {{flag|Russian Empire}} | commander1 = | commander2 = | commander3 = | strength1 = | strength2 = | strength4 = | casualties1 = | casualties2 = | casualties4 = 128 Armenian and 158 Tatar villages destroyed <ref name="auto1">E. Aknouni, Political Persecutions: Armenian Prisoners of the Caucasus (New York, 1911) p.30</ref> 3100 <ref name=":0">Ananun, op. cit., 9. 180 {{incomplete short citation|date=February 2023}}</ref><ref name=":1"/> to at least 10 000<ref name="Brill">Pourjavady, R. (2023). "Introduction: Iran, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia in the 19th century". In Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History Volume 20. Iran, Afghanistan and the Caucasus (1800-1914). Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. doi: https://doi-org.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/10.1163/9789004526907_002 p. 21</ref> | 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>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Azerbaijan|title=Azerbaijan &#124; History, People, & Facts &#124; Britannica|website=www.britannica.com}}</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 violence led to a sense of distrust and animosity that persisted for many years. This tension largely resulted from the larger political and social issues of the time, rather than any inherent conflict between the Armenian and Tatar peoples. == In Baku == [[File:Azeri (tatar) victim in Baku.jpg|thumbnail|A Tatar victim of the massacres in Baku|300px]] [[Svante Cornell]], a Swedish scholar from 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.{{sfn|Cornell|2005|p=55}} [[File:RACE WAR IN CAUCASUS.png|thumb|''New York Times'' coverage of the massacres, May 1905<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1905/05/28/archives/race-war-in-caucasus-armenians-and-mussulmans-kill-each-other.html | title=RACE WAR IN CAUCASUS.; Armenians and Mussulmans Kill Each Other -- Village Destroyed | newspaper=The New York Times | date=28 May 1905 }}</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 International|Minority Rights Group]], 1991.</ref> Italian historian [[Luigi Villari]]{{sfn|Villari|1906|p=270}} and Lebanese-Armenian historian Hratch Dasnabedian,<ref>Hratch Dasnabedian, History of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutiun 1890/1924, Milano: Oemme, 1990, p81.</ref> have argued that the Azeris provoked the fighting, leading to a strong Armenian response. In Villari's view, Tatars had started the conflict by killing numerous unarmed Armenians in February 1905 causing a strong response in the Armenian community. Dasnabedian wrote 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. Georgian revolutionary [[Filipp Makharadze|Filip Makharadze]], gives the number killed in Baku in February, 1905, as more than 1,000, most of whom were Armenians. <ref name=":2">Filip Makharadze, Ocherki revolutsionnogo dvizheniia v Zakavkaz'e (Tiflis, 1927), pp. 300, 307</ref> [[Charles van der Leeuw]], a Baku-based Dutch correspondent known for stressing the need for insight to “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 an 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>{{sfn|Əhməd|2018|p=103}} == 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".{{sfn|Villari|1906|p=270}} 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".{{sfn|Villari|1906|pp=270–274}} 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 ({{lang-hy|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>{{cite journal|quote=Gandzak (Ganja)|url=https://academic.oup.com/jss/article-abstract/6/2/145/1606938?redirectedFrom=fulltext|title=The death of the last 'Abbasid Caliph': a contemporary Muslim account|author=John A. Boyle|journal=Journal of Semitic Studies|date=1961|volume=6|issue=2|pages=145–161|doi = 10.1093/jss/6.2.145}}</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== [[File:Khatabala, 1906, No. 01, p. 08.jpg|thumbnail|A cartoon from [[Tbilisi]]-based [[Armenia|Armenian]] [[Satire|satirical]] periodical ''[[Khatabala]]'' shows bitter consequences for both sides|250px]] The clashes were not confined to the towns; 128 Armenian and 158 Tatar villages were sacked and ruined.<ref name="auto1"/> The total number of lives lost ranges is estimated between 3,100<ref name=":0"/><ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Hovannisian|first=Richard G|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y6GFAAAAIAAJ|title=Armenia on the road to independence, 1918|date=1967|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley|pages=264|language=English|oclc=1028172352}}</ref> to at least 10,000.<ref name="Brill"/> Another 15,000 people were uprooted. [[Svante Cornell]] states that [[Armenian Revolutionary Federation|ARF]] members on the Armenian side were more effective and that the poor Tartar organization lead to more casualties on the Tatar side.{{sfn|Cornell|2005|p=56}} However, the Armenians sustained more than 75% of the property damage. <ref name=":0"/><ref name=":1"/> At the time of the clashes, the Armenians and Tatars were known for being proficient in each other's languages and mixing between the two communities was common.<ref name="Brill2">{{Cite book |last=Pourjavady |first=Reza |url= https://brill.com/display/book/9789004526907/BP000002.xml |title= Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History Volume 20. Iran, Afghanistan and the Caucasus (1800-1914) |date=9 March 2023 |publisher= Brill |pages=21-22 |chapter= Introduction: Iran, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia in the 19th century |isbn=978-90-04-47168-9}}</ref> The destruction of each other's villages and the pogroms in Baku therefore resulted in grave distress both on a local as well as on a global level.<ref name="Brill2"/> According to historian Sen Hovhannisian, 4,000 people were wounded or killed as a result of the massacres. Moreover, 178 of 182 Armenian shops in Nakhichevan were looted and many Armenian villages were set on fire. Near Tiflis (present-day [[Tbilisi]]) on 23–25 November 1905, 500 Armenian volunteers protected the Armenian population consisting of 100,000 from "Tatar robbers".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hovhannisian |first=Sen |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1124982334 |title=Atlas of Armenia |date=1 January 2019 |publisher=Nahapet |isbn=978-9939-856-52-0 |location=Yerevan |pages=252 |oclc=1124982334}}</ref> According to [[Firuz Kazemzadeh]], writing in 1951: "it is impossible to pin the blame for the massacres on either side. It seems that in some cases ([[Baku]], [[Ganja, Azerbaijan|Elizavetpol]]) the Azerbaijanis fired the first shots, in other cases ([[Shusha]], [[Tiflis]]) the Armenians."{{sfn|Kazemzadeh|1951|pp=18–19}} 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|p=18-19}}'' 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 class, were not liked by the Muslim population or the Georgians for being non-Orthodox (they formed a [[Armenian Apostolic Church|separate Church]] whose [[Catholicos of All Armenians|Catholicos]] resided in [[Vagharshapat|Etchmiadzin]], near Yerevan). He thought the government disliked the Armenians for being anti-government (the Armenians wanted a fair and strong political power for protection and therefore wanted the downfall of the autocratic and bureaucratic regime). Anet characterized the Armenians as "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", and "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 |trans-title= "Who are we killing? The Armenians" - A French witness in Baku 1905 |work=[[Le Monde diplomatique]] |location=Paris |publisher=[[Le Monde]] |date=1990-02-01 |page=11 |accessdate=2023-02-28 |title= Qui massacre-t-on ? Les Arméniens |language=French }}</ref> ==See also== * [[Armenia–Azerbaijan relations]] ==References== {{sfn whitelist|CITEREFKazemzadeh1951}} {{Reflist|colwidth=30em}} ==Bibliography== * {{cite book |first= Dilqəm |last= Əhməd |title= Bir ildən yüz ilə |year= 2018 |location= Baku |publisher= TEAS Press |isbn=978-9952-310-47-4 }} * {{cite book |last=Cornell |first= S. |year=2005 |title=Small Nations and Great Powers: A Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict in the Caucasus |publisher= Routledge Curzon |location= London |isbn=9780700711628}} * {{cite book |first=Thomas |last=De Waal |author-link=Thomas de Waal |year=2004 |title=Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War |publisher= NYU Press |isbn=978-0-8147-1945-9}} * {{cite book |first=Tadeusz |last=Swietochowski |author-link=Tadeusz Swietochowski |year=1985 |title=Russian Azerbaijan (1905-1920): the shaping of a national identity in a Muslim community |publisher= Cambridge University Press}} * {{cite book |first=Luigi |last=Villari |year=1906 |title=Fire and Sword in the Caucasus |url=http://armenianhouse.org/villari/caucasus/fire-and-sword.html |location=London |publisher= T. F. Unwin |isbn=0-7007-1624-6}} * {{Cite The Struggle for Transcaucasia}} {{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 1905]] [[Category:Massacres in 1906]] [[Category:Massacres in 1907]] [[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]] [[Category:1905 murders in the Russian Empire]] [[Category:1906 murders in the Russian Empire]] [[Category:1907 murders in the Russian Empire]]'