What Do You Knw About War Between Azerbaijan And Armenia

Posted In: Armenia

Phyliss Thigpin says...

The Armenian-Azerbaijani war, which started after the Russian Revolution, was a series of brutal and hard to classify conflicts in 1918, then from 1920 to 1922 that occurred during the brief independence of Armenia and Azerbaijan and afterward. Most of the conflicts did not have a principal pattern with a standard armed structure. The Ottoman Empire and British Empire were involved in different capacities: the Ottoman Empire left the region after the Armistice of Mudros but British influence continued until Dunsterforce was pulled back in 1920s. The conflicts involved civilians in the disputed districts of Kazakh-Shamshadin, Zanghezur, Nakhichevan and Karabakh. The use of guerrilla and semi-guerrilla operations were the main reasons for the high civilian casualties, which occurred during the nation-building activities of the newly-established states. The reasons behind the conflict are still far from being resolved after nearly a century.



The story of this campaign has very different perceptions; according to Armenian historians, the Democratic Republic of Armenia aimed to include Nakhichevan among the basic (Eastern Armenian) territories of Yerevan province, as well as the eastern and southern parts of Elisavetpol (present-day Ganja) province.



The first clashes between the Armenians and Azeris took place in Baku in February 1905. Soon, the conflict spilled over to other parts of the Caucasus, and on August 5, 1905 the first conflict between the Armenian and Azeri population of Shusha took place. As a result of mutual pogroms and killings, hundreds of people died; more than 200 houses were burned only in the town of Shusha.



In the March 1918, ethnic and religious tensions grew and the Armenian-Azeri conflict in Baku began. Musavat and Committee of Union and Progress parties were accused of Pan-Turkism by Bolsheviks and their allies. Armenian and Muslim militia engaged in armed confrontation, with resulted in heavy casualties. Many Muslims were expelled from Baku, or went underground.



Meanwhile the arrest of General Talyshinski, the commander of the Azerbaijani division, and some of its officers all of whom arrived in Baku on March 9, increased the anti-Soviet feelings among the city's Azeri population. On 30 March the Soviet based on the unfounded report that the Muslim crew of the ship Evelina was armed and ready to revolt against the Soviet, disarmed the crew which tried to resist [1] This led to a 3-day bloodshed resulting in the massacre of up to 12,000 Azeris by the Bolsheviks and armed Armenian units.[2][3][4]



The Bolshevik account of the events of March 1918 in Baku is presented by Victor Serge in Year One Of the Russian Revolution: "The Soviet at Baku, led by Shaumyan, was meanwhile making itself the ruler of the area, discreetly but unmistakably. Following the Moslem rising of 18 March, it had to introduce a dictatorship. This rising, instigated by the Mussavat, set the Tartar and Turkish population, led by their reactionary bourgeoisie, against the Soviet, which consisted of Russians with support from the Armenians. The races began to slaughter each other in the street. Most of the Turkish port-workers (the ambal) either remained neutral or supported the Reds. The contest was won by the Soviets."

Posted on January 29, 2011