(Redirected from Armenian-Azerbaijani war (1918 - 1920))
'Armenian-Azerbaijani war', which started after the
Russian Revolution, is a series of brutal and hard to classify conflicts between
1918, then
1920 to
1922 occurred during the declaration of
Armenia and
Azerbaijan and after. The most of the conflicts did not have a main pattern with standard armed structure. The
Ottoman Empire and
British Empire involved with different capacities, which Ottoman Empire left the region with 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 matches to nation building activities of newly established states. The reasons of behind the conflict is still far from being resolved after nearly a century.
The story of this campaign has very different perceptions; according to Armenian historians,
Democratic Republic of Armenia was to include among the basic (
Eastern Armenian) territories of
Yerevan province including
Nakhichevan, as well as the eastern and southern parts of
Elisavetpol (Ganca) province.
Background
First clashes between the
Armenians and
Azeris took place in
Baku on February 1905. Soon, the conflict spilled over to other parts of the
Caucasus, and on August 5, 1905 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 just only in the Shusha town.
Active Stages
In 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 the formally neutral Bolsheviks tacitly supporting the Armenian side. As a result, thousands of Muslims were killed by extremist Armenian
Dashnaks. 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]
Fight for Baku and Karabakh, 1918-1919
Place of British forces after Armstice
At the same time the Baku Commune was involved in heavy fighting with the advancing Caucasian Ottoman Army in and around Ganja.
Enver Pasha, the
Ottoman Empire, began to move forward with the newly established
Army of Islam. Major battles occurred in
Yevlakh and
Agdash, where the Turks routed and defeated Dashnak and Russian forces.
Dunsterville ordered the evacuation of the city on September 14, after six weeks of occupation, and withdrew to Iran; most of the Armenian population escaped with British forces. The Ottoman
Army of Islam and its Azeri allies, led by Nuri Pasha,
entered Baku on
September 15 and slaughtered between 10,000 - 20,000 Armenians in retaliation for the March massacre of Muslims.
[5] The capital of the
Azerbaijan was finally moved from
Ganja to Baku. However, after the
Armistice of Mudros between the
United Kingdom and the Ottoman Empire on October 30, Turkish troops were substituted by the
Triple Entente. Headed by British general W. Thomson, who had declared himself the military governor of Baku, 5,000 Commonwealth soldiers arrived in Baku on November 17, 1918. By General Thomson's order, martial law was implemented in Baku.
Karabakh Reconciliation commission
The Armenian government tried several times to seize
Shusha militarily. Beginning with 1918,
Republic of Mountainous Armenia was declared in the region. However throughout the summer of 1918, Armenians in the mountainous Karabag region, under the leadership of
Andranik Toros Ozanian resisted the Ottoman 3th army
[6]. In August, they set up an independent government in Shushi, the administrative center of the region. The conflict was fierce, but indecisive. The
Armenian militia under Adriancik's command decimated an Ottoman unit trying to advance to the
Varanda River. The armed conflicts between these units continued until the
Armistice of Mudros. After the Armistice, the Ottoman Empire began to withdraw its forces and Armenian forces under Andranik seized Nagro-Karabagh
[7]. Armstice of Mudros brought General Adriank the chance to create a base for further expansion eastward and form a strategic corridor extending into Nakhichevan
. In January 1919 Armenian troops advanced towards Shusha, captured and destroyed 9 Azeri villages on their way but eventually had to retreat. Just before the Armistice of Mudros was signed,
Andranik was on the way from
Zangezur to Shusha, to control the main city of the Karabakh. The Armenian government tried several times to seize Shusha militarily, before. In January 1919, while Armenian troops advancing, the
Dunsterforce ordered Andranik back to Zangezur, and gave him the assurances that this conflict can be solved with the
Paris Peace Conference, 1919. Andranik pulled back his units and British command at Baku gave the control to the Dr.
Khosrov Bek Sultanov. Khosrov bey Sultanov, a native of Karabakh was appointed the general-governor of Karabakh. He had three Armenian and three Azeri aides.
Fight for Karabakh, early 1920
The largest Armenian-Azeri ethnic clashes in Shusha took place on March-April 1920. In the beginning of spring 1920 Azerbaijan, broke the agreement with the Armenians of Karabakh, and entered into the area with great military forces, declaring an ultimatum, ordering Armenians to hand over their weapons.
[8] On the night from March 21-22, 1920 when the Azeris were celebrating
Spring Equinox (
Novruz Bayram), the Armenians of Karabakh began to revolt and organized a surprise attack.
They seized the approaches to Shusha,
Khankendi, and the
Askeran fortress, attacking the Azeri part of the town and burned the houses on their way.
However, the effect of suddenness backfired at the Armenians. Azeris infuriated by the attack on their holy day, launched a counteroffensive to the Armenian quarters of Shusha and burned almost the whole Armenian part of the town, forcing the Armenian population to flee. During these clashes thousands of people from both the Armenian and Azeri sides were killed, with more than 7,000 houses burned and Shusha virtually cleansed of its Armenian population.
The fighting increased in intensity by February 1920 and martial law was introduced in Karabakh, which was enforced by the newly formed
National Army, led by general
Samedbey Mehmandarov.
Sovietization of Azerbaijan, April 1920
In early April 1920 the Republic of Azerbaijan was in severely troubled situation. In the west, the Armenians still occupied large parts of Azeri territory; in the east, the local Azeri communists were rebelling against the government; and to the north the Russian Red Army was steadily moving southward having defeated Denikin's White Russian forces.
On April 27, 1920 the government of
Azerbaijan Democratic Republic received a notice that the Soviet army was about to cross the northern border and invade
ADR. Faced with such difficult situation the government officially surrendered to the Soviets, but many generals and local Azeri militias kept resisting the advance of the Soviet forces and it took a while for the Soviets to stabilize the newly proclaimed
Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, headed by the leading Azeri Bolshevik
Nariman Narimanov.
While the Azeri government and army were in chaos, the Armenian army and local Armenian militias used the opportunity to affirm their control over parts of Azeri territory, taking Shusha, Khankendi, and other important cities. By the end of April the Armenian forces were in control of most of western Azerbaijan including all of Karabakh with the surrounding areas, as well as all of Nakhichevan and much of Kazakh-Shamshadin district. In the meantime, the Armenian communists attempted a coup in Armenia, but ultimately failed.
Azeri and Soviet counter-attack, May 1920
After having gained firm control of Azerbaijan, the Soviet forces moved on to reclaim the Armenian-occupied areas in the west for the Azerbaijan SSR. The Azeri army was reorganized along Soviet lines and reequipped with Russian weapons.
The Russian and Azeri offensive started in early June and resulted in quick defeat of Armenian forces. On June 5 the Armenian forces were expelled from Shusha. In early July Armenians withdrew from Tatev and suffered several defeats in Kazakh-Shamshadin area. On 28 July the Soviet forces and their Turkish allies staged an assault on
Nakhichevan City, expelling Armenian forces and establishing a joint Russian/Azeri/Turkish occupation of the province.
In early August, Armenian troops made one more attempt to take over Nakhichevan but were defeated at Shakh-Takhty by joint Soviet-Turkish corps. Thus, the
Azerbaijan SSR was fully restored to the borders of
Azerbaijan Democratic Republic prior to Armenian invasion.
On August 10 1920, the cease-fire agreement was signed in Yerevan between Soviet and Armenian forces, ending the hostilities and forcing Armenia to recognize the Azeri control of Karabakh and temporary independence of Nakhichevan. Sporadic fighting continued in Karabakh district where several Armenian warlords refused to stop guerilla war.
End of Hostilities, September-November 1920
In September 1920 Armenia was engaged in a bitter war on another front against
Turkish Revolutionaries. The
Turkish-Armenian war of September-November 1920 stripped Armenia of most of its south-western territories, including
Kars and
Alexandropol, severely exhausted the military capacity of Armenian army, and left Armenia broken and abandoned. However, the Turkish forces were unable to completely defeat Armenia and after their defeat near
Yerevan,
Turkey signed a cease-fire.
In late November, there was yet another Soviet-backed communist uprising in Armenia. On November 28, 1920 blaming Armenia for the invasions of
Sharur (20.11.1920) and
Karabakh (21.11.1920), the
11th Red Army under the command of
Anatoli Gekker, crossed the demarcation line between
Democratic Republic of Armenia and
Soviet Azerbaijan. The second Soviet-Armenian war lasted only a week.
Aftermath
The
Armenian national liberation movement exhausted by the 6 years of permanent wars and conflicts, Armenian army and population were incapable of any further active resistance.
Sovietization of Armenia, December 1920
On December 4 1920, the Red Army entered Yerevan, the government of Democartic Republic of Armenian effectively surrendered. On
December 5, the Armenian Revolutionary Committee (Revkom; made up of mostly Armenians from
Azerbaijan) also entered the city. Finally, on the following day, on December 6,
Felix Dzerzhinsky's dreaded secret police,
Cheka entered Yerevan, thus effectively ending all existence of the
Democratic Republic of Armenia.
[9]
The
Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic was then proclaimed, under the leadership of Aleksandr Miasnikyan.
Treaty of Kars, 23 October 1921
The violence in
Transcaucasia was finally settled in a friendship treaty between
Turkey and the
Soviet Union. The peace
Treaty of Kars, which was signed in
Kars by the representatives of
Russian SFSR,
Azerbaijan SSR,
Armenian SSR,
Georgian SSR, and
Turkey.
Turkey had another agreement, "Treaty on Friendship and Brotherhood" also called
Treaty of Moscow, signed on March 16, 1921 with
Soviet Union.
By this treaty
Nakhichevan was granted a status of an autonomous region within Azerbaijan. Turkey and Russia became guarantors of Nakhichevan's status. Turkey agreed to return
Alexandropol to Armenia and
Batumi to Georgia.
Notes
1. ''Документы об истории гражданской войны в С.С.С.Р.,'' Vol. 1, pp. 282–283.
2. "New Republics in the Caucasus", ''The New York Times Current History'', v. 11 no. 2 (March 1920), p. 492
3. Michael Smith. "Anatomy of Rumor: Murder Scandal, the Musavat Party and Narrative of the Russian Revolution in Baku, 1917-1920", ''Journal of Contemporary History'', Vol 36, No. 2, (Apr. 2001), p. 228
4. Michael Smith. "Azerbaijan and Russia: Society and State: Traumatic Loss and Azerbaijani National Memory"
5. Croissant. ''Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict'', p. 15.
6. Mark Malkasian, Gha-Ra-Bagh": the emergence of the national democratic movement in Armenia page 22
7. Hafeez Malik "Central Asia: Its Strategic Importance and Future Prospects" page 145
8. Nagornyj Karabakh 1918-1923. Sbornik dokumentov i materialov. Erevan, 1992. Documents NN 261-272.
9. Robert H. Hewsen. ''Armenia: A Historical Atlas'', p. 237. ISBN 0-226-33228-4
Bibliography
★ http://hrw.org/reports/1995/communal
See also
★
Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
★
Democratic Republic of Armenia
★
History of Nagorno-Karabakh (1915-1923)
★
Turkish-Armenian War
External links
★
Armenian- Azerbaijani War of 1919 - 1920 (In Russian)
★
Soviet-Armenian War and the Collapse of the First Republic: November-December, 1920
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