Gugark pogrom
Part of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
LocationGugark District, Armenian SSR, Soviet Union
DateMarch – December 1988 (9 months)
TargetLocal Azerbaijani population
Attack type
Murder, arson, pogrom
Deaths11 (per official Soviet data)
21 (per Arif Yunusov)
PerpetratorsLocal Armenians and Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan
MotiveA reaction to similar pogroms of Armenians in Azerbaijan

The Gugark pogrom[1] was a pogrom directed against the Azerbaijani minority of the Gugark District (now a part of the Lori Province) in the Armenian SSR, then part of the Soviet Union.[2][3][4][5]

The pogrom of Azerbaijanis in Gugark in March 1988 followed the earlier pogrom of Armenians in Sumgait in the end of February 1988.[4] The persecution of the Azerbaijanis continued until virtually all of them fled the region.[3] The pogrom was one of the acts of ethnic violence in the context of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which would later erupt into a war.

Azerbaijani sources label the pogrom as a "massacre" (Azerbaijani: Quqark qırğını/qətliamı).[6][7][8]

Background

Location of Gugark District within the Armenian SSR.

Gugark District, called Boyuk Garakilsa (Azerbaijani: Böyük Qarakilsə, lit. 'Big Black Church') by its Azerbaijani inhabitants,[9] was one of the districts of the Armenian SSR, then part of the Soviet Union.[10] There were ethnic Azerbaijanis living compactly in this area. Following the dissolution of Soviet Union, the district became part of the independent Republic of Armenia, replaced with the Lori Province.[11]

Following the Kirovabad pogrom, the Armenian refugees from Ganja poured into Gugark district via Georgia.[12] The tensions between the ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijanis in Armenia were high, as both were afraid of an attack from the other side.[13]

Pogrom

The ethnic confrontation between the Armenians and the Azerbaijanis started in March 1988. The Armenians attacked the Azerbaijani houses,[14][15] while the local authorities recorded beatings and robberies of Azerbaijanis by the Armenians, including at their workplaces. Armenians beat Azerbaijani traders in the marketplace, and stole their produce.[13]

Violence and discrimination against the Azerbaijanis flared up throughout the Armenian SSR in November 1988.[16] Azerbaijanis were fired from different organizations and factories in the region.[13] The bulk of those killed in the violence were in the northern territories of the country, including the Gugark District.[17] The local Armenians attacked and in some cases killed local Azerbaijanis. The Karabakh Committee, to reduce the possibility of provocations, guarded the city at night, but could not fully protection. The authorities tried to protect the local Azerbaijanis, putting soldiers and police officers on the roads leading to Azerbaijani-inhabited villages. When the local Azerbaijanis were eventually escorted out of the region by the authorities, it is reported that the Armenians attacked the convoys of fleeing Azerbaijanis.[13][18]

The officially reported number of Azerbaijanis killed in Gugark village was eleven.[13] According Armenian journalist Mane Papyan, seven Azerbaijanis were killed in Vanadzor, while the rest were persecuted and exiled.[19] According to Azerbaijani historian and publicist Arif Yunus, 21 Azerbaijanis were killed in Gugark.[20] Yunus' list was re-released by the embassy of Azerbaijan in the United Kingdom in 2008.[21] A former chairman of a collective farm in the region, Stepan Ayvazyan stated that the culprits had burnt the bodies of the dead in Shahumyan to prevent their identification.[19]

Government reaction

The Armenian radio reported that the Communist Party leader and head of the parliament in the Gugark area had shown "political short-sightedness", and that the Soviet government had relieved them of their duties.[22] Following this, a group of around 100 experts arrived from Moscow to investigate the killings.[19] The USSR Prosecutor General's Office began criminal proceedings into the killings, but the perpetrators were never found, and the criminal case was never solved.[19] The first Prosecutor General of Azerbaijan, Ismat Gayibov, criticized Soviet authorities for not paying enough attention to the events, since only four people had been arrested for the killings. According to the former prosecutor of Vanadzor, Grigori Shahverdyan, the attackes were organised by small groups of young Armenians.[19] The chairwoman of the Azerbaijani National Committee of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, Arzu Abdulayeva, stated that the Azerbaijani public knew nothing about the pogrom of Azerbaijanis in Gugark for a long time beyond rumours because of a cover-up.[23]

Aftermath

In 1989, many Azerbaijanis originally from Gugark returned to sell their apartments or to receive compensation for the loss of their apartments after the Spitak earthquake. Afterwards they all left their homes.[19]

Azerbaijani author Arif Yunus claims the word "Gugark" has become a household word for the Azerbaijanis, as "Sumgait" has for the Armenians.[20] The chairwoman of the Azerbaijani National Committee of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, Arzu Abdulayeva, stated that the events in Sumgait were very similar to what happened in Gugark.[23]

In literature

The Gugark pogrom was one of the main settings of the controversial novel Gugark by Azerbaijani writer Seymur Baycan.[24] The novel surrounded the love story of an Azerbaijani man named Seymur and an Armenian woman named Anoush amid pogrom in Baku and Gugark. Baycan avoided harsh criticism in Azerbaijan by only mentioning the expulsion of Armenians but not the harassment or violence against Armenians. The novel was generally well received in Azerbaijan despite its controversial message of peace. In contrast, Akram Aylisli, the author of the similar work Stone Dreams describing the events of the Baku and Sumgait pogroms, was condemned in Azerbaijan and persecuted by Azerbaijani authorities. Critics such as Mikail Mamedov, comparing Gugark to Stone Dreams, criticized Gugark for not being well written and therefore lacking any powerful message.[25]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Grigoryan, Arpi; Karimov, Elchin; Alıcı, Nisan (15 May 2019). "Working Through the Past in the Shadow of the Present: The Cases of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey". Caucasus Edition: Journal of Conflict Transformation. Archived from the original on 15 February 2021. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
  2. ↑ Helvécio de Jesus Júnior, João Ricardo Guilherme Zimmer Xavier (2018). "The geopolitics of the Caucasus: An analysis of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict". Revista da Escola Superior de Guerra. 33 (69). ISSN 0102-1788. Archived from the original on 2020-03-20. Retrieved 2021-05-09. On the other hand, attacks against Azerbaijanis also increased in great proportions, with several pogroms in the cities of Gugark and Gosh, including dozens of deaths and intensifying the nationalism of the two countries
  3. 1 2 Coyle J.J. (2018). Nagorno-Karabakh. In: Russia's Border Wars and Frozen Conflicts. Springer Publishing. pp. 207–256. ISBN 978-3-319-52204-3. Armenian towns of Spitak, Gugark, and others. Two hundred sixteen were killed in Armenia, including 57 women, 5 infants, and 18 children. The last Azerbaijanis were forced out of Armenia by the end of November 1988.
  4. 1 2 Mgr. Jozef Hyrja (April 20, 2016). "Tears in the Black Garden - Nagorno-Karabakh". historyweb.dennikn.sk (in Slovenian). Archived from the original on November 1, 2020. Retrieved May 9, 2021. On February 27 and 28, 1988, he followed the pogrom in the aforementioned city of Sumgait. A large crowd of Azerbaijanis began attacking Armenian shops and houses, looting and killing Armenian fellow citizens... The result was the exodus of the Armenian population from the city. Similar attacks followed in Armenia against the Azerbaijani minority in the cities of Spitak and Gugark.
  5. ↑ Coyle, James J. (2021). "Roots of the Conflict". Russia's Interventions in Ethnic Conflicts. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham (Springer Publishing). pp. 1–32. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-59573-9_1. ISBN 978-3-030-59573-9. S2CID 229450011. Archived from the original on 2021-05-09. Retrieved 2021-05-09. Attacks against Azerbaijanis took place in the Armenian towns of Spitak, Gugark, and others
  6. ↑ "Witness of the Gugark massacre: They burned the village at night, INTERVIEW (VIDEO)". AzVision. 31 March 2017. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  7. ↑ "Ermənilərdən şok etiraf: 1988-də azərbaycanlıların qətliamı - Video". Aqreqator.az (in Azerbaijani). 4 November 2018. Archived from the original on 15 February 2021. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  8. ↑ ""Quqark qətliamını törədən cinayətkarların əsas məqsədi etnik təmizləmə idi"- Millət vəkili". Aqreqator.az (in Azerbaijani). 27 November 2019. Archived from the original on 15 February 2021. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  9. ↑ Guliyev, C. B., ed. (1981). "Kirovakan". Azerbaijani Soviet Encyclopedia (in Azerbaijani). Vol. V. Baku.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  10. ↑ Центральный Исполнительный Комитет Союза ССР, Всероссийский центральный исполнительный комитет. Административно-территориальное деление союза ССР (Районы и города СССР). Издательство "Власть Советов" при Президиуме ВЦИК Москва, 1931, страницы 234-237
  11. ↑ "Закон Республики Армения №С-062-1-ЗР-18 "Об административно-территориальном делении Республики Армения"" (in Russian). Archived from the original on 28 January 2014. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
  12. ↑ "Armenian-Azerbaijani clashes, ethnic cleansings and pogroms; November 22-23, 1988". ANI Armenian Research Center. 23 November 2020. Archived from the original on 15 February 2021. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 Papyan, Mane (22 April 2015). "Gugark after Sumgait". Caucasus Edition: Journal of Conflict Transformation. Archived from the original on 5 November 2020. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
  14. ↑ Khlystun, Victor (2 January 2001). "10 БАЛЛОВ ПО ШКАЛЕ ПОЛИТБЮРО СОТРУДНИКИ КГБ СССР РАССКАЗЫВАЮТ О НЕСТИХИЙНОЙ КАТАСТРОФЕ, ПРИВЕДШЕЙ К КРОВАВОМУ КОНФЛИКТУ МЕЖДУ АЗЕРБАЙДЖАНЦАМИ И АРМЯНАМИ". Trud-7 (in Russian). Archived from the original on 15 February 2021. Retrieved 20 December 2020 – via Agentura.ru.
  15. ↑ Khlystun, Victor (2 January 2001). "10 БАЛЛОВ ПО ШКАЛЕ ПОЛИТБЮРО". Trud-7 (in Russian). Archived from the original on 15 February 2010. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
  16. ↑ Abzavaty, Yazep (15 January 2007). "The Unrecognized IV. The Bitter Fruit of the 'Black Garden'". Nashe Mnenie. Archived from the original on 20 November 2008. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
  17. ↑ "Погромы в Армении: суждения, домыслы и факты". Ekspress-Khronika (in Russian). No. 16. 16 April 1991.
  18. ↑ Marc Elie (2013). "At the center of a double misfortune: The earthquake of December 7, 1988 in Armenia and the expulsion of the Azeri disaster victims from Spitak" (in French) (44). Revue d'études comparative Est-Ouest: 45–75. doi:10.4074/S0338059913001034. Archived from the original on May 9, 2021. Retrieved May 9, 2021. Between Kirovakan and Diližan, near Gugark, "Armenian extremists" attack the convoy. The villagers quote the names of three deportees who are said to have died and evoke gunshot wounds. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Papyan, Mane (29 April 2015). "События в Гугарке. Как громили азербайджанцев в Армении". epress.am (in Russian). Archived from the original on 20 January 2021. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
  20. 1 2 Yunusov, Arif (26 February 1991). "Погромы в Армении в 1988-1989". Ekspress-Khronika (in Russian). No. 16. Archived from the original on 26 April 2010. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
  21. ↑ "Report on mass human rights violation. Official reports of the Azerbaijani MFA on the Karabakh conflict". Embassy of Azerbaijan in London. Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Archived from the original on 6 March 2012.
  22. ↑ Barringer, Felicity (7 December 1988). "3 More Killed in Soviet Ethnic Protest". New York Times. Archived from the original on 20 January 2012. Retrieved 20 December 2020. The resolution said that party and Government leaders would lose their posts for such actions, and late Monday the Armenian radio reported that the Communist Party leader and head of the parliament in the Gugark area had shown political short-sightedness. The two men had been relieved of their duties after ethnic fights there resulted in tragic consequences. Party and Government workers in the Yekhegnadzor district of Armenia were also criticized in the report carried by the Moscow radio tonight.
  23. 1 2 "Azerbaijan: Armenians and Azerbaijanis Remember Suffering". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Archived from the original on 20 December 2020. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
  24. ↑ Zaur Gasimov (December 20, 2017). Historical Dictionary of Azerbaijan. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 64. ISBN 9781538110423. ...novel Gugark on the pogroms on the Azerbaijani population in the Armenian town of Gugark.
  25. ↑ Mikail Mamedov (2014). "The Stone Dreams scandal: the Nagorny Karabakh conflict and Armenian-Azerbaijani relations in contemporary literature". Caucasus Survey. 2 (1–2): 50. doi:10.1080/23761199.2014.11417300.

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